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A review by damalireads
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
First, shoutout to Kayla for gifting me this book 6+ years ago & thought I would like it. She's a genius. This is actually my second read by this author – I read Transcendant Kingdom first - & while they are very different books, this one is trulyyy the best thing she’s written. Wow.
Homegoing is an ambitious novel that follows seven (!) generations of a family across America and Ghana starting with two half-sisters who were separated at birth. You follow two branches of the family tree as they struggle to take root in different continents, facing the violence of racism in different forms. This book is an ode to storytelling in the way that it truly feels like an oral history of a family – filled with both objective accounts and a spiritual/mystical element that makes the story deeply compelling. I love a book that naturally feels like a masterpiece – where the themes, symbols, motifs, imagery flows so easily I don’t even realize my analysis of the story at this level is just an inherent aspect of enjoying the book.
The breadth and research required for this novel is evident on each page without feeling like info dumping or taking you out of the narrative. You can clearly see how history informed each storyline, but the heart was always the snapshot of these character’s lives as they grapple with the choices of their ancestors and the limited choices they had in front of them. Incredibly, this book was both detailed/gritty when dealing with the history of this family across two continents, without being gratuitous. I was constantly shocked by how personal each chapter felt? Each 20 page chapter actually left me breathless. Personally, I think the Ghana chapters are the heart of the story. Idk if I’m biased because I’m Ghanaian and not well-educated on the tribal history, but I ate those chapters up. I think there was a bit more freedom in those chapters to explore this spiritual element of the story (i.e. dreams of the fire woman, visions, etc.) and I think that was deliberate. Unrelated, my dad had many objections to how some of the Ghanaian history was framed, and the explanation of some Twi etymology so I do actually wonder how native Ghanaians feel about this book.
I’m 100% being nitpicky in taking off .25 stars (lol) but I reserve my right to be annoying. I did feel like in the middle of the book there was a lull in the US based story line. There were some times where I felt like “ok this chapter is clearly meant to reflect every aspect of this time period” and it felt….blah at times. The contemporary characters didn’t *hit* me as much as the previous generations, but that may also be due to familiarity.
STILL - absolutely insane & brilliant debut novel. I will be happy to read everything Yaa Gyasi writes for the rest of her life.
4.75 Stars
Homegoing is an ambitious novel that follows seven (!) generations of a family across America and Ghana starting with two half-sisters who were separated at birth. You follow two branches of the family tree as they struggle to take root in different continents, facing the violence of racism in different forms. This book is an ode to storytelling in the way that it truly feels like an oral history of a family – filled with both objective accounts and a spiritual/mystical element that makes the story deeply compelling. I love a book that naturally feels like a masterpiece – where the themes, symbols, motifs, imagery flows so easily I don’t even realize my analysis of the story at this level is just an inherent aspect of enjoying the book.
The breadth and research required for this novel is evident on each page without feeling like info dumping or taking you out of the narrative. You can clearly see how history informed each storyline, but the heart was always the snapshot of these character’s lives as they grapple with the choices of their ancestors and the limited choices they had in front of them. Incredibly, this book was both detailed/gritty when dealing with the history of this family across two continents, without being gratuitous. I was constantly shocked by how personal each chapter felt? Each 20 page chapter actually left me breathless. Personally, I think the Ghana chapters are the heart of the story. Idk if I’m biased because I’m Ghanaian and not well-educated on the tribal history, but I ate those chapters up. I think there was a bit more freedom in those chapters to explore this spiritual element of the story (i.e. dreams of the fire woman, visions, etc.) and I think that was deliberate. Unrelated, my dad had many objections to how some of the Ghanaian history was framed, and the explanation of some Twi etymology so I do actually wonder how native Ghanaians feel about this book.
I’m 100% being nitpicky in taking off .25 stars (lol) but I reserve my right to be annoying. I did feel like in the middle of the book there was a lull in the US based story line. There were some times where I felt like “ok this chapter is clearly meant to reflect every aspect of this time period” and it felt….blah at times. The contemporary characters didn’t *hit* me as much as the previous generations, but that may also be due to familiarity.
STILL - absolutely insane & brilliant debut novel. I will be happy to read everything Yaa Gyasi writes for the rest of her life.
4.75 Stars