Book Review: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

 

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Content Warning: death (including that of children), murder, violence, misogynoir, racism, slavery, torture, rape, homophobia, drug addiction, child abuse, spousal abuse, arson/fire.

In eighteenth-century Ghana, two young women are born in different villages. They are half-sisters, destined to never meet, in spite of their proximity: Effia has the so-called "luck" of marrying one of the British soldiers her village trades with, and living in the Cape Coast Castle; below, in the dungeons, Esi is imprisoned, on her way to being sold across the Atlantic as a slave. Spanning over three hundred years, this novel follows the descendants of Esi and Effia as they struggle with their own problems and the wounds of their family history -- and as they ask what it means to be black, what freedom really means, and what exactly home is. 

There are some novels that are transcendent. Many of us might think of classics, works that have been studied for years and years and that are intended to explore the depth of human life. Homegoing, then, despite its newness, can be nothing other than a modern classic -- a story of perseverance, of the meaning of life, of how we relate to and remember our ancestors. But more than that, it's a story that centers black people's lives and their experiences, taking the narrative away from its constant centering on not history, but on white people's version of history. The novel itself tackles this issue in several brilliant, searing chapters, and with the arsenal of talent, craftmanship and tender feeling Gyasi has unleashed in this story, the story told here is nothing short of transcendent. This is, without a doubt, a modern classic in the making.

Each chapter is like its own short story. First, we are introduced to the half-sisters mentioned in the summary, Effia and Esi, who get their own short tales that inform us of their past lives and the ones they're living now. In a move that I can only describe as ingenious, we are then transported in each chapter to a different character, time and place. It's difficult to single out one character or chapter or story, because not only are there so many, but they are all equally moving, intense and vividly written. Although the themes here are extremely heavy -- and oftentimes painful to read -- throughout the novel there is a feeling of hopefulness, of an embrace of the future and of reconciliation between parents and children, between siblings and cousins and descendants and their ancestors. 

This exploration of multigenerational trauma is heartrendingly powerful, and shows us the aftereffects of slavery and racism through the centuries. There is a question often asked by many of the characters in this novel, in their own way: what if things had been different? What if the ugly face of slavery and degradation had not happened? What if white people, and the evil they brought with them, had never made it to the Gold Coast? And what does home mean, to a people displaced?

Homegoing is a term that comes from enslaved people, a belief that once a person had died, their soul would return to Africa and, therefore, to peace and freedom. In the mirroring of this novel's first and last scene, we see this in play, and in a literal sense. Homegoing. A beautiful word, and one that encapsulates this story perfectly in its feeling of hope, belief, love, pain, and history. When I was thinking of what to say in this review, I replayed Homegoing's climax in my mind, and truly got chills. 

I cannot recommend this gorgeous novel highly enough. Beautiful, remarkable, amazing in its layers, complexity, and its lovable, fascinating characters, this is a book I will be thinking of for a long, long time.