Homegoing in Around the World in 80 Books

Jan 14, 2018 Kay rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book, fiction, book-clubs, available-mcpl, modern-fiction, africa

My impression while reading this book was initially very favorable, but this view faded when I realized how episodic the book was. Each relatively short chapter was based on a successive generation of one of the two “lineages” of the two initial characters: the half sisters Effia, who marries a white man, and Esi, who is shipped to America as a slave. The two are unknown to each other, but their legacies are intertwined in tragic ways.

Despite this intriguing premise, I soon tired of new charact My impression while reading this book was initially very favorable, but this view faded when I realized how episodic the book was. Each relatively short chapter was based on a successive generation of one of the two “lineages” of the two initial characters: the half sisters Effia, who marries a white man, and Esi, who is shipped to America as a slave. The two are unknown to each other, but their legacies are intertwined in tragic ways.

Despite this intriguing premise, I soon tired of new characters being introduced with each rather short chapter, leaving the story of the previous character unresolved. I was also somewhat disappointed that I got no “new” sense of each character as they all seemed locked into the same somewhat simple albeit poetically evocative voice.

While I enjoyed the book’s opening chapters, and liked the concept of tracing the effects of slavery down through time, I wasn’t very impressed by the execution. Let’s just say that by midpoint in the book, I was having trouble remembering who was related to whom (luckily, there was a genealogical chart supplied in the front), and I began, frankly, not to care who was related to whom. The novel was also rather clumsy and predictable in its ending, which I won’t give away, but let’s just say it manages to tie things rather too neatly together.

This novel, for me, paled in comparison with works which examine the effects of slavery, racism, colonialism, and oppression such as Kindred, The Color Purple, Things Fall Apart, or I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Having said that, although I was a bit frustrated by Homegoing’s structure, as I’ve said, I admired the ambition of its scope, however compressed. For a first novel, it was a bold undertaking.

In addition, I did enjoy Gyasi’s depictions of tribal village life, especially, and somewhat ironically, the secondary characters – the mothers, fathers, chieftans, cousins, and so on – whom I found rendered more individualistically and memorably than many of the subsequent protagonists (after Effia and Esi, that is). The details of life in Ghana and intricacies of different belief systems contrasting with Christianity were well done.

What I would have enjoyed more, perhaps, would have been a fuller exploration of the two half sisters’ lives. That would have been a powerful enough story, I think.

(Read for "Potluck and Prose" book club meeting in January 2018.) ...more

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Jan 09, 2017 Katie rated it really liked it

Shelves: kindle, female-author, historical-fiction, ___africa, african-american, _ghana

The story of Homegoing begins in Ghana during the height of the slave trade. The book follows the stories of two half sisters and their descendants through seven generations. One sister is sold into slavery and sent to the American South, and the other sister remains in Ghana where she is married to a British slaver. Each chapter tells the story of a different generation, alternating between the family in Ghana and the one in the United States. The book tackles some pretty big issues: the slave ...more

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Nov 01, 2018 Tony rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: setting-africa, historical-fiction, novels, read-for-bookclub, setting-us

Rave reviews drove my bookclub to pick this, and unfortunately, all seven of us found it a disappointment. Setting out to explore the reality and then legacy of the transatlantic slave trade is an ambitious task for a first novel, and the framework employed proved to be more of a weakness than a strength for me and my fellow readers.

Starting in the 1750s or 60s, the book follows two half-sisters and their descendants across six generations, from the Gold Coast to America and back. The major prob ...more

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Jun 17, 2019 Astrid Lim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: family, literature, historical-fiction, culture, africa, african-american

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. ...more

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Feb 05, 2019 Amy Nash Parker rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I picked up this book because the characters intertwined with some of my life story (years spent in Ghana, Mississippi, and California) although I knew my story as a white girl is so vastly different. The breadth of the novel is epic, and the heartbreaking tragedies and small triumphs of each individual and family (as per her Akan proverb quote in the front) weave their way into your spirit. By the end, however, I was a little worn from the “boy meets girl” formula that drives each chapter. I kn ...more

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Aug 07, 2017 Erica added it

Lovely book.
loc 421: "The need to call this thing 'good' and this thing 'bad,' this thing 'white' and this thing 'black,' was an impulse that Effia did not understand. In her village, everything was everything. Everything bore the weight of everything else."
1224: "And thought Ness had met warm slaves on other plantations, black people who smiled and hugged and told nice stories, she would always miss the gray rock of her mother's heart. She would always associate real love with a hardness of spi ...more

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May 21, 2017 Jen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, books-that-changed-me, governerds

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.

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