Heavy

by J.J. Anselmi

In twenty heavy chapters, this book chronicles Anselmi's experiences growing up as a straight edge, BMX-riding metal head in Rock Springs, Wyoming, a place with one of the highest per capita suicide rates in the United States. His grandpa was a well-known businessman and politician in the area, and was featured in a 1977 60 Minutes episode for his alleged connections to organized crime. This is only the beginning of Anselmi's heavy saga, and it interweaves all of the social and personal history one might expect from a story like this—including Black Sabbath, Pantera, and Metallica logo tattoos, explorations in LSD, metal and BMX culture, self-loathing and sobriety, and—finally—a very unique perspective on what it means to live in a heavy fucking world.

Genres: Memoir, Biography, Music

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 12, 2016

About the author

J.J. Anselmi grew up in Rock Springs, Wyoming, a mining boomtown. He’s the author of The Dirt in Our Skin, Out Here on Our Own, Doomed to Fail, and Heavy. He wrote the liner notes for the 2017 reissue of Sepultura’s classic thrash record, Chaos A.D., and his writing has been featured in VICE, The New Republic, The A.V. Club, Revolver, and JSTOR Daily. An active musician, he lives with his family in Southern California.

Reviews

[Aaron Lozano · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't in love with Anselmi's writing style but found him to be readable. What I didn't care for in this read was mostly a very narrow worldview presented in a format where Anselmi attempts to appear rather worldly and as an expert on things he is not. He is certainly an expert on his personal experience and that part of the reading is fascinating and makes this book readable. His inferences based on his personal experience at times are laughable, and not in a good way. He seems to be still searching for something to validate some things for himself, and I hope he finds them someday because I do think he has potential to write something much better. Read this in a little book club with my sister D :)

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Think I picked this up on a Kindle sale and having finished the book I am not sure why I did.

The author comes across...poorly. Well done, your family has money but you chose to be an alcoholic who likes drugs and introduced his straight a grade sister to weed.

Al least I found out what the X on CM Punk’s WWE Hans wraps now means.

Not a good read, alas.

[Aubrey Caudill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book ended up not being for me. I had hoped with all the self depreciation that the author had a great zinger to wrap up the ending. Alas he didn't. The story is very mono-colored and one angled in its telling. I wouldn't recommend it.

[Cindy Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of believable Rock Springs culture. Lots of music lots of drugs. Not enough of journey after.

[R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anselmi pulls no punches relating his past, or in critically examining his own choices and behaviors. This memoir elevates the idiocy of misspent youth (and sometimes pure white trash hedonism) into a complex search for identity through music, the burden of family expectations, and the regret that really living life inevitably delivers. Shitty teenage tattoos become deeply considered symbols of a changing self. The youthful fanaticism of needing to belong through overidentifying with bands, through drinking culture—and in Anselmi’s case, the machismo of rural Wyoming life and BMX riding—all change into a deep consideration of choice and consequence, self-definition and freedom.
It gets ugly and sad, but ultimately JJ finds transformation in destruction (self and otherwise), feeling bound to live in a stereotype, and in the kind of self-control and introspection that only come from living by extremes.
This is a badass, painful, beautiful book.

[C · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am really far behind on putting up reviews for the books that I have read this year, so I am leaving only the star ratings for a few. Strangely, I feel quite guilty about that... But the longer I leave it, the less the possibility that I will actually update with what I have read. So here we are.