Goree: Point of Departure

by Angela Barry

A contemporary portrait of estrangement, this novel explores the African diaspora and the encounters made by people of African descent as they journey from New York to London, St. Lucia, and Senegal. Traveling to Africa to meet her ex-husband’s new family, Magdalene and her daughter Khadi are brought face-to-face with the perils of forgotten pasts—both social and cultural. And when Khadi's trip to the slave port of Goree takes an unfavorable turn, certain divisions in global culture become evident, making this a powerful investigation into the continuing repercussions of the slave trade.

Genres: Africa

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Daniel Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite liked this novel. I might've said it spent too long setting up all the characters before the main action takes place, but in the end the pieces all fit well together and multiple plot lines pay off in fracture, reconciliation and outcomes in between. The style is functional but again somewhat sneaky, setting symbols and metaphors in place that rewardingly bore fruit in the end and sent me backward in the text, wanting to appreciate how they were teed up before they took such sudden flight. And the final effect of the whole is haunting, moving forward with a trauma under whatever veneer might come to be put over it. I wrote this review vaguely to not spoil anything, but this is the kind of book that has layers worth talking about and one I very much recommend.

[Gregory Fucheck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully interwoven novel connecting different strands of the African diaspora. Characters from different backgrounds represent really interesting perspectives and experiences of blackness today. Description of Senegal incredibly insightful.

[Toast · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt a bit of an intruder reading this book if thats the expression. I thought I knew about or assumed I knew about the slave trade but this really exposed that I knew bugger all. I knew next to nothing about the African experience either and that for all my reading, liberal values, Aid supporting ventures I really was at a loss to understand the language, the culture, the every day of Africa. Hard hitting in a soft way if that makes any sense.
Toast

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

An assigned reading for my capstone, this modern-day novel follows Magdelene and her daughter Khadi to Senegal to reunite with family. With origins in St. Lucia and later, England, the two women navigate the complexities of both physical and emotional belonging. This novel was assigned to ground my studies in postcolonial theory with respect to Homegoing, my anchor text in this master's thesis.