Literary Fiction by People of Color discussion
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Ghana Must Go
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Discussion: Ghana Must Go
I'm excited for this one.
I think lots of people are excited for this one! I've been on the list at my library for awhile, and I'm still only number 10! Here's hoping that it will come through soon so I can join you all.
Me too, Deborah and I agree, Rashida! I'm on the waiting list at my local library as well. I checked on the status of my request yesterday and found out I have moved up on the waiting list AND that some libraries were even ordering more copies! I am hoping I will soon be joining in and reading with you all.
Thanks for getting us started with these great links, Columbus. I really enjoyed the podcast interview. Now I'm even more excited to begin reading!
Woohoo!I learned about Ghana Must Go because I happened to be listening to NPR the day she was interviewed on by Diane Rehm. It is a pretty awesome book, thus far. I look forward to helping keep the discussion lively.
I might just spring for this one if my library hold doesn't become available soon.
I read this book during my unfortunate exile from my house and I am really looking forward to the discussion!
I finished this book last week-end!! Looking foward to exchange on this one!! Plus this week i realised that the author favorited one my tweets on the book-)
My library came through and I have a copy now, but I have some conflicts and won't be able to join the discussion until around May 12. I'm looking forward to joining in then, though!
Mod
http://www.granta.com/New-Writing/Tai...
It took me some time to get used to her writing style. I was not a fan of the heavy use of parenthetical remarks. However, once I was invested in the actual story, I really enjoyed the book. It kept me thinking long after I finished it.
I thought this book was absolutely stunning. As an ESL teacher, I am fascinated with how people navigate multiple cultures and social classes, and I felt that Selasi did an outstanding job of portraying this. One of the themes I was particularly drawn to in this book was the tension created by immigration, which causes people to change in ways that cause them to feel like outsiders both in the new country and the home country. I love modern phenomenon of being able to move between countries, and was interested to see how this played out in the novel. Don't want to give anything away to readers who haven't finished the book!
Kali wrote: "It took me some time to get used to her writing style. I was not a fan of the heavy use of parenthetical remarks. However, once I was invested in the actual story, I really enjoyed the book. It ..."The book was like that for me as well. Once I separated myself from "form," I allowed the author to get in my head, and I couldn't put it down. I'm looking forward to this discussion.
I loved this book also. It was interesting to me that we have read 2 novels about family and migration lately - The Twelve Tribes of Hattie and this one - and how differently the two families approached their lives and their very different levels of opportunity.
Hello friends! Its the weekend and its raining a perfect time to dive into a dense book. I was sitting here wondering did any of you contemplate the title of this book GHANA MUST GO.What did you think it meant?
[Without the explanation on pg 237, Google, or first hand knowledge of the event]
Did you consider the meaning of the title as it relations to the nationality of the character & their physical/emotional journey to Ghana or something else?
Here is a link to a Nigerian and a Ghanian article that explains the origin of the phrase and its lasting effects on fashions:
http://nigeriaworld.com/articles/2009...
http://www.modernghana.com/news/37126...
Does that change the what you think about the title and the section headings Gone, Going, and Go?
Prior to reading this book, I knew nothing of the event and I didn't even know those bags, which I saw so often in NYC, were associated the the event or were called "Ghana must go" bags. I just knew the street peddlers stored their wares in them and homeless people had their life in them and some folks used them for groceries. It just seemed like a great multi-purpose bag. So when I saw the title, it did not move me in any particular way because I was ignorant. As I started reading and realized Kweku died and the family would most likely have to travel, I thought the title was more about traveling for a funeral. That was my naive initial impression.
I did not know either, but when I talked to my daughter, who lived in Benin, she told me that Ghana Must Go was the name of the bags that everyone in West Africa carries. You see them everywhere...And I got so excited that I goggled the name. And then I thought, Ohhhhh, clever!, this is a metaphor for the diaspora, and people traveling back and forth and being constantly uprooted, and loss, and what you carry with you always, and what you have to leave behind... As I continued to read, I thought about the title a lot, and trout it was such a great metaphor for so many themes running throughout the story. .
Columbus wrote: "Taiye contributed her Writing Playlist to Granta magazine, music that inspires her and that she listens to while writing or in between her writing. A really nice mixed-bag indeed of disparate music..."Thank you I made a playlist off ITunes. I really want to immerse myself in this experience. The music is amazing and beautiful. I listened today with it raining here and it's been wonderful.
I read this book a couple of months ago and fell in love with its lyrical language and have been recommending to many - and those who read it have also enjoyed.This is my top fiction read for 2013 so far but I do expect that it will be one of my top 3 fiction reads for the year.
I have listened to many interviews but my favorite one is the interview with Melissa Harris-Perry. I loved when MHP said this book is about blackness not about race.
Here is the link to the MHP interview:
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/46979745/vp...
