The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

This is the discussion thread for the Winter 2016 Group Read Homegoing. Please post your comments here. This thread is not restricted to those choosing this book for task 20.10, feel free to join in the discussion. Warning- spoilers ahead!

The requirement for task 20.10: You must participate in the book's discussion thread below with at least one post about the contents of the book or your reaction to the book after you have read the book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I lived in Kumasi , Ghana for 2 years while in the Peace Corps. I loved hearing all the familiar words like obruni, palm wine , Accra and Cape Coast and many others. Having lived in the Ashanti region it was wonderful to visit again. I loved how the story was told from the Ghanaian and US ancestry point a view. A powerful debut novel. A must read!

It's a debut? Wow! Gyasi had such control over all the voices, and used specify of detail to really move me in time and space. I was impressed already (a rare 5-star read for me) but knowing it's a debut brings it to another level.

For a minute or two there, I thought the way she wove in the elemental details (fire, water, stone) was going to be a little too on-the-nose "This is A Theme", but then she added just the right level of complexity and twist to keep it from going in a simplistic direction.

I'm recommending this all over the place now.

Melanie wrote: "It's a debut? Wow! Gyasi had such control over all the voices, and used specify of detail to really move me in time and space. I was impressed already (a rare 5-star read for me) but knowing it's a..."

I agree - I loved the way the themes were woven in, and the parallels between the descendants in Africa and those in the US.

I also enjoyed the fact that all of the characters seemed very real, with differences you'd expect from the cultural context. Also, the fact that both streams had negative aspects - I think it would have felt forced if everything had been wonderful for one line, and terrible for the other. A good description of the problems that all of the characters faced.

I am fascinated by family history, the stories we pass down through the generations, as well as all the stories that are lost and forgotten. In Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi so skillfully conveys the transitions in each family line from one generation to the next. A few lines toward the end of this book struck me as especially poignant:

“He had only heard tell of his great-grandpa H from Ma Willie, but those stories were enough to make him weep and to fill him with pride. Two-Shovel H they had called him. But what had they called his father or his father before him? What of the mothers? They had been products of their time, and walking in Birmingham now, Marcus was an accumulation of these times. That was the point.”

I thought that was really perfect, in considering families, the past and the future.

In my high school English class there was an assignment where we were required to visit older residents of our local nursing home and interview them about their family history, experiences, etc. We each in turn presented our subject's story in front of our classmates and residents at the nursing home. Our stories created this wonderful tapestry of our town's, state's, and nation's history. It was an immensely rewarding experience and one I will hopefully never forget. This book reminds me of that assignment.

I really enjoyed reading this book and hope to read more from this author in the future.

So much is in this novel, so many stories and joys and heartaches. The multi-generational approach worked to give the slave trade and its aftermath real life. Especially harrowing to me was the character of James, who betrayed his own people, semmingly without knowing he had done it -- he was a businessman, after all, who had inherited the slaver business from his father.

That first image of Effia born during a raging fire on the landscape kept recurring in my mind as I read the different stories of her family through the generations. The book gave real shivers. I am impressed that the author did not carry the length of the book to gargantuan proportions, for with all these stories, different ways of looking at the horrors of enslavement and its aftermath through the generations, the possibility was there.

Living in a country that is not really exposed to different races, this book proved to be a very rewarding experience for me.

I loved that it was written in different timelines and with various perspectives, so it could show exactly what had happened throughout the years and how we are where we are now.

I'd like to read more about this subject and gain even more knowledge.

I saw an interview with Gyasi a few months back (late summer/early fall) and immediately added this book to my TBR and put a hold on it at the library. I finally got a chance to read it and was excited that it was chosen for the Group Read.

Overall, I was very impressed. I don't read a ton of "cultural" fiction, and the ones I do read tend to be about Asia rather than Africa, but I've read a few, and this book was one of the better ones in my opinion (along with Cutting for Stone). I was also impressed with Gyasi for her decision to not gloss over the bad parts of history - that was one of the things she talked about in the interview I saw that made me most interested to read this book. I always hear about the American and British involvement in slavery, but have rarely heard anything about the African involvement (and never in a novel).

I also agree with what Sandy said, that it was good to see that she included both good and bad aspects of each family line. I was expecting that the family line sold into slavery would have mostly negative experiences and the family that stayed in power in Africa would have mostly positive experiences, but this wasn't the case.

My one complaint isn't even really a complaint... there were a few stories that I wish I could have read more than one chapter on. Especially at the beginning, I was sad to discover that I couldn't follow Effia into the next chapter. Obviously, this was the point of the book - following the family line - but there were some characters that I found so fascinating that I just wanted to know more about them. Again, this isn't an actual complaint - more of a complement to the author that in just one chapter I was able to get so invested in a lot of these characters. At least half of these characters I would have gladly read a whole novel about.

