Aug/Sept Group Read: Homegoing

[Trudy]

64%. Just finished Akua’s story!!!! I’m interested to hear what others think of her.

[BernieMck]

Trudy wrote: "64%. Just finished Akua’s story!!!! I’m interested to hear what others think of her."

I think she was mentally ill. I felt empathy for her, I have a family member who suffers with it. They did not ask for their condition, it was thrust upon them. I really felt bad for her 3 children. They were innocent victims.

[BernieMck]

Anna’s story was really sad. The first time I knew something like that had ever happened, was when I read the book "12 years a slave".

[Trudy]

Bernie wrote: "Alice's story was really sad. The first time I knew something like that had ever happened, was when I read the book "12 years a slave"."

Oh yes! That was really sad. (view spoiler)[Her husband (Was that Kojo? I lost track of some of the connections.), was devastated ! When the police officer cruelly tore up her picture, I was fighting tears.<\spoiler> (hide spoiler)]

[BernieMck]

Trudy wrote: "Bernie wrote: "Alice's story was really sad. The first time I knew something like that had ever happened, was when I read the book "12 years a slave"."

Oh yes! That was really sad. [spoilers removed]"

Kojo is correct. I however, accidentally typed Alice, instead of Anna.
Alice is the name of a ship, that Kojo worked on. Oops !

[Dosha (Bluestocking7)]

Bernie wrote: "Trudy wrote: "Bernie wrote: "Alice's story was really sad. The first time I knew something like that had ever happened, was when I read the book "12 years a slave"."

Oh yes! That was really sad. [..."

I was wondering who Alice was. Yes, Anna. She kept telling Kojo he worried too much. Welp, I have to say, I remember that from Once a Slave also. We've been an endangered species for quite some time. SMH

[Trudy]

Just finished and I loved it even more than I did in 2016. Will definitely read it again,

[BernieMck]

Dosha (Bluestocking7) wrote: "Bernie wrote: "Trudy wrote: "Bernie wrote: "Alice's story was really sad. The first time I knew something like that had ever happened, was when I read the book "12 years a slave"."

Oh yes! That wa..."

Folks keep showing us, that we don't matter, thus BLM. The latest instance, is the Breonna Taylor ruling. Its just 1 more reminder of what we are fighting against.

[BernieMck]

Trudy wrote: "Just finished and I loved it even more than I did in 2016. Will definitely read it again,"


I feel the same way about the book. I'm already making plans, to read it with another group. There is so much to talk about.

[Dosha (Bluestocking7)]

What a book! I’m looking forward to a third reading also. But not on audio. I need to be able to go back and forth to see what side of the family tree the characters are on. That is lacking in the audio, otherwise the audio is a powerful read.

[BernieMck]

I wonder if Majorie and Marcus got together. After all they are cousins. I bet that happens a lot. African Americans marrying family members, without knowing that, they are family members.

[Lulu, The Book Reader who could.]

Part 2 Discussion starts here. **WARNING**, there may be spoilers.

Characters introduced in Part 2 of the novel.

H - Son of Kojo; After the Civil War he was arrested under false pretenses and sentenced to work in the coal mines for several years. He then went on to be a paid coal worker, joined a union, and went on a strike to get paid more.

Akua - daughter to Abena; suffers from mental illness and insomnia. She accidentally kills two of her three children while she thinks she is comforting them in a dream.

Willie – daughter to H; she marries a man that can pass for being white, she gets pregnant, and they move to Harlem. Shortly afterwards he leaves her so he can pretend to be a white man and live a better life. She dates a poet, has another child with him, and eventually regains her sense of self worth.

Yaw - son of Akua; has a face that is scarred from the fire that killed his sisters. He’s 50 years old but not married due to shyness from his looks. His housekeeper brings him out of his shell, and in an effort to woo her he finally agrees to her request that he go visit his crazy mother whom he hasn't seen since he was a boy.

Sonny - son of Willie; He works for the NAACP, but quits his job without having another one lined up despite the fact that he is a deadbeat dad to three children by three different women. He then develops a heroin addiction.

Marjorie - daughter of Yaw; lives in Alabama with her parents from a young age and she is now in high school. She is bookish and gets picked on by the other black kids for ‘talking like a white girl’. She meets a white boy, who is originally from Germany, in the school library and they become friends. They eventually date and share a kiss but she doesn’t pursue it further because everyone else looks down on their relationship.

Marcus - meets Marjorie at a party in college. They begin to date and eventually travel together to Africa to visit the villages of Marjorie’s mother, father, and grandmother. They visit the spot where Effia lived with her white British husband and where Esi was held in the dungeon before being forced on to a slave boat to America.