Mod
Titilayo, speaking of the three sections (Gone, Going & Go) did you want to discuss the sections in order with "finish reading by" dates or divide it in half with a SPOILER ALERT tag noted with it. Or, any outline you prefer.
Mod
Columbus wrote: "Titilayo, speaking of the three sections (Gone, Going & Go) did you want to discuss the sections in order with "finish reading by" dates or divide it in half with a SPOILER ALERT tag noted with it. Or, any outline you prefer. ..."That sounds like a great idea. Lets see there are three more weeks in the month. How about we set Tuesday as day to start discuss each section? The first two sections are roughly the same length, the action picks up in the middle, and you have all of Mother's Day weekend to read/reflect on the 1st section:
Part I "Gone" on 14 May
Part II "Going" on 21 May
Part II "Go" on 28 May
Does that work for you guys?
I love the lyrical style of the authors writing. You have to slow down and savor it.. However, I noticed that when I am reading a book where the author's first language is not English.. I have to get use to the cadence of their writing. I could fully relate to Kweku's dying experience in his garden when his heart was failing. What propels you to seek help when you are dying or to just let it happen?I don't share this often but I had a near death experience while almost drowning.
I was at the bottom of the pool exhausted
and had resigned myself that I was dying. Vivid pictures, snapshots of my life flashed before me .. My children, myself and different events that happened during my life. The rush of emotions fear, sadness, hopelessness and then acceptance.
I cried out to God please help me and decided to try to get to the surface. Then I was rescued by a young man. The response the Kweku exhibited was acceptance of his impending death to me and his son a doctor himself could not comprehend how his father did not seek help. Anyway, I will continue to read the book and join in on the discussions and I hope I did not depress you with my story.. It was a blessing in disguise because I was reminded how fragile life is and how grateful I am to be alive.
Mod
Jlynn, that's not depressing at all. Just the opposite in fact. Thanks for sharing that.
The prose. Oh my God. The prose.
LoL well said Deborah. I struggled at chapter 1 but I kept reading last night and I am really into it now.
Yes, for some reason this has been harder for me to read even than See Now Then: A Novel, which is saying something. Both books have a poetry but they are a very different style. There was something lulling about See Now Then that I liked. Ghana Must Go is poetic but I am having trouble putting my finger on what distracts me about it. There are elements I enjoy, like how Ms. Selasi repeats certain ideas in different ways (p.41):"precisely the kind of moment one never knows for what it is.
An end.
A warning shot.
A boundary mark."
And then there are little poems stuck in the middle of the text (p.38):
"Sadie wasn't born yet.
The snow fresh and perfect.
The park dark and empty.
Stars winked their consent."
I even thought the section on the slippers and Kehinde (p.39/40) was like a long, brilliant haiku, with simply "Ninja slippers" as the last line.
So "free jazz" might be a good assessment, Columbus, as I was thinking "free verse" and perhaps they are the same thing in different mediums? And that may be a hard transition for me to make because I have typically preferred metered, rhyming verse over free verse! (Although I am starting to appreciate jazz as I leave my "youth" and open my mind to things...)
One more point is that we only had three or four plot elements to remember in See Now Then, while in Ghana Must Go there is so much family backstory and connections to be made that I think the poetry makes me feel like I am missing some of the facts, which is hard for me because I am a fact-based person and obviously the family relationships are important to the story. There are enough sections that are little stories that keep me hooked and interested in the characters, but many places I get lost in the words and feel like I missed an important plot/relationship point.
Titilayo wrote: "Part I "Gone" on 14 MayPart II "Going" on 21 May
Part II "Go" on 28 May
Does that work for you guys? "
Oh, and that works great for me since I am so far behind!
hi everyone. nice comments. i want to say that, for me, the language was easily the part i liked best. i didn't always understand it (some juxtapositions are more for the senses than for the mind), but it always spoke to me. in fact, i like the first part, maybe the most lyrical, best. when the story got going i became a little less entranced. i wanted it to be gorgeous language all the time -- and almost no story. just for the record, english is selasi's first language. she's not writing in a foreign language. also, and unsurprisingly, she's a twin. the other twin is a girl.
Mod
Michael, are you still toiling (my adj.) in the first section? I think the first section is really poetic but the story REALLY begins in section 2 (Gone).
Don't worry, I'll get there!!
hello beautiful people! I was sitting here thinking how much everyone seemed to be moved by [to elation or disdain] by the style of prose Selasi uses to voice her characters and tell her tale. Something that really stuck out for me was the parallel construction. The figurative and literal words marry in a way that drives the action. Her imagery is amazing. Every word seems to be placed meticulously. I was drawn into the description of the “brilliant arrangement” floor plans for the Sai Ghana compound. I may have been reading too much into it but it felt like there was a parallel between the way he thought about his house and his family.
What ideas swam through your head as you read this dying man’s recollection of his family?
