Homegoing

This book sat on my shelf for far too long waiting for me to appreciate it, so I need to write this review to let you readers know to pick it up immediately.

This is a close up study of the lineage of a family split down the bloodlines of two sisters. So in every second chapter we are going to the next generation and we read a chapter from a member of that generation from each of the sisters bloodlines. This choice made what could have been a very slow book feel lightning fast and gripping.

Gyasi is writing an intimate character study, but not of one person. In Homecoming, the family is the character. I adored this book so much for the characters. They were so real and the emotions in this book (especially towards the end) were really effective because of how closely you are tied to the characters. The story arc is for the family, and when we hit that final chapter and got some emotional resolution I was welling up. It has been a while since a book made me slow down, deliberately savour the story being told and experience every emotion with our characters.

I highly recommend this book. I am so incredibly excited for the new release coming from Gyasi. If you're like me and have had Homegoing sitting unread on your shelf for a few years, prioritise it. It's going to be worth it.

One sentence synopsis... This book follows two half-sisters separated from birth in 18th century Ghana, alternating each chapter to tell the story of a different descendant of each sister. .

Read it If you like... short stories. Despite continuing themes of colonialism and slavery, read all together they felt like a collection of short stories rather than a wholly realized plot. Still enjoyable but about halfway through the stories lose their momentum and become a series of emotionally distressing vingnettes. .

Further reading... for a better version of the many-alternating-narrators book: try ‘There, There'. For a better version of the American-racism-shaping-families: try ‘An American Marriage'. For a better version of family-followed-across-generations: try ‘Pachinko'. It's not that ‘Homegoing' is bad, it's just not as good as other books about the same ideas.

This book is truly incredible. I think, at this moment in time, it is the best book that I've read in 2020 and would recommend it to everyone. It is heartbreaking, and beautiful, and poignant. It is the type of book that makes you step back and reexamine things in your life and beyond.

Homegoing is not the type of book that I would have read in the past. It is ‘literary fiction', which tends to be a genre I shy away from because I instantly associate it with required school reading. And yet, this book has prompted me to really want to delve into more of this genre, simply because of how excellent it is.

I've been trying to think of a negative to put in this review and I'm coming up empty-handed. I simply have no complaint.

I give it 2.5 stars. Some stories were better than others, and sometimes it was hard keeping up with the character's lineage. overall, an interesting story to tell about the journey from africa to america.

*4.5 stars

Very, very, good important novel. Spans a long amount of time and different POVs in various locations. I actually wish it was LONGER so we could get more time to really see how events of the past is effecting society both in US and Ghana. The end was powerful as were many parts of this.

A very cool premise and I learned a lot about Ghanaian culture. Overall, I never got entirely sucked in. I liked it but not much beyond that.

Overall, totally wonderful. But with so many generations and so many characters, I found it difficult to connect emotionally with parts of the story (mostly because I was trying to remember who was who's parent). This is not a book you can put down and come back to later; for maximum enjoyment I recommend reading it as fast as possible.

Deeply moving and poetic as it tows you through the slow realities and unrealities of family, personal history, pain, and what it feels like to be on the lesser side of power against the backdrop of an unsimplified Gold Coast of Africa, shifting into America. The weights of shame, helplessness, social exclusion, family judgment, ambition, fear, triumph, and indignation are heavy in this book. Generations are explored from the perspective of those struggling through them, and fully imparted is a knowledge deeper and more permanent than any facts of the era and events could convey.

I will never walk a mile or even one step in their shoes. I'll never feel a whip shredding my flesh; never be condemned to hard labor in a coal mine or fear being abducted into such a life. I have, I suspect, had job applications tossed out because of my name but I've never had entire career possibilities closed off. I've never been hauled to prison for smoking a joint while nearby anglos, doing the same, look on. This is privilege, and it makes my reading experience both uncomfortable and so rewarding.

Damn, what a book. Gyasi offers a visceral feel for the crushing inescapable suffering of one subset of humanity at the hands of another subset. It's impossible for most of us to really feel what those lives were like, but Gyasi lets us come close to imagining it. The book follows two parallel timelines, the (mostly mis)fortunes of two Ghanaian sisters and their progeny across two centuries: one sister taken—involuntarily, and you know what I mean—to the American colonies, the other remaining in Ghana; each one, and each descendant, suffering cruelties we just can't really fathom. The glimpses Gyasi coolly gives us are stomach-turning, often more so because we know we will never in our armchair lives feel anything close to those horrors, and certainly not every day for the entire duration of our lives. My privilege humbles me.

The suffering isn't just in the West: none of the characters in the Ghana storyline leads a charmed life either. The evils, though, are different in scope and kind and scale and intention; theirs are by and large the everyday ills of humankind. The contrast with the lives of those in the US is stark and sobering. I could go on at great length, but have already blathered too much. Beautiful language, deeply moving stories, perspectives that may stay with you. Just read it.

