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A review by afjakandys
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I wish I could give this book six stars. Undoubtedly one of the best books I have ever read and likely one of the best books ever written. If I could give everyone I know one book to read, I would pick Homegoing.
The way Gyasi writes is so natural that the story, which ambitiously spans countless generations over the course of 2+ centuries, flows effortlessly. Her writing is so vivid and emotional, her characters so brightly alive that it aches a bit to know that I won't be getting any more of their stories. I would happily read full-length novels about every single character Gyasi created for Homegoing. There's just something about the style of her writing—so full of compassion, so intelligent, so witty—that made this book such a rich and wonderful experience.
The way Gyasi writes is so natural that the story, which ambitiously spans countless generations over the course of 2+ centuries, flows effortlessly. Her writing is so vivid and emotional, her characters so brightly alive that it aches a bit to know that I won't be getting any more of their stories. I would happily read full-length novels about every single character Gyasi created for Homegoing. There's just something about the style of her writing—so full of compassion, so intelligent, so witty—that made this book such a rich and wonderful experience.
Effia | "The need to call this thing good, and this thing bad, this thing white, and this thing black, was an impulse that Effia did not understand. In her village, everything was everything. Everything bore the weight of everything else."
James | "We are all weak most of the time… Look at the baby: born to his mother, he learns how to eat from her, how to walk, talk, hunt, run. He does not invent new ways, he just continues with the old. This is how we all come to the world, james. Weak and needy. Desperate to learn how to be a person… But if we do not like the person we have learned to be, should we just sit in front of our fufu, doing nothing? I think, James, that maybe it is possible to make a new way."
Yaw | "Whose story do we believe, then? [...] We believe the one who has the power. He is the one who gets to write the story, so when you study history, you must always ask yourself: whose story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice could come forth?"
Yaw | "That night, lying next to Edward in his room, Yaw listened as his friend told him that he had explained to the girl that you could not inherit a scar. Now, nearing his fiftieth birthday, Yaw no longer knew if he believed this was true."