Where you looking for symbolism in every little thing (birth, death, gardens, flowers, winter, weariness, ibjei, slippers, carpenter, rooms, hospitals,darkness)or just coasting along the prose?
this is a terrific question. i don't remember every detail, but the slippers seem to mean so much. for those who have read ahead -- and it's hard to talk about symbolisms without referring ahead -- the slippers are what little taiwo puts on her father's feet on a very fateful night. the soles of his feet are all torn up. why are they torn up? the novel never tells us. covering them with soft slippers seems to taiwo the only thing she can do to help daddy and also keep everything moving along, keep everyone safe, keep the family together. also -- he never noticed all that beauty, and now the beauty undoes him. he lets himself die because he's too busy basking in the beauty and remembering to focus on helping himself. this remembering is a sort of honoring the various heartbreaks he lists. he doesn't want to save himself. he wants to contemplate the ridiculous beauty and the ridiculous pain. it's a moment of transcendence for him, as if he were seeing things for the first time, and also being offered a chance at redemption. he doesn't want to run away from it. he want to stay with it.
anyone have any thoughts about why he particularly dwells, of all his children, on taiwo and her gorgeousness? or am i remembering wrong?
jo wrote: "-- the slippers are what little taiwo puts on her father's feet on a very fateful night. the soles of his feet are all torn up. why are they torn up?"There is an explanation later on about his feet. He was barefoot most of his life until he went to the US. His feet were torn up from walking on rocks and rubble.
I agree with jo about basking in the beauty of the house he built. And then there is the quiet invisible cameraman who is filming Kweku's death. The cameraman shows up later with Taiwo. It seemed to me they were both seeking some kind of iconic existence to be an example of success that escaped them both.
What strikes me, approximately half way in, apart from how freaking wonderful the writing is, is the ways the children echo facets of their father. For instance the camera man.
jo wrote: "anyone have any thoughts about why he particularly dwells, of all his children, on taiwo and her gorgeousness? or am i remembering wrong? "I don't quite remember that, but I do remember the twins being described as "shining" and having amber eyes. I looked back at the family tree (I scanned those front pages), and noted that Fola's grandmother was Scottish. Fola probably looked more "mixed" than the average Nigerian, and was also described as a beauty. Olu looked more like Kweku, and Sadie looked like Kweku's aunt. But I'm getting ahead.
Titilayo wrote: "What ideas swam through your head as you read this dying man’s recollection of his family?"Okay, so we're doing spoilers for "Gone", right? I just finished that section, so here I go...
The slippers story was one of my favorites. When Taiwo wondered about the missing slippers at his death, I thought, right, those are the kind of trivial details that you notice when someone dies. But then when we go back and see what happened, how she saw her father vulnerable and ashamed of his feet, and that it represented all the unknown terrors that she didn't even know were out there. And then she asks again, where were the slippers, I thought, wow, that is not trivial at all! He would never go out without his slippers!
I was glad we saw his life flash before his eyes that way. At first I didn't think the story would be about him since he died on page 1, but I found his life incredibly interesting, with all these poignant heartbreaks and connections, and it all made sense that it would have to start with his death, his terrible decision finally catching up with him, really seeing the beauty he had missed for the first time in his life only in the final moments.
However, him leaving Fola and the children? I cannot forgive him. I am so angry. I understand why he did it, how in his mind and in his culture and in his marriage he has become the provider, he must be perfect, he must be successful or he is worthless. But he is also an idiot. She would have forgiven him. She would have stepped up. She is always stepping up, being the "bigger person", she did step up even after he left. If he were truly "responsible", if he were truly a "provider", he would have done the hard thing, the courageous thing, and stood by his family and made it work. (And I don't mean ten weeks later, I mean during those ten weeks)
This is such a male/patriarchy thing, to only be strong if you are successful, if you are in the limelight. Fola toils every day of her life, but she does not get the same recognition, does not get pulled aside by hospital presidents because of her brilliance. She goes to the stupid dinners with his colleagues, sacrifices her career for the good of the family, and all the while does the work that holds the family together, knows what the children need (what talents they have) and makes sure they get it. Fola keeps going with grace (gold-flecked asooke) under fire, but Kweku leaves them all not even because he was a failure, just because he felt like one. No wonder she never wanted to see him again. Gah, I am furious!
Michael, first, you are right. Entirely.But what I loved about his betrayal, his abandonment is that it read true. In another group we joked recently about the growing popularity of memoir. This is why memoirs are so much less important than novels. For these moments that magnify facts rather than report them.
That moment, when he goes, had the hallmark feel of every tragic choice we make. The moment of not volition but capitulation. Surrendering to deadly falls rather than scrabbling out of them.
