Homegoing in The Toast

Jun 07, 2016 Alicia rated it it was amazing

http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2016/06...

This seems to be one of the big summer buzz books--and with good reason, because it's excellent. It's the story of a family, from the 1700s to the present, each chapter recounting a new generation--and it's also a pretty solid history of the slave trade, as the family originates in what is now Ghana. Although Gyasi does not shy away from the brutality of the slave trade, she doesn't dwell on it either, and I didn't find this to be an upsetting read--instea ...more

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Dec 15, 2016 Melanie Greene rated it it was amazing

Completely absorbing! I went into this knowing it was one "everyone" was recommending, but not much more about it, and I was immediately grabbed. The specificity of the details, Gyasi's control over each of the voices, the way elemental themes (fire, water, stone) weave loosely through without becoming overwhelming or simplistic either one: it all adds to the hypnotic dance of the narrative. ...more

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Oct 05, 2016 CC rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, black-history, african-diaspora

Brilliant structure, conception and execution. I just love the way this story was crafted. You could read it through without paying much mind to the family tree laid out in the book's beginning, engaging with each story as a vignette, but I chose to keep referring to it throughout—to re-center each story contextually—and it made for a richer reading experience. The only reason this book didn't get 5 stars from me is because it didn't sweep me off my feet, though I can't think of one single criti ...more

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Jan 24, 2017 Meghan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, africa, bipoc-authors, 2017tob

4.5. I am in awe of this debut novel. It contains a genealogy chart in the front matter, and then totally draws connections through the generations in an emotional, complex, and well-executed way. Each chapter of this book is about a different character, and the stories progress through centuries. Effia and Esi are sisters in Ghana in the 1700s - they have the same mother but never know each other. As one sister ends up in slavery in America, the novel explores each subsequent generation up to t ...more

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Dec 30, 2016 Emily rated it it was amazing

This might be my favorite book of 2016.

Gyasi draws up two branches of the same family tree, separated by the slave trade, living parallel lives in Ghana and the United States. Each chapter advances the story by a generation, focusing on a new protagonist as they explore family, identity, home, and the challenges of their time.

I cannot believe the depth and riches of character that Gyasi is able to draw, given that each character only gets 20 or so pages of our time. Yet, these are fully formed p ...more

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