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nerdese 's review for:
Long Division
by Kiese Laymon
2.5/5
I think Kiese Laymon is an incredibly gifted mind and writer, so I truly wanted to love this as I have loved his other works, but I have to admit that most of the time that I was reading this I was pretty lost. The story is so layered and requires a lot of recall and I truly never felt that I was totally in step with the plot and all its intricacies. There was some really powerful writing about cycles of power and racism in the American South through generations, but it doesn’t always feel totally cohesive with the characters as I read them.
Conceptually, I think I can see what he was going for, and I have no doubt that there are readers out there who will get something out of this. However, it wasn’t for me, though it wouldn’t put me off reading the author just because he is so damn talented. I have certainly encountered authors whose nonfiction thrilled me but whose fiction left me a bit cold. In any case, I am glad that Laymon’s later success and higher profile was able to get this book to a new and wider audience (I know it had something of a fraught publication history) and hopefully drive more attention to his work in general, as I will never hesitate to recommend him.
I think Kiese Laymon is an incredibly gifted mind and writer, so I truly wanted to love this as I have loved his other works, but I have to admit that most of the time that I was reading this I was pretty lost. The story is so layered and requires a lot of recall and I truly never felt that I was totally in step with the plot and all its intricacies. There was some really powerful writing about cycles of power and racism in the American South through generations, but it doesn’t always feel totally cohesive with the characters as I read them.
Conceptually, I think I can see what he was going for, and I have no doubt that there are readers out there who will get something out of this. However, it wasn’t for me, though it wouldn’t put me off reading the author just because he is so damn talented. I have certainly encountered authors whose nonfiction thrilled me but whose fiction left me a bit cold. In any case, I am glad that Laymon’s later success and higher profile was able to get this book to a new and wider audience (I know it had something of a fraught publication history) and hopefully drive more attention to his work in general, as I will never hesitate to recommend him.