Sarah wrote: "There is an explanation later on about his feet. He was barefoot most of his life until he went to the US. His feet were torn up from walking on rocks and rubble.I agree with jo about basking in the beauty of the house he built. And then there is the quiet invisible cameraman who is filming Kweku's death. The cameraman shows up later with Taiwo. It seemed to me they were both seeking some kind of iconic existence to be an example of success that escaped them both. "
ah. thank you sarah. about the cameraman: that's a really good explanation. i read it more in terms of dissociation, cuz there's where my mind naturally goes, but those two explanations are entirely compatible and yours enriches mine.
also, maybe we should talk about the architecture of the house, that hole in the middle, the house that no ghanaian would build until kweku found the one guy who was absolutely perfect for the job, who got it.
michael, i don't share in your fury. there's enough to be furious about people in the real world! in fiction, i let go of fury and i allow myself the luxury of trying to understand. also, fela isn't that spectacular a parent either. hard to say anything without spoiling, but, yeah, the reasons why families do and don't stay together are as many as the stars in the sky, and just as mysterious.
Deborah - great points. I am sure that part of my fury is because I have trouble forgiving myself for those moments when I just let myself fall. I totally agree that it felt realistic, it felt like something he would do, I just wish I had better role models! It's like the reaction someone had to See Now Then: who wants to read a book about a man who hates his wife? Here, from just reading the first section, I am not clear that Kweku learned anything. I mean, here he has created something of beauty again with his new wife and house in Ghana, and his instinct again is to surrender to the fall, he just lets himself die! (Or do we think that he got distracted and that if he were saved at the last moment his epiphany would have resulted in a new attitude about life?)jo - I definitely am in the group that throws themselves into their books. I like the idea that I am living many lives through reading, and experiencing more emotions than I would without those other "worlds". (I admit I don't necessarily need more "fury", but its twin is "passion"). It is interesting what you say about Fola; I was kind of wondering if all my feelings would change as the book continues, and if the book becomes one huge "slipper" story.
Michael, it's hard to quote using the app, but I loved what you said about his giving in again, this time to death. I hadn't considered that, but it resonates.
Deborah wrote: "That moment, when he goes, had the hallmark feel of every tragic choice we make. The moment of not volition but capitulation. Surrendering to deadly falls rather than scrabbling out of them."wow.
michael: sometimes the heartbreak is just too much.
A copy was finally available for me and after a bumpy start things are falling into place. About 75 pages in and the plot thickens. I first realized this was something special when I read on page 39, in reference to his slippers, "the disease carrying mosquito on the evacuation plane". What!? I gotta work that into a conversation somehow soon!An aside: For those who may have read, Buchi Emecheta's "The Joys of Motherhood", couldn't this book be an almost seamless continuation of that story?
i remember that sentence, bill. excellent.
William wrote: "An aside: For those who may have read, Buchi Emecheta's "The Joys of Motherhood", couldn't this book be an almost seamless continuation of that story? ..."I disagree; not a continuation, maybe a close relative- a second cousin. Emecheta's narrative book is solid, but not as colorful and fancy as Selasi's. Fancy is a bad word- dense. Emecheta gives us everything we need to know. Selasi makes us reach deep within ourselves: collective and foreign experiences. Now The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin (daughter in law of Wole Soyinka)that could totally be the elder sibling of this story. It's more light hearted, but those wives would put Olivia Pope to shame!!!
I also loved this book for its language and probably noticed it more because it is a debut novel. Lately it seems language is what draws me into the book.I will admit that the first chapter was the hardest for me to read - as I was not quite sure what was going on.
But for me a couple of things stood out - the slippers (and what it meant in his life and that he willingly died of a broken heart.
I did go back and great the first chapter after finishing the book and the true essence of the book came for circle for me. It was almost like the first chapter should also have been the last chapter.
Mod
I will admit that the first chapter was t..."
Beverly, I think I'll go back and re-read the first section as well. I feel almost guilty giving this book 3 stars considering the beauty of the prose. Maybe I'll change my mind and maybe I won't. We'll see.
Titilayo wrote: "William wrote: "An aside: For those who may have read, Buchi Emecheta's "The Joys of Motherhood", couldn't this book be an almost seamless continuation of that story? ..."I disagree; not a contin..."
I have to agree with Titilayo - definitely not a continuation of "The Joys of Motherhood."
And what a delightful surprise Shoneyin's book was - it is a must read also!
Literary Fiction by People of Color
Books mentioned in this topic
Lips Touch: Three Times (other topics)The Twelve Tribes of Hattie (other topics)
It (other topics)
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives (other topics)
See Now Then (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Laini Taylor (other topics)Taiye Selasi (other topics)
Ms. Selasi's website:
http://www.taiyeselasi.com/
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiye_Se...
The Diane Rehm Show (podcast and excellent interview) Listen....
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/201...
Review - The Independent:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ent...
Review - NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/boo...
Titilayo, take it away!........