Heavy: An American Memoir Free Audiobook Download by Kiese Laymon

In Heavy: An American Memoir, Kiese Laymon discusses the racial and familial difficulties that plagued him as an African-American man living in a predominantly white community.

Heavy, Kiese Laymon's memoir is an eye-opening story of his life growing up in the years following the Civil Rights Movement. Laymon chronicles the many challenges of being African American in America as he shares some personal stories with us and provides insight into various aspects of American society.

Heavy: An American Memoir is a gripping true story of the author's life. Kiese Laymon was born in Jackson, Mississippi and spent his childhood and teenage years struggling with weight and body issues. By age twenty-seven, he had achieved success as a professor at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, but could not shake his feelings of inadequacy. Things changed when he read Bruce Weber's memoir about growing up obese in America. Suddenly, Laymon found himself wrestling with questions of identity and racism that needed to be answered by making sense of his own experience.

The book is about Laymon's childhood and his relationship with his parents. His mother, who he was raised by, has a bipolar disorder and had to be institutionalized for many years. His father passed away when Laymon was a young boy. Through the book, he references how he grew up in a racially segregated environment where there was no opportunity to become anything more than what you were born into. He also mentions how racism is still an issue today in America and it comes from both sides of the coin, African Americans are discriminated against when they work hard in America and white people do not have to work as hard as other races because they believe they are privileged.

Heavy is a memoir that describes an African-American man's life in the 1980s and 1990, a time when being black in America meant living with all the weight of white society's prejudices. Laymon discusses everything from his childhood, which he often felt like he was "born into sin," to his college years and his fluctuating relationships with women. Throughout the book, Laymon reflects on how society's definitions of what constitutes "normal" are constantly shifting and how this shapes our lives.

This is an important memoir to read. This audiobook download is narrated by one of the authors and you will gain a whole new perspective on this wonderful piece of work. I enjoyed listening to this book and it has sparked discussion with friends and family about race, identity and oppression in America today.