The Author (Kiese Laymon)

Kiese Laymon is a black writer and university instructor. He was born and raised in the American South in the middle-late twentieth century, a circumstance which, as his writing suggests, played a formative role in the development of various aspects of his identity – as a black man, as a writer, and as an American. In the book, consideration of his family, his friendships, and his intimate relationships are all framed by one or more of these contextual elements. The shaping of his family dynamics, for example, is a direct result of being a black male from the formerly Confederate state of Mississippi – a state with a long history of racism – whose mother believes passionately that education is virtually the only way that black people can escape the present-day dangers associated with that history.

At the same time, the author’s struggles with weight and...