How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Other..., Kiese Laymon
How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Other..., Kiese Laymon
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How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America
Essays

Author: Kiese Laymon

Narrator: Kiese Laymon

Unabridged: 5 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/15/2024


Synopsis

A New York Times Notable Book

A revised collection with thirteen essays, including six new to this edition and seven from the original edition, by the “star in the American literary firmament, with a voice that is courageous, honest, loving, and singularly beautiful” (NPR).

Brilliant and uncompromising, piercing and funny, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America is essential reading. This new edition of award-winning author Kiese Laymon’s first work of nonfiction looks inward, drawing heavily on the author and his family’s experiences, while simultaneously examining the world—Mississippi, the South, the United States—that has shaped their lives. With subjects that range from an interview with his mother to reflections on Ole Miss football, Outkast, and the labor of Black women, these thirteen insightful essays highlight Laymon’s profound love of language and his artful rendering of experience, trumpeting why he is “simply one of the most talented writers in America” (New York magazine).

About Kiese Laymon

Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Kiese Laymon is the Ottilie Schillig Professor in English and Creative Writing at the University of Mississippi and author of the novel Long Division, the memoir Heavy, and the essay collection How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America. He was recently named a 2022 MacArthur Fellow.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Nakia on March 19, 2014

These essays made me laugh, cry, grimace, think, feel, and learn. Our country, communities, families are often dissected through writing, but very rarely do we have young, open-minded Black male voices raised by southern grandmothers, struggling mothers, and hip hop give it to us this real. I picked......more

Goodreads review by Stacia on December 09, 2021

Very soon in the book I had a very distinct vision that my heart, my brain, and my eyes should be separately on a table, arranged in a triangular pattern facing each other. (I swear I'm not doing drugs or drinking.) I think this is one to feel, to think about, and to really challenge yourself to see......more

Goodreads review by David on September 23, 2013

Kiese Laymon is a gem. His prose, his humor, and the brilliance in analysis are all reasons for his place at the top of the writing game. This book is amazing from start to finish. The title, which captures so much about life and death, race and racism, agency and unfreedom, and the perpetuate state......more