Homegoing
Ratings292
Average rating4.5
This is a very important book. Would recommend it anyone. My only criticism (hence the 4 stars rather than 5) is that unless you read it in a short window of time, it's hard to fall back into its rhythm if a few days go by in between reads. Each chapter follows a new albeit linked character from a preceding chapter, so it's more like a series of short stories. Very compelling.
I always read the 1-star reviews of an otherwise highly rated book and I can't help but think they're all written by white people who are not interested in learning. One reviewer labelled this book as full of hate but I could not disagree more.
“Just because somebody sees, hears, or feels something other folks can't, doesn't mean they're crazy. My grandma used to say, ‘A blind man doesn't call us crazy for seeing.'” What a mind blowing way to take a reader through a generational journey. The depiction of pain, identity and belonging, while dealing with racial trauma, left me in awe. Humans are... the worst. Another great debut novel!
This book is beautifully written, Yaa Gyasi artfully pulls you in to each era and each character. The story starts with two half sisters in Africa, in present day Ghana. One gets sold into slavery and sent to America and one stays in Africa. Each of their lives and those of their descendents are deeply marked by slavery and it's after effects.
I'm very late to the party, but what a wonderful, painful read this is. Should be required reading for everyone. It's a kind of novel in stories, really, as each chapter stands alone (more or less) in telling the latest installment of the long family saga.
Of all the books I read this month, this was my favorite. Each story stood well on its own but was so informed by what came through the generations. Each story adding to my understanding of the history and the breadth and depth of the repercussions of the African slave trade. 10/10 recommend.
“...what he wanted to capture with his project was the feeling of time, of having been a part of something that stretched so far back, was so impossibly large, that it was easy to forget that she, and he, and everyone else, existed in it—not apart from it, but inside of it.”
i wonder what unbroken chain of lives and events that lead to my existence now. what are their hopes and longings, pains and toils that once seem monumental then, only to be lost in the distant land that is the past. A distant land where each of us has sailed forth from.
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It's midnight now and my mind is whirling with thoughts of my past, present, and future...
This book isn't usually something I'd pick up on my own but did anyway because it was a friend's recommendation for a book club (thanks, Denise!) and wow, am I glad I did it. What an engaging, moving, and eye-opening novel. Without being too draggy or gratuitously depressing, without being too one-sided as well, this book manages to really shed light on the cultural trauma that have faced generations of African immigrants, which continues today in the systemic racism that they face - this novel focuses on America in its second half, as the author speaks from her own experience being a first-generation Ghanaian immigrant herself.
The story starts in the 1700s with two half-sisters who are oblivious to the other's existence. One is married off to a British governor, while the other is sold into slavery. We then follow generations of their descendants through the ages, as they navigate the politics of African colonial rule on one side, and the politics of being slaves or having once been slaves in America.
“No one forgets that they were once captive, even if they are now free.”
with
“Whose story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice could come forth?”
agency
“It'll be the white man's word against no word at all.”
Tough book, like all the ones that deal with slavery. The setting are vividly described and I learn so much by reading this story. The author can clear convey many things with her writing, history, personal stories, social and historical issues. She really did something remarkable by writing this.
(i had a fever today so i could read and absorb info, but writing... eh rip)
the fact that this book isn't longer makes me sad because i am so hooked on yaa gyasi's storytelling abilities y'all
even more moving were the themes that we see that get passed down and evolve with every generation and how strong the trauma is towards the younger generations. while i adored each vignette of life, the last few were really beautiful and drove home so much that was brought up throughout the book
i'm so glad i also picked up a copy of transcendent kingdom as i can't wait to read more of yaa gyasi's writing!!!
What an ensorcelling novel that uses lineage both as an effective narrative device and a meditation on the traumas & blessings transmitted through bloodlines. Some of the chapters fell a bit short of the project's ambition — in the sense that a few of the characters felt more like avatars for history rather autonomous individuals in their own right — but I like a book that swings for the fences.
4.25
This book was not easy to read as it deals with quite some heavy but important topics. The story is beautifully told with the way this book is structured. It doesn't really give me much of a chance to get emotionally attached to the characters but my heart still ached reading about their lives. It was a bit confusing at first but luckily there is a family tree in the book and that really helped.
I tried this multi award winning book after reading reviews online. I'm a senior and much like Fantasy and SF books, I really had trouble with this one. It's not that the book isn't written well as you can see by my rating, It's due to the fact that so many characters were introduced thru out the book but all had African names, from different villages. This also involves time periods from 1750 - modern times and 1/2 of the book taking place in Africa & 1/2 in America. All the characters in the book are related in 1 way or another thru out the 200 yr span (Author included a Genealogy Tree).
And of course due to the subject of the book (Slavery Trade) very sad to be reminded of those events.
If you like award winning historical fiction then try this out! David N.
This is the kind of book I'm talking about when I say I love historical fiction. I became attached to each new character as they were introduced in the smallest amounts of time. Yaa Gyasi has a true gift of storytelling.
this was such a heartbreaking, necessary read. each character in the family tree felt distinct, and although i may have lost track of remembering who descended from who, it was really helpful to flip back to the front of the book to quickly glance at the family tree. i would've really liked if there were dates provided for each chapter and character, but oh well.
Yaa Gyasi's epic debut begins with the stories of two half-sisters in Ghana, or the Gold Coast as it was then, in the 1700s, one married off to a white British officer, the other enslaved and shipped to America. The structure of this novel almost makes it read like a collection of short stories, with chapters moving swiftly forward through the generations of the branching family and alternating between the two separate family lines. Gyasi's writing is incredible and so evocative that it's often difficult to read. That aside, this is a must-read for the year and I can't recommend it highly enough.
What an incredible book. I learned so much about Ghana and the Gold Coast. Heartbreaking.
The characters, the journey, the saga, the struggles and triumphs, what a mesmerising ride this book is! The sort of book that gives you a hangover, one that's absolutely hard to get over...
This book was a beautiful but difficult read about one family on two continents grappling with the legacy of slavery and colonialism. Each chapter was told from the point of view of one individual, moving forward in time but still linking back.