His 2013 debut novel rerelease, Long Division, is now available and I am in love with this new stunning cover art by Diana Ejaita. I am hearing it is significant because of its representation. This matters in publishing!

🔸I’m in the first quarter of the book and really enjoying the character personalization, his writing is sharp and funny. Long Division is told in dual timelines, essentially it’s two novels, and you flip the book over for the second half. (Upside down is basically how I feel calculating long division so it works for me!)

♦️Have you read Kiese‘s critically acclaimed memoir Heavy? This novel about time traveling Black teenagers is a satirical exploration of celebrity, authorship, violence, religion, and coming of age in post-Katrina Mississippi. One of my most admired southern fiction authors Jesmyn Ward loved it so I’m diving in!

🔸Thanks to @netgalley and @scribnerbooks for my digital review copy.

Kiese Laymon's "Long Division" is a surreal and incredibly entertaining take on generational trauma. The novel's protagonist, City, goes viral after exposing the absurd racism of a regional Can-You-Use-That-Word-in-A-Sentence competition (a humorous take on spelling-bees).

On his journey to being forced to repent for his past sins, he finds a book without an author, titled "Long Division," which resembles his life a little too much for coincidence. I love when novels include books with the same title in their plot. "Long Division" takes this even further though, and the book ends up connection three generations of Black children traumatized by natural disaster and racism.

"Long Division" is an important book that I would love to teach in one of my own college courses. I would recommend it to anyone who loved "Heavy." I would also recommend it to anyone who enjoys magical realism and coming-of-age tales. This revised edition is a fresh look at a contemporary classic worth reading and re-reading.

Loved this book! Laymon's latest version is smart, engaging, and suspenseful. Laymon's ability to develop nuanced characters is on full display here. Highly recommend - would even be great to read as a family and discuss together.

Long Division is a lot of things, It breaks ground for a lot of reasons. One of these is that it references old South writers and their influence. Laymons ability to mix multiple voices and styles makes him stand out. The title Melahatchie refers to the need for spaces to work through the various forms of cultural and racial oppression that the South continues to grapple with. These experiences are often presented in a series of uncomfortable and dark ways.

Through time travel, Laymon draws attention to the struggles of contemporary black men and women as they navigate the intersection of past and future.The intersection of race and culture can be considered a breath of fresh air and a slide of culture. For years Ive been complaining about how few black southerners are featured in contemporary literature. Ive always felt that this is the old guard, that its always been the case, and that its time for a change.

The Talking Book is also used to connect the two main characters' stories. As I read the first few lines of Outkasts Da Art of Storytelling, I heard Dres line about wanting to be a storyteller. When City talks about being a rapper, I heard him reference being a storyteller. In Citys cypher, he disses LaVander Peeler while reciting verses from his book. Their exchange represents the collective mind of the Hip Hop cypher.

Each section of the novel presents a moment that is only coming in when its lines are ready. The stream of consciousness Laymon creates throughout the story signals the audience's readiness for a rap battle. The ending is both awkward and dizzying. It gives me pause because I miss something deeply important that could have been the beginning. Long Division is a game-changer. It’s the story of how Southern comfort can be given a shot of dignity. Thank you, Scribner, for the gifted copy via net galley.

Wow, Kiese Laymon can write! He is definitely an author I will check out from now on. He writes characters very well, such as the two boys in the this book, both nicknamed City. There is a lot happening in this time travel story, but the characters really shine in here, from the boys to LaVander to Grandma to Shalaya. The time travel is a bit hard to follow, but you understand why they are going and root for the characters throughout.

Rating: 4/5

Review:
When I read the summary for this book, I thought, "ooh, this sounds interesting. Time traveling? sign me up", and boy did it not disappoint. I loved how Kiese Laymon immediately started tackling serious topics in this book in a way that is serious but with humor and frustration added to it. City was an interesting character that it took me a while to really understand how he was thinking most of the time but in a good way. The way he developed throughout the book was amazing. The time-traveling part was a bit confusing and overwhelming at first but I have no doubt that when I reread I'll understand it a bit better. There was a lot of language or passages that we a bit confusing as well that I had to reread to really get the full picture but other than that this book was amazing. I can't wait to read more of his books in the future and how his career develops.

