Heavy: An American Memoir
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Description

*Named a Best Book of 2018 by The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, NPR, Broadly, Buzzfeed (Nonfiction), The Undefeated, Library Journal (Biography/Memoirs), The Washington Post (Nonfiction), Southern Living (Southern), Entertainment Weekly, and The New York Times Critics* *WINNER of the Andrew Carnegie Medal and FINALIST for the Kirkus Prize * In this powerful and provocative memoir, genre-bending essayist and novelist Kiese Laymon explores what the weight of a lifetime of secrets, lies, and deception does to a black body, a black family, and a nation teetering on the brink of moral collapse.Kiese Laymon is a fearless writer. In his essays, personal stories combine with piercing intellect to reflect both on the state of American society and on his experiences with abuse, which conjure conflicted feelings of shame, joy, confusion and humiliation. Laymon invites us to consider the consequences of growing up in a nation wholly obsessed with progress yet wholly disinterested in the messy work of reckoning with where we’ve been. In Heavy, Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about growing up a hard-headed black son to a complicated and brilliant black mother in Jackson, Mississippi. From his early experiences of sexual violence, to his suspension from college, to his trek to New York as a young college professor, Laymon charts his complex relationship with his mother, grandmother, anorexia, obesity, sex, writing, and ultimately gambling. By attempting to name secrets and lies he and his mother spent a lifetime avoiding, Laymon asks himself, his mother, his nation, and us to confront the terrifying possibility that few in this nation actually know how to responsibly love, and even fewer want to live under the weight of actually becoming free. A personal narrative that illuminates national failures, Heavy is defiant yet vulnerable, an insightful, often comical exploration of weight, identity, art, friendship, and family that begins with a confusing childhood—and continues through twenty-five years of haunting implosions and long reverberations.

More Details

Format
eBook, Kindle
Street Date
10/16/2018
Language
English
ISBN
9781501125690

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Similar Titles From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for titles you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
These books have the appeal factors incisive and unconventional, and they have the genres "life stories -- identity -- race and ethnicity" and "society and culture -- race"; and the subjects "african americans," "prejudice," and "racism."
These grueling memoirs discuss the confluence of race, poverty, and loss within the context of the authors' own lives and the lives of their loved ones. Both are thought-provoking meditations on inequality and injustice in America. -- Mike Nilsson
These moving autobiographies present both the lives of influential African Americans and the historical context within which their lives are unfolding, offering both thought-provoking social commentary and richly detailed personal reflection. -- Mike Nilsson
In these candid and reflective essay collections, African American authors offer thought-provoking insights on race, family, trauma, their Southern upbringings, and their careers as English professors. -- Kaitlin Conner
Black men recall their self-destructive coming-of-age in the American South, their relationships with their single mothers, and their struggle for identity in both compelling memoirs. -- Kaitlin Conner
Sensitive guys who love words and food grow up in 1980s America. Heavy is a reflective memoir addressed to the author's mother; Cooking Gene examines Southern food culture with a generous dose of family history. -- Autumn Winters
In these reflective memoirs, black authors candidly share their struggles with body image and obesity, chronicling how formative events in their 1980s childhoods (including sexual trauma) precipitated their complicated relationships with themselves, with others, and with food. -- Kaitlin Conner
Fraught relationships between mothers and sons are at the center of both haunting works that examine generational trauma and coming of age as both an American person of color and as a writer. -- Autumn Winters
These books have the genres "antiracist literature" and "society and culture -- race"; and the subjects "prejudice," "racism," and "discrimination."
An African American novelist (in the unconventional Heavy) and an African American journalist (in the candid Negroland) present highly personal ruminations on race, gender, and American society in moving, thought-provoking memoirs. -- Mike Nilsson
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In these thought-provoking memoirs, straight (Heavy) and gay (High-Risk) men of color examine their relationship to the hypermasculinity that characterized much of their upbringings. -- Basia Wilson

Similar Authors From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for other authors you might want to read if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
African American authors Saeed Jones and Kiese Laymon write searing, emotionally resonant life stories about race, family, and their experiences growing up as outsiders in the South. While personal, their books also offer insightful social commentary on injustice, privilege and power. -- Catherine Coles
Both authors use lyrical, carefully worded writing to center the Black American coming-of-age experience, often portraying characters (and in Kiese Laymon's case, selves) who are marginalized along multiple axes. -- Autumn Winters
In addition to unconventional (Laymon) and character-driven (Baldwin) fiction that stands toe-to-toe with pressing social issues, these Black authors write memorable examinations on race and identity in the form of compelling, sharply honest essays and memoir. -- Basia Wilson
These authors' works have the appeal factors unconventional, and they have the subjects "race relations," "racism," and "prejudice."
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These authors' works have the appeal factors unconventional, and they have the subjects "race relations," "racism," and "prejudice."
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These authors' works have the genre "southern fiction"; and the subject "fame."
These authors' works have the subjects "african american families" and "african american children"; and illustrations that are "realistic illustrations."
These authors' works have the genre "southern fiction"; and the subjects "african americans," "books," and "african american families."
These authors' works have the genre "southern fiction"; and the subjects "mothers and sons," "small towns," and "growing up."

