A review by jfaberrit
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

4.0

More like 4 and a quarter than 4 stars. Gyasi's debut novel is a sweeping tale of a family split between Ghana and the US over two hundred years of separation. The best of the vignettes are beautifully told, and Gyasi is a born storyteller, whose rhythms and pace flow naturally and feel effortless. Unlike a lot of novels, it doesn't feel like a creative writing workshop project writ large, but instead a real novel by someone whois comfortable with the characters and their lives. To the extent that it has flaws, it is that she writes better when her narrators have stronger traits and motivations, and seems to drift when they themselves are driftless or weak-willed. I'm also a little skeptical if the generations really work out, since she averages about 40 years per generation which is pretty long, but these are details. Strangely enough, even though she was largely raised in America, the American sections often feel unmoored from their time and place than the African chapters. Overall though, this is a much better first novel than most writers can dream of, and suggests only good things in her future.