Heavy

Genre-bending writer and novelist Kiese Laymon examines what the weight of a lifetime of secrets, lies, and deceit does to a black body, a black family, and a country on the verge of moral collapse in this compelling and thought-provoking memoir.

Writer Kiese Laymon writes with courage. In his articles, incisive intelligence and personal tales blend to reflect on the status of American culture as well as his experiences with abuse, evoking mixed emotions of perplexity, excitement, guilt, and humiliation. Laymon challenges us to think about what it means to be raised in a country that is completely fixated on growth yet completely uninterested in the difficult task of facing our past.

In Heavy, Laymon writes eloquently and candidly about his upbringing in Jackson, Mississippi, as the tough-minded black son of a complex and intelligent black mother. Laymon chronicles his complicated relationships with his mother, grandmother, anorexia, obesity, sex, writing, and eventually gambling. It starts with his early experiences of sexual assault and ends with his journey to New York as a young college lecturer. Laymon asks himself, his mother, his country, and us to face the horrifying possibility that few people in this country truly know how to responsibly love, and even fewer want to live under the weight of actually becoming free. Laymon does this by trying to name secrets and lies he and his mother spent a lifetime avoiding.

Heavy is a defiant yet vulnerable personal narrative that exposes national failings. It is an insightful, frequently humorous investigation of weight, identity, art, friendship, and family that starts with a confused childhood and lasts for 25 years of eerie revelations and lasting effects.