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• Jesus Laymon hits another grand slam

  Heavy: An American Memoir, by Kiese. Laymon (Scribner, 2018) is a complexly layered book. On its face it is the memories of a man who began his life as a poor child in Mississippi and how his experiences accumulated to make him the man, the author and the professor he is today. It is a journey in search of authentic love, authentic connections, authentic grasp of self in spite of the cultural and historic forces that would deprive him of all three. It is a brutal story. It is a tender story. A memoir is by definition a recounting of events the author lived through. It is told from the perspective of the author. In all human stories there are other people involved, other points of view, other memories of the same events seen through other eyes. Precisely because it is a memoir, a telling of the author’s experience, it must be taken seriously. In Laymon’s case I think it especially important to listen carefully and respect his voice, for it is the voice of one man who is part of a subset of Americans who are seldom taken seriously, seldom listened to carefully, seldom taken into account in the national conversation. Voices like Kiese Laymon are often dismissed, belittled, ignored. Some readers will be appalled at some of the experiences Laymon recounts. Others may dismiss events as exaggerated or from the past, things that wold not take place today. Others will read some parts of the book and walk away smug in their belief that Blacks are the architects of fractured Black families; there is nothing here that remotely supports such a reading of life in America—Black or white. Throughout the book Laymon is speaking to his mother, telling her his becoming. His experience is that none of the significant people in his life tell the truth about things that matter most deeply. (I intentionally am not providing any examples from the book: I don’t know how to give examples here without taking away from the power of Laymon’s voice. I encourage—nay, urge—you to engage him unfiltered through a reviewer.) He openly struggles with understanding and telling the truth. His struggle is one with which anyone who has successfully transitioned from adolescence to adulthood can identify. I said earlier that this Memoir is a layered book. It is easy to see it as one man’s story. It is easy to begin to identify ones self in this story. It is less easy to see this story as an engagement of one man with main stream America. Somewhere in the last third of the book it dawned on me that the story can be read from the perspective that the author’s mother represents American culture, that she is a stand in for the ways the culture did and did not nurture him. There are no good words to describe how we are nurtured/formed, given a hand up or kicked down in American life by the systemic way the culture works. I know that American culture nurtured me differently from Keise Laymon simply because I come from an educated, privileged white family and Keise Laymon is a descendant of enslaved people. Even acquiring an education was more difficult for him than for me by an order of magnitude. The difficulty is the result of institutionalized white male supremacy fallacies, and privilege. It has nothing to do with any Black innate shortcoming. Race is a social construct; it has no basis in biology. If you doubt that assertion or are uncomfortable with it, then I urge you to read the scientific literature that is the basis for that statement. (Google “the biological basis of race” and read the first half dozen hits that come up. For starters.) Finally, the author has written a love letter to America. He is inviting all of us—privileged and ”other” (See Toni Morrison’s (The Origin of Other, Harvard University Press, 2017) to engage in a conversation about our shared 400 year history. And he invites a conversation about our shared future. This is a most timely, urgent conversation. Who are we? What kind of a people do we want to be? What choices can we make that will strengthen our chances of leaving a livable future for our children and grandchildren. What choices will foul the Eagles nest? I urge you to read this book during this holiday season, at least once, and to write your reactions to his Memoir and share it with someone important to you. Laymon is a voice to take seriously. November 23, 2018

• Coming into Being

  This stunning, deeply affecting book by Kiese Laymon cannot easily be summarised - poetic, ragged, interior - a tribute to a Mississippi grandmama - about the effects of racism - professional academic endeavours - the "privilege" of "white" - the heaviness of history - of being other - and the political dimension above all.

• Incredible

  I just don’t have enough praise for this book. Just an outstanding, emotive, honest voice. A must read.

• Excellent Book

  This book is authentic, raw and honest and up lifting in its depth and insightfulness. I recommend it.

• Powerful

  Beautiful, brutal and brave. Grateful to have discovered this incredible writer

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