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What Members Thought
What an incredible novel, and amazing that this is Ms. Gyasi’s debut! This was the only book club novel I missed, and it was everyone’s favorite, so I knew I needed to catch up as soon as summer came. Wow...I picked the wrong month to be busy! In only 300 pages, Yaa Gyasi follows a family through 7 generations to show the devastating impact of slavery and colonialism on both Ghana and the U.S. The novel is structured as kind of a short story collection made up of one chapter for each of 14 chara
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This is a beautiful, very well written book about a long line of family heritage, tradition and history. From Gold Coast to slave ship to Southern America. From tribe wars and slavery and Civil War - this is a huge book with important topics, but somehow it is written in a very engaging and digestible way. Kudos to Yaa Gyasi for her debut. It's truly exceptional.
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While parts were sad and hard to read, the book overall is hopeful. The characters are incredible. I love the themes of community, connection, and search for self. The development across generations was especially moving and memorable.
This book is amazing in scope and accomplishment. Somehow Gyasi managed to write an epic story of history and pain in the length of a regular novel. This book was so moving and explores how colonialism and the slave trade had lasting reach on the people that were forced in to slavery and the people that remained in Africa. I felt the weight of history when reading this book and I cried a lot. It is also a book that is important for understanding America.
Oct 08, 2017
Alison
rated it
really liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
dcpl_elibrary,
fiction
I think I would have enjoyed this more if I was able to keep track of the lineage more easily - I'm sure there are some connections I wasn't making as I got farther into this. Overall I enjoyed it, though.
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