One recommendation: read it in hardcopy, not ebook or audio. There's a family tree diagram in the front that is invaluable; I flipped back to it at least once per chapter, sometimes more.

Very interesting, would be perfect for a book club. Tons to think/talk about.

The first few chapters of “Homegoing” were really interesting and entertained in a way that drew me into the book.

And, then followed chapter after chapter of two half-sisters' descendants, many of whom made such brief appearances that I could not remember them or became interesting a few pages into a chapter only to disappear. I wonder if the author wrote various disparate short stories and decided to connect them into a multi-generational, multi-continent novel? That is certainly the feel of the book.

Ms. Gyasi is a talented writer and I'd be interested to see what she could do with a book that focuses on more-fully fleshing our a few major characters, which I think she could do quite well.

I am so impressed by the solid structure and fantastic character development within this novel. This book is an intricate look at individual members of two half sister's family trees and how their individual stories lead to travel across Africa, America and across communities. I can only applaud Yaa Gyasi for creating characters that have strong individual stories while also allowing these characters to play a part in the wider narrative. Each character and each individual story was written beautifully and emotively so that each new focused chapter, you were still able to connect with new characters. I really liked the ending when Marcus and Marjorie reconnected back with their African roots and with each other. I think it was a subtlety satisfying ending to a fantastically constructed narrative. A strong 4 and a half star read for me!!

a powerful and dynamic portrait of 2 branches of a Ghanaian family over 8 generations. Tragic, yet hopeful

Truly astounding

I genearally don't read sweeping multi-generational novels. But I heard so many good things about this one that I just had to read this one. I'm glad I did. I really liked the amount of time we spent with each generation.
This is a heavy novel. The pain and joy, but mostly pain, is a heavy collective weight. I must say that I don't really want to carry it all. But the fact that I have the option to carry the weight or not carry it is the reason I needed to read this book and carry the weight.

Wow. This was quite a feat of storytelling, and I didn't want to put it down. This made me wonder about my own history — what were my great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents and great-great-great grandparents like? — but also I knew that I could probably find out (even though some of my various ancestors were Irish Catholics and Russian Jews in a time where neither of those was looked upon particularly favorably). I think that's what stunned me most about the Esi timeline; that almost every generation was broken away from the previous generation, so even if one wanted to trace his or her timeline, there was a limit to how far back you could go, and it wasn't that far.

I really thought that I would be disappointed that we couldn't go back and revisit some of these stories at another point in time, through another's eyes if not the character's own, but really each of them started and stopped when they needed to. And Marcus' story concluded the book, if not perfectly, then at least as perfect as was possible for such a broken history. Phenomenal.

Absolutely stunning. Sweeping in its scope of time, history, and family, and gorgeously written. Definitely recommend the physical book as I kept turning back to the family timeline or to bits of previous stories to see the intricate interconnectedness at play.

The only thing I didn't love about this book was the short glimpses we got into each generation's lives. I wanted more time to get to know them. I wanted to follow their stories along more. But this was a really good book. I loved how we got to follow not only what happened in the US, but also what the slave trade had done to Ghana.

Well written and very interesting. But whenever I put it down, I didn't have the urge to pick it back up, though I enjoyed while I was reading.

This book left me in awe. It's a stunning piece of art, and I feel like a better human being for having read it. So, so good.

Amazing and powerful. I need to reread it once or twice so it can really sink in.

A young woman caught up in the 1700's slave trade of what is now Ghana has two daughters who never knew each other. One of them is shipped overseas to become a slave on an American plantation. The other one marries a British colonial officer and lives a life of relative ease. This novel follows the women's descendants through modern times as they struggle with the corrupt systems that upheld slavery and perpetuate injustice and suffering long after slavery itself is no longer practiced.

Yaa Gyasi keeps the story moving, stopping to tell a story about each generation on their own side of the Atlantic. If I have a complaint about this book, it's that I wanted more from each of those generational check-ins. I wanted to spend more time with those people. It felt like this could have been a beloved book series, with an eagerly awaited last installment with the present generation. As it is, the final modern day story felt a little bit rushed to me. But it's a deep story, and a beautifully written family epic. Highly recommend.

A family tree that divides in 18th century Ghana and reunites in the present day US. We follow the descendants of two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, alternating through 7 generations, from colonialism and slavery, to warfare to the end of slavery to revolutions to racial segregation, filled with tragedies and pains, yet also stories of families and love and hope. Even though you have to get to know 14 different people, the stories feel connected. I have a hard time choosing between 4 or 5 stars.

Two sisters in Africa. One becomes the wife of a white man who rounds up slaves. And the other is captured as a slave.

Each chapter moves forward a generation for each sister, like a collection of powerful short stories shifting on a timeline. We quickly become connected to the terrible dramas in the lives of the sisters' descendants. The stories are little immersive experiences into places and times and difficulties seldom previously shared with readers.