Heavy: An American Memoir

Heavy: An American Memoir

*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*

In this powerful, provocative, and universally lauded memoirâ€”winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal and finalist for the Kirkus Prizeâ€”genre-bending essayist and novelist Kiese Laymon â€œprovocatively meditates on his trauma growing up as a black man, and in turn crafts an essential polemic against American moral rotâ€ (Entertainment Weekly).

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 time in New York as a college professor, Laymon charts his complex relationship with his mother, grandmother, anorexia, obesity, sex, writing, and ultimately gambling. Heavy is a â€œgorgeous, guttingâ€¦generousâ€ (The New York Times) memoir that combines personal stories with piercing intellect to reflect both on the strife of American society and on Laymonâ€™s experiences with abuse. By attempting to name secrets and lies he and his mother spent a lifetime avoiding, he asks 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.

â€œA book for people who appreciated Roxane Gayâ€™s memoir Hungerâ€ (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), Heavy is defiant yet vulnerable, an insightful, often comical exploration of weight, identity, art, friendship, and family through years of haunting implosions and long reverberations. â€œYou wonâ€™t be able to put [this memoir] downâ€¦It is packed with reminders of how black dreams get skewed and deferred, yet are also pregnant with the possibility that a kind of redemption may lie in intimate grappling with black realitiesâ€ (The Atlantic).
Country USA
Manufacturer Scribner
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2018-10-16
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Scribner
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2018-10-16
Format	Kindle eBook

Heavy: An American Memoir

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