Heavy : an American memoir

Summary: "In this powerful and provocative memoir, Kiese Laymon fearlessly 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. Laymon invites us to consider the consequences of living in a country 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 family, weight, sex, gambling, and writing. 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 of us know how to responsibly love"--

Record details

ISBN: 9781501125669
ISBN: 1501125656
ISBN: 9781501125652
Physical Description: xiv, 241 pages ; 22 cm
print
Edition: First Scribner hardcover edition.
Publisher: New York, NY : Scribner, [2018]
Copyright: ©2018

Content descriptions

General Note:	Publisher, publishing date and paging may vary.
Formatted Contents Note:	Been -- Boy man. Train ; Nan ; Wet ; Be -- Black abundance. Meager ; Contraction ; Hulk ; Gumption -- Home worked. Fantastic ; Disaster ; Already ; Soon -- Addict Americans. Greens ; Terrors ; Seat belts ; Promises -- Bend.
Awards Note:	Carnegie Medal Winner, Nonfiction 2019