Published Reviews

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Often in his spectacular memoir, Laymon (Long Division, 2013) addresses ""you"": his mother, a scholar and university professor who gave him the ""gifts of reading, rereading, writing, and revision."" Laymon, now a university writing professor himself, recalls the traumas of his Mississippi youth. He captures his confusion at being molested by his babysitter and at witnessing older boys abuse a girl he liked; at having no food in the house despite his mother's brilliance; at being beaten and loved ferociously, often at the same time. His hungry mind and body grow, until, like a flipping switch, at college he's compelled to shrink himself with a punishing combination of diet and exercise. And that's barely the start of his life story thus far, with remembered moments in book-lined rooms and smoky casinos, conversations that leap from the page, the digits on a scale, and scrolling sentences. Laymon applies his book's title to his body and his memories; to his inheritance as a student, a teacher, a writer, an activist, a black man, and his mother's son but also to the weight of truth, and writing it. So artfully crafted, miraculously personal, and continuously disarming, this is, at its essence, powerful writing about the power of writing.--Annie Bostrom Copyright 2018 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
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Publisher's Weekly Review

In this stylish and complex memoir, Laymon, an English professor at the University of Mississippi and novelist (Long Division), presents bittersweet episodes of being a chubby outsider in 1980s Mississippi. He worships his long-suffering, resourceful grandmother, who loves the land her relatives farmed for generations and has resigned herself to the fact of commonplace bigotry. Laymon laces the memoir with clever, ironic observations about secrets, sexual trauma, self-deception, and pure terror related to his family, race, Mississippi, friends, and a country that refuses to love him and his community. He becomes an educator and acknowledges the inadequacies in his own education, noting that his teachers "weren't being paid right. I knew they were expected to do work they were unprepared to start or finish." He also writes about living among white people, including a family for whom his grandmother did the laundry: "It ain't about making white folk feel what you feel," he quotes his grandmother. "It's about not feeling what they want you to feel." His evolution is remarkable, from a "hard-headed" troubled teen to an intellectually curious youth battling a college suspension for a pilfering a library book to finally journeying to New York to become a much-admired professor and accomplished writer. Laymon convincingly conveys that difficult times can be overcome with humor and self-love, as he makes readers confront their own fears and insecurities. (Oct.) c Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
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Library Journal Review

Race, politics, poverty, addiction, body issues, family, manhood, feminism, education-this book has it all. Laymon (Long Division; How to Slowly Kill Yourself) breaks down what it means to be a large black boy growing up in Mississippi, exploring the politics and policing of black male bodies, the heartache of black excellence and white privilege, the conflict that comes with loving an abusive parent and stepping away to save yourself. As beautiful as it is heartbreaking, this examination of language and place takes readers into Laymon's childhood as the son of a strong black woman who is unable to reconcile her child's pain with her own. Sexual abuse and anorexia are examined with care and attention, as are the emotions and consequences attached to these experiences. VERDICT This powerful, passionate narrative is hopeful but real, reading like a confessional with no sugarcoating. If you care about black lives and black experience, this is a must-read. Excellent for readers interested in family dynamics, race relations, higher education, and body awareness.-Gricel Dominguez, Florida International Univ. Lib., Miami © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Kirkus Book Review

