Long Division

Long Division by Kiese Laymon

I am still unsure how I feel about this book. What I can say for sure is that it is a unique book, and really interesting if you're looking for something that will make you think.
Long Division is about a teenager named City. It introduces him as a student in a mainly African-American community in Mississippi. The story opens in 2013 where City, a promising student at his school, is chosen to compete in a sentence-making contest, similar to a spelling bee. He realizes how his race affects and melts down on live television, becoming an overnight internet celebrity.
City begins to read a book he got from his principal, only to find that the character is him. In Long Division (the book within the book, which has the same name just to complicate matters) City lives in the same town, but in 1975. 1975 City discovers a hole out in the woods which his crush has learned can allow people to travel in time. In this world, the book Long Division is about City from 2013 (because that's not complicated).
I don't know how else to explain this book without spoiling things or getting over-complicated. City in 2013 starts to realize that the book has information about what is happening in his life and community in the present, but also about what happened to his family in the past. Both City from 2013 and City from 1975 learn the significance of their race within history, and how they must move forward in order to aid those who will take their place in the future. Essentially, the message of this story is that what was done in the past, and what we do in our present, can affect the lives of the people who come after us, especially for African-Americans.
What really bothered me about this book was how confusing it was. I was able to keep track of what was happening within both plots, but it seemed that the two were somehow connected and may actually have been about the same boy. However, the families and time periods were different. Furthermore, it is really only the 1975 universe which exists inside the book that contains any sort of magic and time travel, until the last chapter when 2013 City finally enters the hole. I don't understand whether both stories are supposed to be real, and whether time travel is to be read as an analogy or a literal element of the story. Furthermore, how and why does the book exist within itself. And I know that this question won't make sense if you've never read it, but what exactly does the book have to do with the white kid in the shed? I still have more questions than answers after reading this book.
This book is one I would recommend if you want a story that has messages about race, love, and sexuality throughout time. However, it takes some getting used to when you read it because it is a hip-hop centric book. According to my professor, people who are fans of hip-hop will pick up a lot of references and it will make more sense to them. The language sometimes made it hard for me to read at times, but more because it came unnaturally to me and less because it was incomprehensible.
If you have read or choose to read this book and it makes more sense to you than it did to me, I'd love to hear from you.