[Lulu, The Book Reader who could.]

1. Which character/ story had the biggest impact on you?
2. Which character/ story did you like the least?
3. Why do you think the author chose to follow two different family lines, one in America and one in Africa, instead of just one family line?
4. Did you like the short-story-ish format of one story per chapter per character?
5. These stories dealt with a lot of tough subjects - rape, drug use, homosexuality, mental illness, infidelity etc. - do you think the book did justice to all of these difficult issues?
6. Which story line, if any, would you want to change if you could? What would you change?
7. Which story line, if any, did you wish was it's own full length novel?
8. Which family line do you think had it worse, Effia's or Essi's?
9. How did you like the ending with Marcus and Marjorie becoming a couple and visiting the same British base where Effia lived with her husband and Essi was held prisoner?

[Lulu, The Book Reader who could.]

Bernie wrote: "Trudy wrote: "Just started my reread. CORRECTED.

10%. Baaba is so hateful to Effia from the time of her birth. It’s like she blames the baby for the fire and was determined to punish her for for ..."

Yes. I was struggling to understand their relationship as well. I'm glad it all came to the light.

[Lulu, The Book Reader who could.]

Bernie wrote: "I wonder if Majorie and Marcus got together. After all they are cousins. I bet that happens a lot. African Americans marrying family members, without knowing that, they are family members."

I wondered this well. Even if they didn't hook up, I'm sure they remained Great friends.

You are right, we could possibly be invloved with a family member at this very moment and not know. It's so sad what black people have gone through (and continue to go through) in this country.

[BernieMck]

Lulu wrote: "Bernie wrote: "I wonder if Majorie and Marcus got together. After all they are cousins. I bet that happens a lot. African Americans marrying family members, without knowing that, they are family me..."

I was on zoom chat recently, about the book HOMEGOING. Someone commented that the enslavers were not able, to steal all our traditions from us. I commented, that there were many tribes, and we don’t know, if the traditions we keep, are truly from the tribes we were born into, or not.

[Dosha (Bluestocking7)]

Lulu wrote: "Bernie wrote: "I wonder if Majorie and Marcus got together. After all they are cousins. I bet that happens a lot. African Americans marrying family members, without knowing that, they are family me..."
My father said we don't count past three. So there are first cousins, second cousins third cousins and then then stop counting, lol.
Some folks do first cousin, then first cousin once removed, then second cousin, 2nd once removed etc. I don't know.
I may be married to a distant cousin now that we go back over it. His family changed their name after someone grown in his mother's killed a white man for stealing their land back when she was a little girl. They left that state and went to another one under a different name. I learned this after me and the hubby were dating and my dad was on psych meds so who knows.

[Dosha (Bluestocking7)]

Bernie wrote: "Lulu wrote: "Bernie wrote: "I wonder if Majorie and Marcus got together. After all they are cousins. I bet that happens a lot. African Americans marrying family members, without knowing that, they ..."

Bernie wrote: "Lulu wrote: "Bernie wrote: "I wonder if Majorie and Marcus got together. After all they are cousins. I bet that happens a lot. African Americans marrying family members, without knowing that, they ..."

Bernie wrote: "Lulu wrote: "Bernie wrote: "I wonder if Majorie and Marcus got together. After all they are cousins. I bet that happens a lot. African Americans marrying family members, without knowing that, they ..."

I believe there were many tribes, languages and traditions on the continent of Africa and they all got mixed together when the captives were brought to America and put on the same plantation. They bonded and brought their beliefs with them and shared them back and forth, once they figured out how to communicate with each other. Its a wonder we are still alive and not extinct.

[BernieMck]

Lulu wrote: "1. Which character/ story had the biggest impact on you?
2. Which character/ story did you like the least?
3. Why do you think the author chose to follow two different family lines, one in America ..."


One of the stories that stood out the most for me was H’s. Black men were wrongly arrested and forced into hard labor. The thing that was so hard to swallow about this story is it is happening today.(false arrests and police beatings)

The character I liked least, was Willie’s husband Robert who ended up leaving his family, to pass for white and start a whole new family.

I think the author chose to follow 2 different family lines, 1 in Amea and 1 in Africa to illustrate the horrible impact of being torn from the motherland, and being sold into slavery. Life in Africa for those that were not kidnapped was also depicted.

I liked the short-story-ish format; No time to get bored. Tell the story and keep it moving.

Both family lines suffered more than any family should. Looking at the family tree, and recounting each individual's story, caused me to choose Esi's family as the family line that suffered the most.. Although each family experienced slavery, Esi's family was kidnapped and sent to a foreign land which make the experience even worse.