A challenging memoir about black-white relations, income inequality, mother-son dynamics, Mississippi byways, lack of personal self-control, education from kindergarten through graduate school, and so much more.Laymon (English and Creative Writing/Univ. of Mississippi; How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, 2013, etc.) skillfully couches his provocative subject matter in language that is pyrotechnic and unmistakably his own. He also uses an intriguing narrative form, directly addressing his divorced mother, a poverty-stricken single woman who became a political science professor at Jackson State University. As an obese black youngster, the author had to learn to absorb cruelty not only because of his size, but also because of his dark skin. The relentlessness of his mother's loveshe expected academic and behavioral perfection and employed corporal punishment with a beltshaped Laymon's character in ways both obvious and subtle. One of the main elements of the memoir is his resentment at white privilege and his techniques to counter it. "Every time you said my particular brand of hardheadedness and white Mississippian's brutal desire for black suffering were recipes for an early death, institutionalization, or incarceration, I knew you were right," writes the author. Of all the secondary themes, the impact of addictionfood, gambling, and drug use, but especially foodranks next. Laymon hated himself for topping 300 pounds as a teenager. Then he got fanatical with exercise and near starvation, dropping down to 170followed by a relapse of sorts as he began to approach 300 again. Far more than just the physical aspect, the weight he carries also derives from the burdens placed on him by a racist society, by his mother and his loving grandmother, and even by himself. At times, the author examines his complicated romantic and sexual relationships, and he also delves insightfully into politics, literature, feminism, and injustice, among other topics.A dynamic memoir that is unsettling in all the best ways. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* Often in his spectacular memoir, Laymon (Long Division, 2013) addresses you: his mother, a scholar and university professor who gave him the gifts of reading, rereading, writing, and revision. Laymon, now a university writing professor himself, recalls the traumas of his Mississippi youth. He captures his confusion at being molested by his babysitter and at witnessing older boys abuse a girl he liked; at having no food in the house despite his mother's brilliance; at being beaten and loved ferociously, often at the same time. His hungry mind and body grow, until, like a flipping switch, at college he's compelled to shrink himself with a punishing combination of diet and exercise. And that's barely the start of his life story thus far, with remembered moments in book-lined rooms and smoky casinos, conversations that leap from the page, the digits on a scale, and scrolling sentences. Laymon applies his book's title to his body and his memories; to his inheritance as a student, a teacher, a writer, an activist, a black man, and his mother's son—but also to the weight of truth, and writing it. So artfully crafted, miraculously personal, and continuously disarming, this is, at its essence, powerful writing about the power of writing. Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.

Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.
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Library Journal Reviews

Race, politics, poverty, addiction, body issues, family, manhood, feminism, education—this book has it all. Laymon (Long Division; How to Slowly Kill Yourself) breaks down what it means to be a large black boy growing up in Mississippi, exploring the politics and policing of black male bodies, the heartache of black excellence and white privilege, the conflict that comes with loving an abusive parent and stepping away to save yourself. As beautiful as it is heartbreaking, this examination of language and place takes readers into Laymon's childhood as the son of a strong black woman who is unable to reconcile her child's pain with her own. Sexual abuse and anorexia are examined with care and attention, as are the emotions and consequences attached to these experiences. VERDICT This powerful, passionate narrative is hopeful but real, reading like a confessional with no sugarcoating. If you care about black lives and black experience, this is a must-read. Excellent for readers interested in family dynamics, race relations, higher education, and body awareness.—Gricel Dominguez, Florida International Univ. Lib., Miami

Copyright 2018 Library Journal.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal.
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Publishers Weekly Reviews

In this stylish and complex memoir, Laymon, an English professor at the University of Mississippi and novelist (Long Division), presents bittersweet episodes of being a chubby outsider in 1980s Mississippi. He worships his long-suffering, resourceful grandmother, who loves the land her relatives farmed for generations and has resigned herself to the fact of commonplace bigotry. Laymon laces the memoir with clever, ironic observations about secrets, sexual trauma, self-deception, and pure terror related to his family, race, Mississippi, friends, and a country that refuses to love him and his community. He becomes an educator and acknowledges the inadequacies in his own education, noting that his teachers "weren't being paid right. I knew they were expected to do work they were unprepared to start or finish." He also writes about living among white people, including a family for whom his grandmother did the laundry: "It ain't about making white folk feel what you feel," he quotes his grandmother. "It's about not feeling what they want you to feel." His evolution is remarkable, from a "hard-headed" troubled teen to an intellectually curious youth battling a college suspension for a pilfering a library book to finally journeying to New York to become a much-admired professor and accomplished writer. Laymon convincingly conveys that difficult times can be overcome with humor and self-love, as he makes readers confront their own fears and insecurities. (Oct.)

Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly.

Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly.
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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Laymon, K. (2018). Heavy: An American Memoir . Scribner.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Laymon, Kiese. 2018. Heavy: An American Memoir. Scribner.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Laymon, Kiese. Heavy: An American Memoir Scribner, 2018.

Harvard Citation (style guide)

Laymon, K. (2018). Heavy: an american memoir. Scribner.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Laymon, Kiese. Heavy: An American Memoir Scribner, 2018.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

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