The Next Best Book Club discussion

Hi everyone! Sorry for the late hour. I meant to post this before I went in to work this morning because I knew I would be getting home late, but alas...

Nawar nominated Homegoing, so she will be leading the group discussion this month.

Take it away, Nawar!

Thanks Lori!

Hi everyone! I'm really looking forward to discussing this book with all of you!!

I'm still waiting to receive my copy, should be getting it this week but I'll do a bit of reading online and post some starter questions.

Happy Reading! XO

Looking forward to the discussion!

I've got Homegoing coming up shortly, so this is nice timing for me. :-)

Hope everyone is enjoying the read! I had to go backs few times and re read some parts .

Couple of questions so we start the discussion !


How does everyone feel about Effia and Esi?

Who are your favorite characters in the novel ?

So I loved the sister connection. Its sort of random but if I got it right they were half sisters. What brings it around full circle was the necklace although I am still a bit wondering about the necklace Esi buried. Was she able to dig it back up? Effia was certainly a mint of a character. I loved the part of the tree roots. or er fertility roots that keep creeping out from under her bed. I really liked Willie, and Sonney, but it is hard to say a favorite because they all were unique and interesting in there own ways. Also liked Ness.

Oh I also liked H. so, that makes a few interesting characters. To clarify, it didn't say specifically, H was Anne and Jo's son? I couldn't help but make this connection. As it was sort of tied to the eighth child who would get a name beginning with H, right but we don't get that far because of the new law, so ...anyway don't want to make things any more confusing. Or am I mistaken.

Effia was like a very sorry yet beautiful woman. I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. IT makes me think of the nature of the relationships we have with our parent. Child of the fire, she was thought to have cursed the family. The other character I liked was Akua, I learned that Akua is a bunch of gods and demi gods in the Hawaiian culture. They had superhuman powers and abilities, however the book Akua was thought to be crazy. She was like Effia possessed by a demon fire woman. So many things that were funny to think about.... sort of make sense, now. So Akua was the granddaughter of Quey, son of James the .....anyway...

Evalani wrote: "Oh I also liked H. so, that makes a few interesting characters. To clarify, it didn't say specifically, H was Anne and Jo's son? I couldn't help but make this connection. As it was sort of tied to ..."

I believe H was Anne and Jo's just because that's the order the descendants seem to go in Effia, Esi, Effia, Esi...

I'm on part 7 of 11 of the audio book (just started Akua), and I must say I don't really care for it. I think it's an interesting premise; to see how each line from Effia and Esi end up so differently and on different continents (so far), but a large portion of the story tends to drag. Perhaps it's because each person only gets a chapter, so I don't really have enough time to care about the character. By the time I start relating, we've moved on to the next generation.

Also, I find it very difficult to remember who belongs to whom and what part of the story was theirs. It might be easier if I were reading the words instead of listening. I just have a feeling that after a couple of weeks I'll remember names and events but I definitely won't be able to match them together.

Evalani wrote: "Oh I also liked H. so, that makes a few interesting characters. To clarify, it didn't say specifically, H was Anne and Jo's son? I couldn't help but make this connection. As it was sort of tied to ..."

H was child #8. I can't imagine figuring it out by listening to the audio!

The family tree in the printed book shows the descendants in side-by-side generations. I added it to my review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I'll try to add it below:

thanks for the descendants list

Evalani wrote: "thanks for the descendants list"

You're welcome, Evalani. I had a Kindle preview copy that just had the names jumbled in the front and the chapters run together! Way too confusing. So I read the PDF preview copy, and that had the layout that I assume is in the 'real' books.

I don't know if a purchased Kindle book would have the family tree like this or not. Can somebody else clarify?

Yes the descendants list was very helpful. Before you posted that, I was just trying to write it all down in a notebook.

I just finished the book. I was not a fan. I liked a few of the stories, there were some good quotes and thoughts, but I found myself bored through the majority of the book. It seemed like every time I really started to like a story, a new story was introduced.

SarahKat wrote: "Yes the descendants list was very helpful. Before you posted that, I was just trying to write it all down in a notebook.

I just finished the book. I was not a fan. I liked a few of the stories, t..."

SarahKat, if I hadn't read a version with the family tree that was easy to keep referring to, I think my frustration would have killed a lot of my interest. Instead, because I could see which family a person came from, I had a better understanding of why they thought and reacted the way they did in whichever circumstances they found themselves in.

I wish all family sagas had easy trees to follow.

One that was really hard was the acclaimed One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez where the head of each family had the same name (almost identical) in each generation. And some were even ghosts!

My review included a link to a family tree, but after this conversation, I think I'll see if I can figure out how to include it in the review to help anyone who happens to see it.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I thought the book had depth and a shallow take in the stories that kept changing as you said. Every time I started to like a story a new story was introduced. Yes I found this irksome, however i think the deeper point i.e. lesson was that these people were piecing together their identities. From there ancestors on the Gold Coast, to the very ending. We see generations in place of one story about a specific person. IT was like a string of beads, where each bead has its place and with out anyone bead the string would not be complete. Like one story on the African continent (correct me if i'm wrong) Asanteland, and the colonial stories and then the other of more recent people on the America's were woven together to create a feel of what attention on a racial group was. I felt like I was reading history, though perhaps a bit boring I found the stories themselves interesting, and more interesting then a history book.

