Long Division

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!

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

I LOVED this book! I've been seeing being promoted everywhere and nearly bought a copy when I was standing inside a Barnes and Noble the other day. I instead convinced the personal lamenting about the book to pick it up instead. Such a wonderful read, beautifully written and unforgettable. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this.

I can't say I've ever read a novel as multi-layered as Kiese Laymon's 2013 debut novel "Long Division." To even describe the book's premise would take years, yet it's a powerfully hilarious and introspective coming-of-age story for the ages.

"Long Division" is a literary nesting doll for readers, opening in 2013 with the central character City competing in a grammar competition and discovering a novel called "Long Division," with a protagonist also named City living in 1985. City's discovery of the book and the disappearance of classmate Baize Shephard in Melahatchie, Mississippi, unlock the second plot following 1985 City and his journey to prove his love to Shayala by traveling back to 1964 Melahatchie.

Both 2013 City and 1985 City visit their grandmothers in Melahatchie, Mississippi, yet have contrasting coming-of-age stories and questions regarding their time-defying copies of "Long Division," their Black experiences, and the changes within the Black community.

Despite the time travel element, it isn't a sci-fi allegory for race relations; its teenage characters are trying to navigate young love and their Blackness with the time traveling in the distant background of the story powers the novel.
With witty commentary from each character, you almost forget the more outstanding issues woven into the story. Be warned: this isn't a YA coming-of-age story, so don't be surprised by the slang and topics interlaced into "Long Division."

This novel could have been a multi-layered racial relations story for the ages, but at its heart, "Long Division" is a coming-of-age story with some haunting topics thrown in there. From 1985 City and Shayala being haunted by rumors surrounding their grandparents' deaths, running from the Ku Klux Klan in 1964, and in 2013 City constantly being told to be the better African-American boy, "Long Division" doesn't hold back. It seems that each character's haunting never leaves them and follows them into their respective periods. Laymon weaves contemporary and historical issues from each period flawlessly while focusing on teenage protagonists.

Truthfully, "Long Division" was a surprising read–every plot twist and the nesting doll devices can be confusing to keep track of while reading. Still, the layers are revealed with clever and unique ease you don't find very often in literature.

This novel is a many-layered cake of absurdity and hilarity, making it a beast to finish just based on the synopsis. Yet, the key to understanding "Long Division" is not 2013 and 1985 City, but rather Baize's disappearance and the journey to find the enigmatic character through time is the final puzzle piece to this ambitious novel.

Despite its ambition, the novel doesn't give its character arcs the justice they deserve and felt cut off. If the book had a hundred pages more, each character and plot device might have received the room to flourish and seamlessly end the arcs, but that is a wishful dream.

Loved heavy and was so excited to see what a novel by Kiese would be like. It didn’t disappoint! I grew up in the Midwest and I LOVED how different it was. It’s so unique and fun yet also makes you critically think about the world around us. Wow.

Long Division is Kiese Laymon's debut novel first published in 2013. It has been on my TBR list forever and a day, so I jumped on the opportunity to read and review the re-release of this classic satire novel. It features two interwoven stories in post-Katrina Mississippi.

It's 2013 and 14-year-old City Coldson becomes an overnight YouTube celebrity after a meltdown on national television. He is sent to live with his grandmother in a small community where a young girl named Baize Shephard has recently disappeared.

Before City leaves, he is gifted an author-less book titled...drumroll please...Long Division. The main character is also named City Coldson! In the book, he travels to the future and steals a laptop and cell phone from an orphaned teen girl named...yup, you guessed it...Baize Shephard. He takes the items all the way back to 1964 to help another time-traveler protect family from the Ku Klux Klan.

Are you still with me, bookhearts? It is a lot to follow. Reading this book-inside-of-a-book had me all the way confused. I found myself reading the chapters a couple times before finally just pushing through and glad I stuck with it. I was ---><--- this close to DNF'ing but on the strength of many bookhearts' high ratings and praise reviews, I kept reading and eventually finished this well-written coming-of-age novel featuring a smart black boy. The hilarious narration was a bonus.

My recommendation is to read Long Division at the right time. Be focused because it needs your attention to follow the time-travel dual storyline. Avoid spoilers and appreciate good writing!

~LiteraryMarie

This work is so powerful. I have read another work by Kiese Laymon and I thought I would give this a try as well. It was hard for me to get through. Not because the writing or the plot was bad but because I was just so heartbroken by some of the content. I think that was the intention. Or I hope it was.

Kiese Laymon’s debut novel is a Twain-esque exploration of celebrity, authorship, violence, religion, and coming of age in Post-Katrina Mississippi, written in a voice that’s alternately funny, lacerating, and wise.

So glad I read and enjoyed this!

Ummm WHOA. That did not go where I expected and I loved it.

This book follows City, a high school student in Mississippi in 2013 whose appearance on a televised quiz show has just gone viral. His mom sends him to live with his grandmother to keep him out of the public eye and trouble (cue the Fresh Prince theme song). While there he finds an interesting book called Long Division set in 1985, in which the main character is also named City and he quickly finds there are several other eerie parallels to his life.

The second half of the book goes off the rails in the best way possible and I’m not even going to try to hint at it. 😍

In case y’all didn’t already know, Kiese Laymon is incredible. I couldn’t stop highlighting great quotes and paragraphs on my e-reader. He is such an observational author and brings his unique insight into each of his books.

The plot is ambitious! There’s so much action and fun dialogue in the book that you’ll fly right through it. I did find myself wishing that it was at least 50 pages longer to be able to flesh out some parts a bit more. But it’s honestly a testament to Laymon’s imagination that he packs so much into this story.

Not only is this book a fun read, it offers big social commentary on so many issues like poverty, the way racism morphs through the years, reconciling our past and future, and also on how to come of age as a fourteen year old Black, overweight kid from the South.

Bottom line: It’s smart, fun, unpredictable, quick, sometimes confusing, but always wildly original.