Heavy is undoubtedly a powerful memoir as Laymon explores the weight of his body, his blackness, his relationships with his family and what it means to live in America as a black man. The theme of "heaviness" is one he uses to cleverly connect and offer insight into these themes throughout. This makes Laymon's memoir powerful for more than just content as his use of language and style offer much more to the reader. The book itself is a series of letters to his mum as he attempts to unravel their complicated relationship amongst other things.

Laymon packs no punches touching on sexual violence, consent, abuse, addiction, power, police brutality and more.

I found his discussions on sex, sexual violence and his body to be really interesting as he explored his relationships with girls and consesual sex. This is such an important narrative as pretty much all the experiences I've read about that focus on consent in sex have come from women. As Laymon explored the intersections between masculinity, male bonding and consensual sex I realised how little I see men discussing these subjects. It also highlighted to me again the problematic nature of men perpetuating an image of virility and promiscuity when that doesn't necessarily align with their actions.

Laymon's discussions about physical weight and image were also particularly powerful. He was so on point when identifying nobody would identify him as anorexic or bulemic unlike the women when he became obsessed with his weight and body image. Again highlighting the problematic associations with masculinity and femininity, and how men suffering are not necessarily identified but not necessarily stigmatised.

As somebody who has struggled themselves over the years with weight, body image and more this quote really resonated with me:

"Like nearly everyone else at the gym I wasn't in the gym to be healthy, I was in the gym to feel in control of how fat I looked and felt."

This does not even begin to cover how Laymon discussion surrounding the heaviness of his racial identity and the weight of institutional racism. He talks about being kicked out of college for year and how this was connected to as artical he wrote critiquing the racial relations on campus. He spoke about his mother telling him not to run at night because a big black man would be shot. He talks about his concerns about the thought of bringing a black child into the world and the trauma and weight of raising them.

Heavy is a complex, astute and emotional memoir that is clever in its use of language and weaving of themes to share a very personal experience. I would also add that Laymon is incredibly feminist and it's clear to read from his works. There is so much to this memoir that cannot be covered in a single review, but I would encourage you all to read it.

As a side note I listened to the audiobook which is also narrated by Laymon as I always like to listen to individuals sharing their own stories and I think it really adds to the experience of reading his book.