Thanks for the interesting read.

PattyMacDotComma wrote: "SarahKat wrote: "Yes the descendants list was very helpful. Before you posted that, I was just trying to write it all down in a notebook.

I just finished the book. I was not a fan. I liked a few ..."

I just started One Hundred Years of Solitude! Also on audio. I started it for the popsugar "been on my TBR for way too long." I will definitely look at the family tree!

SarahKat wrote: "PattyMacDotComma wrote: "SarahKat wrote: "Yes the descendants list was very helpful. Before you posted that, I was just trying to write it all down in a notebook.

I just finished the book. I was ..."

Hope it helps, SarahKat. Reading challenges are a great way to get us to read something we keep putting off. :)

How do we all feel about the male characters in the novel, or how men are portrayed? Effia's father? Effia's husband?

Nawar wrote: "How do we all feel about the male characters in the novel, or how men are portrayed? Effia's father? Effia's husband?"

I think because each story was so short, some of the supporting characters were stereotyped. Husbands, wives, children did tend to fall into categories, but some men, like "H" I felt I might have known something about.

We got a bit of background or a sense of James, the British soldier (who felt guilt now and then about his wife), but really, it's only the main characters who have any chance to shine.

A big thank you to Narwar for leading the discussion on HOMEGOING. Though the month has ended, please feel free to keep the discussion going as long as you'd like!

Ok I finally read and finished this book this week. I absolutely loved it. The structure was so brilliant. Historical fiction usually takes a specific era and really digs into that one slice of time. But with Homegoing we see how life changes for each generation over hundreds of years. We also see how each previous generations impacted the next. What are the results of our own actions 50, 100, 150 years later? Through history we can see outcomes to actions, and Gyasi takes this a step further by delving into the lives of these characters and their descendants in a fictionalized and engrossing way over a large span of time.

I loved each character switch and each chapter. By the end of that person's specific chapter I grew so attached to them, so I couldn't wait to get to their son/daughter's life in the following chapters.

One of the things that I kept noticing and finding heartbreaking was how easily family members were separated and never saw each other again. First in the African coast and later on plantations, and later even as freed men, they always ran the risk of being separated against their will, and were doomed to spend their lives not knowing what happened to their sister, mother, child, husband, wife etc. I cannot imagine having to live a life that way. And as a reader of the typical happy-ending type of books, that usually follow upon a formula and predictable route, I kept hoping the characters would find their loved one later in life, be reunited on page for me. But of course this story was not meant to be so typical. In reality the people who lived through these historical events, had no happy Hollywood endings. And every time I yearned for one for them, I was reminded that reality is not so generous.


It was also difficult to read so many of these narratives because they were so incredibly heart breaking. The tribal warring, the kidnapping, the slavery, the beatings, the whips, the forced slavery through imprisonment even after "freedom" was granted, the segregation, racism... So much of it was so difficult, but at the same time I absolutely loved these characters and Gyasi's style of writing.
This one had been on TBR for too many months. I am so glad this book club picked it to read, and I finally sat down to dive into the story.

Side note, I kept wondering why Effia's side of the family only had 1 living descendant with each generation. Was that their curse from having participated in, and profiting off of the slave trade in the 1700's? Or was it the curse from the fire woman? Although I don't think it was the curse from the fire noted in chapter one, otherwise it should apply to both sides of the family and Esi's line too, right?

Olivia wrote: "Ok I finally read and finished this book this week. I absolutely loved it. The structure was so brilliant. Historical fiction usually takes a specific era and really digs into that one slice of tim..."
Side note, I kept wondering why Effia's side of the family only had 1 living descendant with each generation. Was that their curse from having participated in, and profiting off of the slave trade in the 1700's? Or was it the curse from the fire woman? Although I don't think it was the curse from the fire noted in chapter one, otherwise it should apply to both sides of the family and Esi's line too, right?

It never occurred to me how many descendants lived since we traced only one family line to the current "pair". I don't remember what happened to the generation before Marjorie (the last girl on Effia's side of the family tree above). Lousy memory!

I definitely enjoyed the way this novel portrayed the strife of African Americans throughout the history of the US. I was enamored with the structure of the novel and found the family thread to be a clever way to tie each of the stories together.

I'm currently working through The Underground Railroad for this month's group read. For those of you who read and enjoyed Homegoing, I think The Underground Railroad might be a great companion piece. I'm absolutely riveted thus far.

Ethan wrote: "I definitely enjoyed the way this novel portrayed the strife of African Americans throughout the history of the US. I was enamored with the structure of the novel and found the family thread to be ..."

I agree, these two books are good to read together. I loved Homegoing so much more than The Underground Railroad and wish it got more acclaim last year. But Whitehead's novel is excellent.