The sounds of the highway occasionally made themselves heard in the background. Laymon and I spoke on the phone as he was making the twelve-hour drive from Oxford, Mississippi, to Tampa, Florida, to meet with booksellers. There’s a fable-like quality to the storytelling: it imparts its lessons in layers. He also discusses weight and bodies and the way all these things lend themselves to a heaviness that can be both physical and emotional. Laymon discusses violence in many forms, gambling and addiction, the treatment of black students at predominantly white institutions, and more. In Heavy, he takes the stuff of his life and renders it on the page. Laymon’s work is known for its honesty and courage, as well as for the way he reckons with his own past and our collective national one. The first, Long Division, a novel, and the second, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, an essay collection, were both published in the summer of 2013-one in June and one in August. Heavy: An American Memoir is Kiese Laymon’s third book.
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