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I'm happy to see this re-issued as I suspect it will speak loudly to many. Set in 1985 and 2013 AND 1964, it's a coming of age story unlike any I've read. The combination of sci fi elements, a mystery, and the homage to Twain was not what I expected. There's a book within the book and a story within a story. I admit to being confused in parts but that's not Laymon's fault- I'm sure I missed some of the cultural references and that's on me. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. This is meant to be a YA book but it's also enjoyable by more mature readers.

I loved these characters so much. So much plot. So much humor and joy. Also some dark twisty stuff but not in a heavy way instead in a real way that incorporates humor with fear. I didn’t fully get the logistics of the time travel but I could suspend my disbelief and it was worth it. Also the sentences are top notch!

I really wanted to like this book, and there was a lot about it that I enjoyed. But I found the unusual writing style and story structure just too confusing. I had a difficult time sticking with it, and in the end, I’m still not sure what happened. I may come back to it in the future and try again. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is not an easy read, but it IS a book that you can really appreciate once you've finished it. Time travel is a bit of a plot device, but this is not a sci fi book. This novel is a study on being a black teenage boy in Mississippi, and how love and coming of age hasn't changed much between 1964, 1985 and 2013. I don't want to say too much more, because I don't want to ruin the story for others, but I will say that the characters of City, Shalayla, Baize and LaVander are all fully realized and jump off the page at different points in the story.

"The book contains two interwoven stories. In the first, it’s 2013: after an on-stage meltdown during a nationally televised quiz contest, 14-year-old Citoyen "City" Coldson becomes an overnight YouTube celebrity. The next day, he’s sent to stay with his grandmother in the small coastal community of Melahatchie, where a young girl named Baize Shephard has recently disappeared.

Before leaving, City is given a strange book without an author called Long Division. He learns that one of the book’s main characters is also named City Coldson--but Long Division is set in 1985. This 1985 City, along with his friend and love-object, Shalaya Crump, discovers a way to travel into the future, and steals a laptop and cellphone from an orphaned teenage rapper called...Baize Shephard. They ultimately take these with them all the way back to 1964, to help another time-traveler they meet protect his family from the Klan.

City’s two stories ultimately converge in the mysterious work shed behind his grandmother’s, where he discovers the key to Baize’s disappearance."

This novel was originally published in 2013, and NetGalley offered it to me in advance of the paperback publication in early June. Thanks to NetGalley for the free ebook in exchange for my honest review.

I literally LOVE this book. It's got to be a top favorite. The plot was VERY enjoyable, along with the characters. I have heard so much about this book, and how it is going to change your mindset and become a favorite, and let's just say it certainly did. I cannot wait for this to come out so I can purchase this for my father.

This is one of the few books that I honestly have no idea how to rate. Did I like it? Yes. Did it confuse the heck out of me? Also yes.

14-year-old City has gone viral, and not in a good way. After a fairly epic meltdown onstage at the quiz bowl, City longs to escape his community now that he's become an overnight sensation on YouTube, and is sent to live with his grandmother. But before he leaves, he's given a book - Long Division.

With elements of magical realism, time travel, and fantastical imagination, Kiese Laymon delivers an original story like no other, one that will have you wondering about the work that sits on the shoulders of young Black people to not only reconcile with American history, but also how they must carve out a place for themselves in the future of it all - and just how much they must sacrifice in order to do so.

Well-paced, beautifully written, unexpectedly tender, and a wild ride.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for advance access to this title!

Long Division is the story of a kid named City who lives in Mississippi. He goes on a national grammar type of show and after causing kind of a scene he is sent to stay with grandma for a few days. On the way, he starts reading this book he found called Long Division which has a main character with his same name but from a different year. It is kind of hard to say a lot about the plot without ruining the book for new readers, but there is a time travel element. The characters are great, they were all very well-written. The dialogue is funny and flows naturally. All in all, I loved this book, but that ending...left me with so many questions. Time for a re-read.

This book was extraordinary. I was extremely excited to begin and was not disappointed.
I think Laymon did a great job addressing multiple problems in society like violence, questions of race, gender and sexuality. I would recommend this book to any urban teen or anyone for that matter!