Homegoing

This novel, Gyasi's first, is absolutely gorgeous and heartbreaking. The book's first paragraph shows off Gyasi's writing pedigree (BA in English from Stanford, MFA from Iowa's Writing Workshop): "The night Effia Otcher was born into the musky heat of Fanteland, a fire raged through the woods...It lived off the air; it slept in caves and hit in trees. It burned, up and through...until it reached an Asante village. There, it disappeared, becoming one with the night."The whole novel reads this way. Tragic, magical, mythic. Gyasi is a poet writing prose, my favorite kind of fiction.That's not to say Homegoing is short on plot. It certainly isn't. But, to put it mildly, the family tree Gyasi provides at the outset is essential. This novel's structure is the source of its power even though I found it frustrating at times---I think that frustration is part of Gyasi's "message" (if art can be said to have something so crassly overt like that). In a move that's become standard PoMo novel writing procedure, each chapter is about a different character. The story proceeds chronologically, charting the ancestral fate of two sisters who never knew each other, but at one time early on, were merely feet apart. So that's a traditional enough structural approach. But the beauty and tragedy of Gyasi's art comes from something I found frustrating at first. You get attached some of these people! So amazing at characterization is Gyasi, that after only 20 or so pages per chapter, I found myself hooked, time and time again on that character's story and fate.But Gyasi leaves the reader like that. Yes, there are mentions here and there of a previous ancestor, but by and large, we, like the characters themselves are cut off from the past. One of the many tragic consequences of the slave trade was an erasure of identity, a hole where the past belonged.So the novel, by moving from generation to generation, character to character without "finishing" each story, poetically reenacts that anxiety inducing feeling of homelessness. Indeed, Gyasi ingeniously reDEFINES homelessness---for us and these characters (and the millions of real life slaves forced over), it is the loss of personal and communal narrative. The silent gaps between each story sit like maps facedown at the bottom of the sea.In large measure, as the title suggests, the novel functions as an exploration of how generations of ancestral Ghanaians attempt to find or build some home to go BACK and FORWARD to. Without spoiling, Gyasi ends the novel breathtakingly but, of course, without a bow. These characters are real, mythic, and elemental---what begins in fire must end in water.

Homegoing is a story about the bloodlines of two half/related African women who fall prey to a curse that was bestowed upon their mother. While the story spans across two centuries of historical oppression towards the black community it focuses far more on the individual instead of the statistical. Each person across both bloodlines has a rich story with a plethora of characterization, and every small detail in these stories has significance that sometimes expands across a century of time.The author does an amazing job with dialogue, as the story progresses through time so do the mannerisms and actions of each individual. Character’s speak as they would do in their respective time frame, and their stories are heavily predicated based on the events of their time as well.Canonicity and cause and effect are this book’s highlight. Just as the effects of the slave trade and segregation echo throughout history so does the importance of each character’s past. The story has a great message about the importance of knowing your past culture and reuniting with it, and it conveys this message brilliantly through clever symbolism instead of upfront dialogue which many stories seem to suffer from nowadays.Another notable piece is that the author rarely embellishes historical events and portrays the reality of both slavery and segregation fairly, as well as making their characters realistically flawed. These characters are not perfect beings or child prodigies they are simply human which is what makes them far more endearing.Not only do I recommend this book be read in general, I believe it should also be required reading for literature classes considering the historical context as well as how much it expertly crafts characters and dialogue. Overall, I would say this book is a definite purchase and a must read for any person or class.

This book is awesome. I suggested it for my book club based on good reads and amazon reviews and it did not disappoint. There was a lot to discuss. The characters are realistic, compelling and relatable and I loved the way that the stories of multiple generations were interwoven. I also learned about the slave trade and appreciate the historical accuracy.

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, well written, and emotive.

It was for a gift, but it arrived in perfect shape

The more detached writing style of the first few chapters mirrored the events Effie and Esi for example undergo and their internal traumas, creating a sense of passive shock and emotional separation. Then as the story grew the emotional complexity of the narration developed, enabling the reader to connect more and more with the families.I felt the flow between the characters as we passed down the lineages was subtle but effective, giving each character their own space and presence to be an individual whilst maintaining an essence of heritage and that ‘part of something bigger’ feeling, as well as enabling relatively seamless chapter continuation despite big time jumps.The pacing of the chapters was impressive, covering such a large time span whilst still allowing the reader to connect with each character’s personal storyline against the backdrop of wider contexts such as colonialism, slavery, independence and discrimination.I will admit though there were times I felt cut short, wishing for more on specific characters, such as Quey and Kojo. The writing style made sense as the snapshot view into each life in a way reflected the fragility of life relating to colonialism and slavery. Maybe not a criticism but a request therefore, I would have enjoyed perhaps an entire book reading about individual characters in further depth.It was especially interesting to me reading about the conflicts and relations between tribes in the first few chapters. I think in many school lesson scenarios, a common misconception is the complete lack of attention towards the complexities and richness of Africa’s tribal communities at the time, regarded simplistically as ‘Africans taken by Europeans to be slaves’, portraying them as a singular entity. And so this book really captured these intricacies and developing relationships amongst the Fante and Asante for example, and between specific communities and the British/Dutch and the different roles different groups played.I felt the ending was done well, and it made me just sit and hold the book for a while, processing everything that happened and simply how talented Yaa Gyasi is. I can’t recommend this book enough! If I was the sort of reader that tabbed pages, this was the sort of book that would be full of tabs – so many moments I read a sentence or a page and think, wow, so well written and thought-provoking.

Excelente! Personagens fortes com características marcantes que contam a história da escravidão nos Estados Unidos. Chama a atenção a discriminação de gênero: as mulheres são fortes, bonitas e determinadas. Os homens fracos e indecisos. Não atrapalha a leitura. Acompanho o presidente Obama e recomendo fortemente a leitura deste livro.