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What Members Thought
Amazing. Outstanding. All the words.
This novel spans 3 centuries and tells the story of its characters in Ghana and America in short vignettes. Gyasi's characters experience life in Africa or life in America as slaves and later living through the civil rights movement. We only get to know each character for a short time, but we see the interconnection of each and how their story builds. The book is heartbreaking but totally captured me in its spell. I highly recommend this novel! ...more
This novel spans 3 centuries and tells the story of its characters in Ghana and America in short vignettes. Gyasi's characters experience life in Africa or life in America as slaves and later living through the civil rights movement. We only get to know each character for a short time, but we see the interconnection of each and how their story builds. The book is heartbreaking but totally captured me in its spell. I highly recommend this novel! ...more
I adored this book, although that is an awkward thing to say about a book in which so much pain and oppression are contained. Starting with two sisters (who do not actually know each other) on the Gold Coast during the height of colonialism and enslavement, the book follows their descendants, with each chapter written in the voice of a different one, down through four hundred years of African and African-American history arising from that colonialism and enslavement. The book is searing, raw, an
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I loved this and it broke my heart. Repeatedly. The story of two half-sisters and their descendants, each chapter follows a new generation. The two women are unknown to each other; one is captured and sold as a slave in the US, the other remains in Ghana, the wife of an English slaver. Beautifully written, thought-provoking, heart-wrenching throughout, but ultimately hopeful.
Beautiful. Gut-twistingly beautiful. The only other thing I would ask from Gyasi is a novel for each chapter. Is that too much to ask?
Yaa Gyasi has a smooth writing style that allows the stories clear passage. I enjoyed some strains of the ancestors stories more than others, and therefore felt more attached and pulled into some characters’ stories and less attached and just reading to read other characters’ stories. Gyasi puts race relations in the United States under a spotlight that, frustratingly, remain true today.
Nov 11, 2016
Claire
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Dec 14, 2016
Caitlin
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Dec 28, 2016
Danita
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Mar 18, 2017
Lauren
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Mar 26, 2017
ainsley
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Mar 30, 2017
Katie
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Apr 04, 2017
Mary
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Jun 05, 2017
Carrie
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Jan 03, 2018
Anna
marked it as to-read
Nov 01, 2018
treehugger
marked it as to-read
Jan 17, 2019
Fiona
marked it as to-read