Great novel, and I'm super impressed that it was a debut. I'll definitely be checking out anything else she writes in the future.

Boston Kate wrote: "My one complaint isn't even really a complaint... there were a few stories that I wish I could have read more than one chapter on...."

I had the same reaction - wait, I'm not going to find out more about what happened to this specific character? Again, tho, not so much of a complaint as a tribute to the author's strong ability to pull me in to these stories.

What a debut!
I really enjoyed this book. The writing was pleasant, and I think it was a clever and brave choice writing chapters from different point of views. At first I also had the thought that I would like to hear more about each person, but I think it worked really well telling the story of the country and the entire family through different family members from each generation.

Very impressed by the depth of this book while it was written with such brevity. I would be more than happy to revisit each of the characters in their own full length books. If Gyasi chose to, she could make an entire career out of writing about these families. Can't wait to see what she does next, I see a long, successful career ahead.

I did find I enjoyed some stories more than others but was very pleased with the final chapter bringing the family full circle, with them having no knowledge. It made me think about how people can be linked through time and across oceans and that we all as humans have so much more in common than not.

I have only started reading this book - one chapter in- and I love it! I can't wait to read more. Im so sad that I need to work. Im already shocked that Effia wasn't Baaba's daughter although it does shed some light on Baaba's abusive behaviour.

As everyone said on the thread, this is a very good novel. The format is the only thing that was 'unsatisfying' as we never have a chance of getting to know the characters very well. As a first novel it was a great effort, thoroughly enjoyed it. I gave it 4 stars.

Good book & I agree the chapter on each person was clever & insightful, but I didn't find the end satisfying.
What fascinated me the most is how people would make sacrifices & it didn't seem as if, in the long run, it made any difference. Die for your child to have a better life? Child grows up & suffers anyway. Die for your country? Nothing changes, the changes are surface masking the same crap.
All in all, I took it to heart & ended up depressed. Nine days until Trump gets the nuclear launch codes.

Ok so I finished the book and I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the brief snippets of descendants lives (although of course there were some that I liked more than others) and left each chapter wanting to know more. I actually quite liked the ending and the fact that the two wings of the family actually found some resolution. I am amazed that it is a debut, it seems like a very well written book and can't wait to hear more from Yaa Gyasi!!

I actually didn't like this book very much. I read it because I will be moving to Ghana shortly and I want to understand more about its history. But, while I got a basic overview of the different clan struggles and the place of the British in the slave trade, I didn't get any sense of any one character which sort of annoyed me. 25 pages on a character's story only to never revisit them but visit one of their ancestors 20 years later didn't help me to internalise any real emotion or understanding. The chapters were well written, but I wish it had been done differently, digging deep on a few characters and not relying on a genealogy narrative that fell flat in the end.

I have to admit that I have had this book for a while now but for some reason kept putting it off. I'm so glad that I made myself pick this book up. I didn't stop until I finished the book and it's been a while since I've done that. I don't typically enjoy books that change perspectives so much, but this one was so well done. She kept the early chapters so well intertwined that it didn't feel like 2 separate families. I think that she did an incredibly good job of telling each descendant's story so well.

I agree with the other reviewers that this book was well written. Like Shiraloo, however, I was frustrated by the constant jumping forward in time just when I was connecting with a character. I was absorbed in the story right away with the plight of the community at the hands of the slave traders. As the story moved forward I became less and less interested. I listened to the audio version and found my attention waning in the later chapters.

This read more like a series of short stories than a novel, and I'm not a huge fan of short stories. I'd definitely read another book by this author because her writing was quite good, though.

This was a re-read for me (I've previously read all three Group Reads choices this month so went with Homegoing since I liked it best/thought I'd get more out of it on a re-read).

I love this book. The way Gyasi uses her generational jumps to keep moving forward in time - as history itself keeps moving forward, never back, never allowing do-overs - serves to highlight what is lost by the characters, particularly those brought to the US as slaves. Their history and connection to family was stripped away from them by slavers through breaking up families, forbidding native languages, arranging "marriages", and etc. It's just heartbreaking (thanks to Lois for quoting from Marcus's chapter - I had not marked the page).

Gyasi also impressed me with her ability to give each character's chapter a difference "voice" - no two are alike. I had the opportunity to hear to read a few months ago and it was stunning. Definitely looking forward to whatever Yaa next has up her sleeve.

What a killer debut! Yaa Gyasi captures so many stories and handles them beautifully. I actually liked the format. While I wanted to stay with and learn more about some of the characters, the book never got bogged down and it was an interesting way to slice through time. To see how different parts of the world grew (or didn't). The fact that she was able to develop each character so fully and make me care about each one in so few pages is amazing.

