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A review by rlgreen91
Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
This was a hard read. True and necessary but yet so so hard. I often found myself taking breaks, reading whole other books - including Wild Seed, which is its own kind of hard - because this was, as the title says, Heavy.
But as I said, this was necessary. The political is personal and the personal is political. The political and policy decisions we make has repercussions years, decades, centuries later. So much of the pain we deal with as a society is the consequences of deliberate political and policy decisions made by forebearers and ancestors. So much of the pain we deal with in our personal lives are the consequences of decisions made in response to those political and policy decisions. Simultaneously, we are the forebearers and ancestors making the political and policy decisions and decisions in response to that that will cause pain for others in the future. It all becomes this overwhelming, never-ending maze of hurt in many ways.
How do we start to heal on a personal and societal level? Hell, how do we just get it to stop hurting, at least? I agree with Laymon that that requires a level of honesty and vulnerability that many of us, myself included, struggle to engage with or refuse to contemplate.
This was a hard but necessary read - a memoir I will surely revisit but at least a good number of years from now. Maybe then I'll have a better idea of how to answer my questions. Until then - basking in Black abundance. 4.5 stars.
But as I said, this was necessary. The political is personal and the personal is political. The political and policy decisions we make has repercussions years, decades, centuries later. So much of the pain we deal with as a society is the consequences of deliberate political and policy decisions made by forebearers and ancestors. So much of the pain we deal with in our personal lives are the consequences of decisions made in response to those political and policy decisions. Simultaneously, we are the forebearers and ancestors making the political and policy decisions and decisions in response to that that will cause pain for others in the future. It all becomes this overwhelming, never-ending maze of hurt in many ways.
How do we start to heal on a personal and societal level? Hell, how do we just get it to stop hurting, at least? I agree with Laymon that that requires a level of honesty and vulnerability that many of us, myself included, struggle to engage with or refuse to contemplate.
This was a hard but necessary read - a memoir I will surely revisit but at least a good number of years from now. Maybe then I'll have a better idea of how to answer my questions. Until then - basking in Black abundance. 4.5 stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Eating disorder, and Racism
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Medical content