Heavy cover art

Heavy

An American Memoir

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Heavy

By: Kiese Laymon
Narrated by: Kiese Laymon
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About this listen

Kiese Laymon grew 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 career as a young college professor, Laymon charts his complex relationship with his mother, grandmother, abuse, anorexia, obesity, sex, writing and ultimately gambling.

In Heavy, by attempting to name secrets and lies that he and his mother spent a lifetime avoiding, Laymon asks himself, his mother, his nation and us to confront the terrifying possibility that few know how to love responsibly, and even fewer want to live under the weight of actually becoming free.

A defiant yet vulnerable memoir that Laymon started writing when he was 11, Heavy is an insightful exploration of weight, identity, art, friendship and family.

©2018 Kiese Laymon (P)2018 Audible, Ltd Racism & Discrimination Social Sciences

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Powerful and beautiful

Poetic, lyrical and emotionally raw - this is a beautifully written life story, and even more beautifully narrated by the man whose story it is.

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Brilliant.

This chronicled account of how mental health, socioeconomic impact, and abuse can shape and influence the way the Black American child internalizes and can fall into the cyclical trap of illness/addiction, poverty and systematic oppression through the caveat of repeated devaluation from their predisposition to fail, demonstrates and takes the reader through what could be reduced to a skin tightening ‘epilogical’ reference of the protagonists struggles. Very well written and titled.

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