Reviews with content warning for Racism - Heavy: An American Memoir

I had originally heard of this book and Kiese through a recent episode of This American Life, and heard of his struggles with weight which intrigued me.

As someone with weight issues myself, I found this memoir to be eye opening on not just Kiese's weight but also on a number of POC issues, more than what I've experienced as mixed race.

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challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

Laymon is brutally, courageously honest. His writing is deeply self aware, demonstrative of great skill and unique insights. The experiences I share with Laymon resonated in a way I don’t often feel, so sharp are his tellings. He finds the exact shape of trauma and outlines it so well that it’ll make you gasp with recognition. His biggest power is in the ability to leave things unsaid; because he knows the exact edge he never wallows or becomes maudlin, and when you share his pains you know exactly what he’s not looking at directly. That also means I drifted a bit during sections where I don’t have similar traumas; he explains it well and gestures towards those blank spaces, but I can’t see into them. I’m not sure that’s a weakness in the writing; his mother would say those spaces are not places for me, and Kiese should protect them. It’s a fine line to walk, a difficult needle to thread. Laymon does it well.

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