Gyasi, Yaa. Homegoing. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2016.
Wow! That is the only fitting way to start a review of Yaa Gyasi’s premiere novel, Homegoing. Just, wow. This novel well deserves all the awards it has garnered specifically, the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award for best first book, the PEN/Hemingway Award for a first book of fiction, the National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35” honors for 2016, and the American Book Award. Her Wikipedia entry claims that she received a “seven-figure advance from Knopf.” I know you just said, “wow!” She was born in Ghana,
I always love reading the work of writers who graduated from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. I don’t know if the workshop creates those awesome writers or if it is so elite and difficult to get into that those who attend would have been great writers anyway. Some who come to mind are Sandra Cisneros, Raymond Carver, Flannery O’Connor, and Ann Patchett. I’m sure I’ve read more great works from graduates.
I didn’t even know any of that when I started the book. I was browsing through Reddit and a poster asked for books about slavery and someone recommended it. It was available on my public library e-book app and I decided to give it a whirl. I am not sorry to have read it.
What didn’t I like about it?
I struggled with the names, family relationships, and locations. I had to stop and look up various places and tribes while I was reading. I had zero background knowledge about any aspect of this narrative. As a teacher, that was a good thing to experience. Now, I know how some of my students feel when I spring a new book on them and don’t consider their ignorance. Sometimes, I forget how much background information I need to supply to my students before we embark on a novel together. After struggling to understand the west coast of Africa’s geography and history, I have decided to provide double what I am used to providing.
What’s so WOW! About it?
I am a sucker for a historical narrative. I’m not anti emotion or anything, but there is just so much out there still to learn, I like to read books that open up some new information to me. I still feel like I need a couple of classes in African geography and history to fully understand the story, but the story is still rich and full of information that has opened my eyes to the history of the region.
Gyasi has created a story that follows two sisters from their tribal villages in the Gold Coast of Africa and their offspring. One sister is sold into slavery in America and the other is married off to a British military officer in charge of purchasing Africans to sell to Europe and America as slaves.
Honestly, this is more than an historic account. This is an epic. It reminds me of Alex Haley’s blockbuster, Roots that I read after the serialized television show aired in the 70’s. It was that book (Roots) that taught me to love the blood, sweat, and tears that an author sheds in order to produce a truly valuable work of fiction.
I’ve never been turned off by longer works, although I know many who are. I love to get lost in a saga and am often so sad when a shorter book ends. I don’t like series nearly as much as I like one good, long epic story. I hate the first few chapters of the subsequent books in a series because they have to go back and pick up threads from previous books. That is so boring. You don’t get that with a book like Homegoing.
I chose not to take notes on who was who and who was related to whom while I was reading the book. I would do that if I were to teach it in class, but it is just too long for my current classes anyway, so I decided instead to go with the flow and let the connections either be understood naturally from the narrative or to just take each story at face value. I discovered that I didn’t really need to remember who was whose parent or sibling to just love hearing each person’s story.
That’s what makes it so great. The stories are riveting. From learning why Baaba was so cruel to Effia, to meeting her mulatto son, Quey, who has feelings for the only friend he ever had, to seeing why the stoic Ness latches on to the mute daughter of a fellow slave, it is the stories that makes this book so readable.
There isn’t enough room to say all the ways this book has changed me. Come on, you wouldn’t expect me to, would you? It is enough to say that I am going to start studying the history of the African continent and really try to understand the geography of it. Those stories will stay with me as I do.
How about you? Do you know the history of Africa? Can you name all of the countries in Africa? Do you love a good epic or do you prefer a shorter book that covers one person instead of all of his/her ancestors?