Homegoing in Club Drunk But Not Too Drunk To Read The Book

Jul 30, 2018 Uks rated it it was amazing

Simply incredible. I am in awe of the author's ability to follow two lineages without it being overwhelming or dragging. Each generation's story has its own story arc and there is no character that falls short in their richness and depth (and struggles *sobbing*).

I learned so much about the history of slave trade and the brutal reality of its continuing legacy even to the present day. Any white person who doesn't recognize institutional racism should read this. Actually, anyone living in the U.S ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Aug 12, 2018 Evan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Homegoing has a huge scope, and was clearly a really large undertaking. But I think it suffered from the issues that all short-story compendiums suffer. Some stories were excellent, some were quite poor, and as a reader I was unable to connect with most characters as they were on-page for such a short time. Considering the scope, I'd have rathered this book was at least a thousand pages, if not more.

I think some short stories also suffered from Gyasi trying to stuff a social issue into it withou Homegoing has a huge scope, and was clearly a really large undertaking. But I think it suffered from the issues that all short-story compendiums suffer. Some stories were excellent, some were quite poor, and as a reader I was unable to connect with most characters as they were on-page for such a short time. Considering the scope, I'd have rathered this book was at least a thousand pages, if not more.

I think some short stories also suffered from Gyasi trying to stuff a social issue into it without any subtlety. For example, during Abena's story, Nyarko begins growing cocoa on their marginal land, and gets the following response:
"“But will this feed us?” the villagers wondered after they had been shooed away by the children or yelled at by Ohene Nyarko himself."

Cash crops are an issue in Africa, because they are growing food to be exported and not to be eaten themselves. But this idea is never developed, (view spoiler)

Best stories:

*Yaw - I think this story does the best at developing a character is a short amount of time. You're very quickly enamoured with Yaw, and then he grows during the latter half of the story.
*Kojo (Jo) - The setting of 1850s Baltimore was super interesting, the characters were quickly likable and then created real tension with the introduction of the Fugitive Slave Act.
*Marjorie and Marcus - I saw this coming from a mile away, but it was nice to have a nice ending to at least one of the stories. For much of Marcus' story, I was worried he was going to be shot by the police or something. Which means Gyasi did an excellent job at instilling the fear of being a black man in America into me.

Worst stories:

*Esi - literally she just sat in the dungeon and then was put on a ship. No plot, just suffering.
*Akua - I have no idea where the whole fire-dream storyline was going. Dreams are stupid, and bad plot devices. If it's mental health, I don't think it was handled very well. She seems to just recover without any help. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jun 30, 2017 Ying rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, would-recommend

An absolutely amazing book. I would say it's a must read.

I've never read a book like this. It follows the stories of the descendants of two Ghanian half sisters, over 6 (7?) generations. Spanning from over 250 years ago until the modern day. I think it follows something like 14 characters?? It's crazy. I'm normally terrible at keeping track of book characters but this time I was so engrossed and invested that I could remember what happened to each character and how it affected their kids.

Such ...more

Like · see review

Aug 28, 2018 Sam MR WORLD WIDE rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed reading this book and I could not put it down! I actually read this book at a time when I had a lot of anxiety and it helped bring me back down to earth. I enjoyed reading the first few generations because it is a part of history that I know less about, gold coast. The other character I who's story I found very interesting was H and the coal mining. ...more

Like · see review