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Homegoing

Yaa Gyasi

Start date: August 15, 2017

Finish date: September 1, 2017

Discussion: Reading List

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What Members Thought

May 29, 2021 Roy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: literary-fiction, slavery, african-american-fiction, african-american-subject-matter, contemporary-fiction, africa, women-authored, historical-fiction

This novel is magnificent. A truly extraordinary achievement and an absolute pleasure to read. The plot is perfectly simple. A family tree gets split into two branches in Africa. Two sisters who never get to know each other are separated, one married off to a white slave trader and the other ending up as one of the slaves held literally beneath their feet. Subsequent chapters bounce back and forth between descendants of the two sisters. Each chapter gives us a slice in the life of a character. I This novel is magnificent. A truly extraordinary achievement and an absolute pleasure to read. The plot is perfectly simple. A family tree gets split into two branches in Africa. Two sisters who never get to know each other are separated, one married off to a white slave trader and the other ending up as one of the slaves held literally beneath their feet. Subsequent chapters bounce back and forth between descendants of the two sisters. Each chapter gives us a slice in the life of a character. It picks up at what seems like a random spot in a person's life, gets us absorbed in that story, and then abruptly abandons it. The next chapter introduces us to a new character who falls in the other half of the family lineage. Reading Yaa Gyasi's wonderful novel is like watching a literary tennis match, our attention drawn to one side of the net and then pulled to the other and back and forth the narrative goes. We reach the end of each chapter with a tinge of regret because it was a riveting tale unto itself and we are naturally curious to follow it further. But we are equally anxious to dive into the next story from the other side of the net. Homegoing is a novel that very much has the feeling of an anthology of short stories. Each story is a sequel to the one that we read two chapters back, introducing us to the son or daughter of the father or mother we previously read about. Inevitably the two family/narrative lines will meet up, or so we hope and expect. Ultimately it is a single family and story divided up into various segments that contain varying amounts of joy and tragedy and hope. Homegoing is the story of the atrocities of the slave trade, and colonization, and segregation, and Jim Crow, and the Great Migration, and the war on drugs, and mass incarceration which is basically full circle back to slavery in modern society. It is a story of family, not just this particular fictional one but the real world African American family. Splintered into pieces that may never reconnect. Like the characters who populate this book, each of us have entirely different and unique stories. Yet we all share the same, single path. We are each other's brothers and sisters even if fated to never cross paths. Trace back far enough and we can find where the connection began. And if we cannot, we still know that the connection is out there somewhere, and so we should relate to and treat one another with this understanding. Decades ago Alex Haley gave us the masterful Roots and now Yaa Gyasi has given us the brilliant Homegoing. The latter is a work of pure fiction but feels like truth as the best of fiction does. Put this book immediately into the literary canon. Homegoing should be mandatory reading for all students of African American history, and Black Literature, and English Majors. If you're not a student in any of those classes then read it anyway because it's a wonderful novel that you will be glad to have read. It is a story for everyone as the best of fiction is, but will resonate particularly with the souls of black folk. Bravo, Yaa Gyasi. Bravo! ...more

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Apr 26, 2017 Linda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, audio, ohio-e-book-project, 2017

A story of generations starting in Asante. The story incorporates historical events with each descendent.
I think I'm finding a new love: reading about cultures that I know little to nothing about.

The narrator sounded as if he was a native which added to the enjoyment of the book. ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Jun 03, 2018 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: e-books, african-literature, read-2018, national-book-critics-circle-awards, mtbr-challenge-2018, ghana

This book was recommended by the 21st Century Literature Group.

A great book even if it is hard to keep track of all main characters and their own story.

8 likes · Like · see review

Jan 20, 2019 Linda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, ill-chcpl, paperback, 2019, cultural, historical-fiction, book-discussion-read, large-print

Was easier to keep together in my mind while enjoying the print version than what it was when I listened to it.

6 likes · Like · see review

Jan 29, 2017 Happyreader rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction

This book and its author are so deserving of all the praise both have been receiving. If you’re hesitant to read it because you’re afraid that a novel about slavery, its African roots, and its American consequences will be too heavy, too preachy, too serious, don’t be. Yaa Gyasi is so skilled that you care about and want to spend time with every character and care about what happens to the next generation. Such a vast, multidimensional saga and rich history told in 300 pages that goes by way too ...more

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Nov 25, 2016 Pang rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 2024

NYT 100 Notable Books of 2016

i did enjoy the book, and loved how the stories were all tied together to some extent. but it lacked something for me. maybe the timeline spanned a bit too long that the loop back felt less satisfying for me? i found myself wanting to know more about the characters, but their stories ended too soon. yeah, they got woven in to the main story, but it still left me wanting to know more.

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