<DIV><p>When Jill Nelson became the first black woman to write for <i>The Washington Post</i>'s prestigious Sunday magazine in 1986, she thought she had entered journalism heaven. Instead, she discovered that life at <i>The Post</i> meant walking "the thin line between Uncle Tomming and Mau-Mauing" - between holding onto her job and preserving her soul.</p> <p>As Nelson recounts her harrowing four years at <i>The Post</i> - along with her odyssey from a middle-class childhood to near poverty, divorce and single motherhood, flame-out love affairs, and a nervous breakdown - she gives us a scalding expose of the racial, sexual, and corporate politics of one of our most respected newspapers. <i>Volunteer Slavery</i> is a funny, fiercely candid book that names names and takes no prisoners.</p> </div>