Heavy

 

“I want to write a lie.

 I want that lie to be titillating.

 I wrote that lie.

 It was titillating.    …

 I started over and wrote what we hoped I’d forget."

Heavy is a powerful, gut-wrenching themed memoir that Kiese Laymon writes to his mother. He starts the story fighting within himself as to how honest and truthful this book must be.  He wants to lie, to make up an all-smiles kind of book that his mother would be happy reading, But he can't.

Layman begins with a raw introduction defining how he understands his relationship to his mother and to the world he was born into.  Rich with a love of language that captivates the reader, he struggles with the anguish of being housed in a ‘fat boy’s body while trying to deal with the heaviness of social norms, of being black in a white America. You can feel the impact of every word.

Throughout the book there are thought-provoking conversations that help him to become who he is. His Grandmama tells him, “It ain’t about making white folks feel what you feel. It’s about not feeling what they want you to feel.”  He had the most soulful conversations with his Grandmama.

One of the most compelling and unexpected aspects of his book is his insight born at a young age of the way black women are treated. “I was taught by the big boys who were taught by big boys that black girls would be ok no matter what we did to them.”  That male belief is universal and cuts across all color and ethnic lines.  Women are not safe in our society and in many other parts of the world.

This book is truly amazing. It will linger in your mind well after you have read it.