In the first few pages of Heavy, I immediately noticed that this memoir is deeply personal and touches the reader’s heart. Laymon uses daily day-to-day language form in simple sentences. He writes in a way that addresses his mother as his first intended audience. Through this way of writing, it is as if readers are listening in to what Laymon has to say to his mother, his closest friend, and everything in the entire world. 

Due to the fact that Laymon’s father does not seem to be present in his life, Laymon is deeply close to his mother and sees her as his closest companion. Laymon and his mother are almost like friends as exemplified through their actions such as going to the casino behind the grandmother’s back and playing tennis (Laymon, p.3-4). Despite the close relationship Laymon has with his mother, his mother is not without flaws. Laymon’s mother deeply cares about Laymon by protecting him from white people. She tells him to avoid contractions when speaking and disapproves of his relationship with a white girl we know later in the book. These things that his mother does to protect stem from the fact that she deeply cares about him. However, they can be damaging to their relationship as well. Hence, Laymon decides to write the truth instead of a “lie.” (Laymon, p.1)  Even though it is hard and Laymon wanted to write about shallow topics, he is still determined to talk about the hard truth. 

Laymon, Kiese. (2018). Heavy. New York, NY: Scribner