Homegoing in Keep It Diverse

Mar 03, 2016 Naz (Read Diverse Books) rated it it was amazing

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Homegoing is a multi-generational epic that covers such a large scope in only 300 pages that you’re left wondering how anyone could accomplish this marvelous feat of storytelling so brilliantly and concisely. But Yaa Gyasi did accomplish this feat and was rewarded handsomely for it with a seven figure advance. I’m thrilled to meet Gyasi the ...more

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May 29, 2021 Roy rated it it was amazing

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

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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Mar 10, 2016 Chessa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: poc-protagonist, poc-author, book-riot-rec, historical-fiction, debut, litsy-bookclub

So even though everyone kept telling me how amazing this one, I checked it out from the library and let it sit for like two weeks. Because I was afraid. Afraid of pain and heartbreak and guilt and overwhelm.

If you, too, are afraid, let me reassure you: it is worth it. This is a gorgeous, sweeping, epic tale. Somehow Gyasi fits like 300 years of African/African-American history into 300 pages. But without overwhelming the reader, somehow.

The book starts out with one woman and follows her descend ...more

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Feb 26, 2017 nagina rated it really liked it

Actual rating 4.5/5 stars

This was at times incredibly hard to read, but ultimately this is both a beautiful and important read. I don't know how Yaa Gyasi did it, but she managed to make me fall in love with 14+ characters in as little as 20 pages. Whilst there were some stories that didn't capture me as much as others, and some characters which I felt deserved longer chapters/novels, I was satisfied. If you haven't read this book or aren't sure if this would be your thing I do think you should ...more

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Feb 19, 2017 Aimal rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2017, indigenous-or-authors-of-color, adult, historical-fiction

Homegoing follows the generations of two half-sisters, separated by forces out of their control. One sister is sold into slavery, and the other is married off to a powerful British slaver, but each sister’s story lasts for only one chapter. The book follows their children, and their children’s children at various points in time, following their bloodline from Ghana to Alabama to Boston and New York.

Homegoing is not an easy book to read, despite being a short one. It’s not meant to be a comfortab Homegoing follows the generations of two half-sisters, separated by forces out of their control. One sister is sold into slavery, and the other is married off to a powerful British slaver, but each sister’s story lasts for only one chapter. The book follows their children, and their children’s children at various points in time, following their bloodline from Ghana to Alabama to Boston and New York.

Homegoing is not an easy book to read, despite being a short one. It’s not meant to be a comfortable book; it doesn’t exist for leisure, with the intention of making the reader lose herself in the story, or to find comfort in the characters like so much other fiction does. Homegoing is harsh and brutal; its punches land true to their mark, forcing you to look in the past and the present and analyze what’s happening around you. It’s honest, it’s dark, it’s bleak, and it’s infinitely important with its unflinching portrayal of history and the persistence of human cruelty. It holds nothing back, and in a time where minorities in the US – especially African Americans – are expected to maintain idle niceties in the face of severe oppression and persecution, Homegoing is a resonating voice. If I could be in charge of school reading, this would be a book that I would make required reading because it’s so much more than ink on paper. It’s a living, breathing narrative that exists just as much to convey stories as it does to show you the mirror.

It’s a book that covers so much ground – warring villages in Africa, honor, power and culture starting from eighteenth century Ghana, while also tackling race relations in the United States, from slavery to the Civil War to segregation to the struggles faced by the black community in modern day. It shows you that unlike what you may believe, persecution and oppression did not end when slavery did, or segregation did, but its ugliness continues to thrive like a slower, lethal poison.

Homegoing is so many stories within one, with each chapter following a different character. The book spans 300 pages in the hardcover edition, and each character gets 20 pages, give or take a couple, meaning that it follows 15 different characters. Fifteen characters, each at a different point in time, each with a different story – it sometimes reads like a short story collection, but also not really, because somehow Gyasi makes all the different stories connect. Whether it’s through the mention of another character halfway through the chapter, or a flashback to something that happened a couple chapters ago, the stories – despite being different – all flow together. That, in itself, is a triumph.

But what makes this novel so technically striking, apart from its narrative flow, is how well fleshed-out each and every character is. I’ve never been one for generational stories – granted, I haven’t read too many, but the few that I have suffer from one major flaw: the characters’ development is always sacrificed, never fully appreciated and explored. But Homegoing, somehow, manages to rectify that flaw, because each character has a distinct voice, a personality and a being. With each chapter-end, you feel a profound sense of loss because you know that chances are that you’re not seeing this character again in the story. But with that sense of loss comes the more powerful sense of hope with the knowledge that Gyasi’s going to surprise you more, and sweep you in with the tale of another character, a promise of another friend.

Perhaps the only flaw that the book has falls towards the end, which I felt was rushed – perhaps even unnecessary. I won’t say more at the risk of spoilers, but I felt that the very last chapter perhaps should’ve been longer than the others, to give the entire story the closure that it needed. The book spans two centuries, and I would’ve liked to see a longer end than just twenty pages, if you know what I’m saying.

But apart from that very minor flaw, Homegoing truly is an incredibly important read with characters that feel real, a writing style that keeps you captivated and above all, thinking, and stories that will stick with you for a long, long time. It doesn’t matter what your preferred genre is – be it young adult or fantasy or romance – you need to read this book. It’s a powerful debut, a force to be reckoned with, and will be remembered and revered as such for a long, long time – I’m sure of it.

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Feb 18, 2017 Isabelle rated it really liked it

The reason I didn't give this give stars is not based on how good I thought he book was (it's clearly brilliant), but only the difficulty I found in bringing myself to continue with it at times. I wanted to stay with some characters but ended up getting moved on so quickly that I never really settled into it. but this is beautifully woven and interconnected, and I applaud the author for that. ...more

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