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4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What a book! I fell in love with Yaa Gyasi while reading Homegoing, and was super excited when I was gifted this book. Gifty makes you feel like no matter what age you are, it’s never too late to rediscover who you are and work through past dramas. Her story shows that there is light at the end of the tunnel, to ask and receive help graciously, and to forgive yourself no matter what. Also, super happy with the ending!
a truly excellent telling of the complexities of faith and doubt, questions and impossible answers, grief and healing. it's a beautifully-written story of searching and learning to be content with not finding exactly what you hoped for.
Gyasi also wrote the book Homecoming which is one of my favorite books of all time. This book was very different with it focusing on a small family of 3 over 30 years or so rather than a 200 year overview of Homecoming. But it is equally powerful and important. The book surrounds the main character Gifty and her relationship with science and religion, her mother’s depression and your brother’s opioid addiction. She discusses systemic racism, the powerful addiction of opioids as well as the shame, embarrassment and powerlessness that surrounds the addiction of a loved one. The book was honest, loving and deeply painful-where I had to stop to breathe every once in a while. The book skips around in time in the most unusual of ways and it was perfect. I never was confused. I am not sure how the author did it, but it seemed effortless (I am sure it was not!). It is not a fast read, but there is so much depth and honesty that it is worth the time to savor it.
This is a novel of ideas and isolated scenes, and what kept me reading in place of an immersive, plot-driven story was the thoughtful intelligence of the narrator, Gifty, a daughter of Ghanaian immigrants who grows up in Huntsvile, Alabama attending a white Pentecostal church with her devout mother and beloved older brother Nana. If the walls she erects around herself make her a frustrating character, her need for self-protection is also understandable as she faces her brother’s opioid addiction and mother’s crippling depression at home and racism outside it.
About hearing the n-word at a soccer game in which Nana outscores everyone else, Gifty admits, “the memory lingered, the lesson I have never quite been able to shake: that I would always have something to prove and that nothing but blazing brilliance would be enough to prove it.”
Along the way Gifty stops believing in God and turns to neuroscience instead. As a person of faith who also believes in evolution and vaccines, I was interested in the way Gifts wrestles with the tension between religion and science and loved sharing this experience as part of UCSC’s Deep Read, which culminated in a live conversation with author Yaa Gyasi in the Quarry Amphitheater. There I got to see her blazing brilliance on display and am eager to read her first novel Homegoing too.
About hearing the n-word at a soccer game in which Nana outscores everyone else, Gifty admits, “the memory lingered, the lesson I have never quite been able to shake: that I would always have something to prove and that nothing but blazing brilliance would be enough to prove it.”
Along the way Gifty stops believing in God and turns to neuroscience instead. As a person of faith who also believes in evolution and vaccines, I was interested in the way Gifts wrestles with the tension between religion and science and loved sharing this experience as part of UCSC’s Deep Read, which culminated in a live conversation with author Yaa Gyasi in the Quarry Amphitheater. There I got to see her blazing brilliance on display and am eager to read her first novel Homegoing too.
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
I loved the book throughout, even more than Homegoing. The ending was just not my type. 4.5 stars!
4.5 or 5, haven't made up my mind yet!
Gifty, a first generation American of devoutly Christian Ghanian immigrants, is a Ph.D. student researching addiction and reward-seeking in mice after her brother died of an overdose when she was young. Her mother has since struggled with depression, and when she relapses, she comes to live in Gifty's apartment. During her stay, Gifty struggles, as she has all her life, with being torn between being religious and being a scientist, as well as her other in-between identities.
Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing is a book I think about to this day; I even took notes while reading it. I was really worried going into this that it wouldn't match the profundity of her debut, but my fears were unwarranted. Gifty's struggles throughout this book to deal with her mother's depression, her brother's addiction, the clashing between her Ghanian roots and American surroundings permeate her entire life and seep into the reader. She has become extremely isolated from everyone in her life and watching her purposely shut herself off from others is difficult (and personally, extremely relatable). We follow her throughout her childhood, through college, and up to the present day during her PhD research, all weaved together to create one narrative. I feel like I can't talk intelligently about this; the way that anecdotes and current-day narrative and neuroscientific research were combined to show Gifty's contrasting perspectives was masterfully done and extremely easy to read. Whether or not I'll give this a full five stars is entirely dependent on how much this sticks with me over the next while, but regardless I highly recommend this and will be reading each of Gyasi's future books!
Gifty, a first generation American of devoutly Christian Ghanian immigrants, is a Ph.D. student researching addiction and reward-seeking in mice after her brother died of an overdose when she was young. Her mother has since struggled with depression, and when she relapses, she comes to live in Gifty's apartment. During her stay, Gifty struggles, as she has all her life, with being torn between being religious and being a scientist, as well as her other in-between identities.
Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing is a book I think about to this day; I even took notes while reading it. I was really worried going into this that it wouldn't match the profundity of her debut, but my fears were unwarranted. Gifty's struggles throughout this book to deal with her mother's depression, her brother's addiction, the clashing between her Ghanian roots and American surroundings permeate her entire life and seep into the reader. She has become extremely isolated from everyone in her life and watching her purposely shut herself off from others is difficult (and personally, extremely relatable). We follow her throughout her childhood, through college, and up to the present day during her PhD research, all weaved together to create one narrative. I feel like I can't talk intelligently about this; the way that anecdotes and current-day narrative and neuroscientific research were combined to show Gifty's contrasting perspectives was masterfully done and extremely easy to read. Whether or not I'll give this a full five stars is entirely dependent on how much this sticks with me over the next while, but regardless I highly recommend this and will be reading each of Gyasi's future books!