I think Homegoing should be required reading in school. It's so important to know the good, the bad, the ugly - where we've been, how we got to where we are, the impact hate can have on families for generations, and the urgency of stepping forward, stepping up and growing. I wish we could require that adults read it as well. :)

Not my normal go to book but Homegoing gets five stars from me. I can't wait to see what Yaa does next.

I was really impressed with this book! It's hard to believe it's a debut. I agree with so many of you that the different characters have such distinct voices, and it was a pleasure to follow both Esi and Effia's descendants through time. It almost felt like a collection of related short stories. This is a new favorite for me, too, and I hope to see more by Yaa Gyasi in the near future.

I have to agree with most everyone else, this book was amazing! The slice of life approach to each character kept the history moving forward but it was enough to make me care about the characters. It painted a complex picture of the African/African American experience in a way that made me begin to understand some of their cultural evolution.

I read this book during #diverseathon, which ran from January 22nd through 29th. I read it slowly over the week, a chapter or few every evening.

Yaa Gyasi does an impressive job building up individual characters with their own voices and life histories in such a short space of words. I'm glad I went into this knowing that it's written as a series of related short stories, so I was less jarred each time a character's story ended.

I noticed that in the final chapters, the character Marjorie and the author have similarities in their lives. They both were born in Ghana, to a professor and caregiver parents, raised in Huntsville, Alabama, and both are readers and writers. I think Marjorie is probably based on the author herself.

I can't wait to see what she writes next. I will be putting it on my TBR as soon as I find out.

I'm so glad I read this book. Going in, I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the books structure. Usually I don't enjoy multigenerational stories like this because there are so many characters and we don't get to go deeply enough into any one story. I was worried the characters and stories would feel underdeveloped. But I was surprised to find that I didn't have that reaction to this book at all. Each of the chapters was so rich. Even though we only got one look at each life, the life moments were well chosen and the settings and characters were impressively well-developed.
I thought this might feel like a "homework" type book. One where you know it's good and you're determined to get through it but you're also so bogged down in suffering that it feels like a chore. But I didn't feel that at all. The book absorbed me and drew me along and I was almost always glad to come back to it.

What a fantastic novel! I gave it 5 stars.
The unique structure would be enough to make me love this book - following two branches of a family over centuries. The incredible content and stories made this book really special. While it could have come off as a series of short stories, the connections between generations were strong and the characters were all given depth and meaning despite the short time we spent with each of them.

This was a really fantastic book. I was so impressed with how Gyasi managed to give 14 different stories depth of character and room to breath, while still providing extensive plot and thematic ties between the stories.

There's also a huge swath of history here (over 250 years and across two continents) and the stories are well-placed at defining moments of that history.

All this in 300-ish pages! So impressive!

This was a five star read for me. I was so impressed with how the author was able to tell a muti-generational dual-continent saga in so few pages. Although the chapters were short, I found myself satisfied with knowing just enough about each family member before moving on their descendant. That said, I wouldn't mind seeing a stand-alone novel or two focusing on a few of the characters, going even deeper into their stories. I thought the end was lovely, which just enough ambiguity to leave me wondering about the future of this family. I also thought the complexities of the slave trade and the implications of it for both the people of both continents was very well done. I am looking forward to reading whatever this author writes next!

I just finished listening to this book and I am just in awe. I expected to like the book because I love multigenerational stories and I'm interested in the subject of slavery, but most stories I've read are on the American side of things so I really appreciated what I learned about the African/British side of the slave trade.

This book has a lot going on and it might be impossible to soak it all up on the first read (this is saying a lot for me, as I am not one to re-read books!)

I loved the juxtaposition of each generation of Africans and Americans. At first, I was disappointed to not get to know more of each character's story, but then I caught on and knew what to expect and it was less jarring when we moved on to the next generation. It did feel a bit like I was on a speedboat through history at times. There were times when I really wished I had a historical timeline, but that's probably because I was listening to the book rather than reading it. Maybe the book had something like that. I usually could find my historical landmarks in the American chapters, but wasn't always sure of where we were time-wise with the African chapters. I guess that's encouragement for me to learn more about African history :)

This book delved into some tough topics and I appreciated that there wasn't any sugar-coating. It made me uncomfortable at times, especially when I had to do some serious inner reflection.

One quote that I found particularly convicting was from Marcus's section when at the castle, "It was the way most people lived their lives...on upper levels, not stopping to peer underneath." I think it's easy to be lured into the comfort of ignoring the horror of slavery and its impact that still exists today. I think we're missing the point if we ignore or gloss over these difficult periods in our history or deny that what happened then has no relevance to what happens today.

Gyasi beautifully ties the present to the past and courageously takes her readers out of their comfort zones. I'm so glad that she did because I really think it's critical that we learn the stories that we didn't necessarily hear in history class.

I have no hesitation in giving this 5 stars and recommending it to anyone!