Heavy : an American memoir

Resource Information

The work Heavy : an American memoir represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Nesmith Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Audio, Nonmusical, Sounds, Music.

The Resource Heavy : an American memoir

Label: Heavy : an American memoir

Title remainder: an American memoir

Statement of responsibility: Kiese Laymon

Creator

Laymon, Kiese

Contributor

OverDrive, Inc

Author

Laymon, Kiese

Narrator

Laymon, Kiese

Subject

Genre

Language: eng

Summary: In this powerful and provocative memoir, genre-bending essayist and novelist Kiese Laymon 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.Kiese Laymon is a fearless writer. In his essays, personal stories combine with piercing intellect to reflect both on the state of American society and on his experiences with abuse, which conjure conflicted feelings of shame, joy, confusion and humiliation. Laymon invites us to consider the consequences of growing up in a nation 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 mother, grandmother, anorexia, obesity, sex, writing, and ultimately gambling. 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 in this nation actually know how to responsibly love, and even fewer want to live under the weight of actually becoming free. A personal narrative that illuminates national failures, Heavy is defiant yet vulnerable, an insightful, often comical exploration of weight, identity, art, friendship, and family that begins with a confusing childhood--and continues through twenty-five years of haunting implosions and long reverberations

Accompanying matter: technical information on music

Cataloging source: TEFOD

Dewey number: 813/.6

Form of composition: not applicable

Format of music: not applicable

LC call number: PS3612.A959

LC item number: A3 2018ab

Literary text for sound recordings

memoirs
other

Music parts: not applicable

PerformerNote: Read by Kiese Laymon

Transposition and arrangement: not applicable

Context

Context of Heavy : an American memoir

Work of

Heavy : an American memoir, Kiese Laymon

Heavy : an American memoir Resource Information The work Heavy : an American memoir represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Nesmith Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Audio, Nonmusical, Sounds, Music.

Context

Work of

Heavy : an American memoir

Resource Information

The work Heavy : an American memoir represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Nesmith Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Audio, Nonmusical, Sounds, Music.