Play Book Tag discussion

This is a very powerful memoir that deals with race, family, weight, education, teaching, gambling, and many other topics. His writing and speaking voice are very engaging, and they held my interest. I didn't think I wanted to read this book, but I decided to give it a few minutes to change my mind. It did, and it gave me a lot to think about. The first half was about his early life, family, and important experiences. His mother was a college professor and she demanded excellence from him. She helped him develop his writing skills and she held him to high standards. She could be both abusive and supportive, and had her own issues to deal with, but they remained close most of the time. He often struggled with weight issues, and his perceptions of his place in the world as a heavy black man. One of his favorite college classes was women's studies, which led to some interesting insights later on.

The later parts of the book did get heavier. He dealt with family and money issues, unfair expulsion, and hurdles to get to a position as a college professor. He had students he loved (and one he hated), but he didn't seem to feel that he did enough for them. He encountered many examples of unfair treatment here as in his earlier college experiences. Racial fairness was always important to him, but he learned that simply exposing institutional racism wherever he found it wasn't enough (and it often brought him other trouble.)

His weight often fluctuated (as a barometer of his life) and he reached 300 pounds. He became serious - and then obsessive - about diet and exercise and eventually lost so much weight that he did damage to his body. This topic was very well written. (We used to joke about wanting to get anorexia for a little while, but it's not funny.) The sections about gambling were also very heavy. It's an insidious problem. It seems like innocent fun, but the math and neuroscience both tell me - just don't start. I think both anorexia and compulsive gambling are more common among whites than blacks, and there are other behavioral problems in the book that have nothing to do with racism. For me, one weakness of the book was that most of the family's problems seemed to be attributed to racism. If you ignore alternative explanations for each issue, you miss some practical solutions. (Of course, for many people, the next choice would be to blame their mother, and that might not yield a good solution either.)

The author talks about how difficult it is to tell the truth about everything in a book. I was often struck by how painfully honest he was in many sections. Even if the first description of an event or relationship was somewhat sanitized, he finds ways to let us know the truth later. I often worried about how it impacted his family and professional relationships.

Added:
After giving it more thought, I can’t say I really recommend the book.

Steeplechase: 1532 Memoir tags, 39 Authors of color tags
https://www.goodreads.com/work/shelve...
BWF - H tag + letter

This is on my tbr and I keep putting it off. I started Long Division but DNF.

Booknblues wrote: "This is on my tbr and I keep putting it off. I started Long Division but DNF."

The cover and title were the reasons I kept putting it off. I sampled it last week when I saw the memoir tag was coming up, I might have read it even if I didn't land on the tag, but not not right away.

Booknblues wrote: "This is on my tbr and I keep putting it off. I started Long Division but DNF."

I am enjoying Razorblade Tears so much more. After giving it more thought, I reduced my rating for Heavy. I can’t recommend it as much as most 4 star books I read.

NancyJ wrote: "Booknblues wrote: "This is on my tbr and I keep putting it off. I started Long Division but DNF."

I am enjoying Razorblade Tears so much more. After giving it more thought, I reduc..."

I'm glad you are enjoying Razorblade Tears. A few of us read it for the Edgars and we all really liked it.