The intriguing novel by Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing, is a truly memorable and sprawling tale of a family split between Africa and America. Following the descendants of an Asante woman named Maame, the novel paints a complex picture of the intertwined histories of Ghana from the 1700’s to present day. Unlike many historically prevalent stories, Homegoing uses historical accounts written by Africans and African-Americans to center each chapter of the book around important historical moments. These detailed perspectives are what allows Yaa Gyasi to provide the missing and suppressed with such a rare and heroic voice.
Yaa Gyasi’s extraordinary novel illuminates slavery’s troubled legacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed. To further exemplify …show more content…
Yaa Gyasi’s use of varying dialects, vivid imagery, and mythical allusions do history justice by providing a clear image of the struggles faced by Africans in a white-dominated world. Gyasi has developed a style agile enough to reflect the remarkable range of Homegoing’s storyline as she moves across centuries from old and new Ghana to modern-day Palo Alto. Yaa’s prose moderates subtly according to the time and setting: the 18th century chapters resonated with stern tones of history while the contemporary chapters embrace true realism. Nevertheless, Homegoing does lose some of its urgency in the later segments due to the lack of heartwarming love scenes and sudden thefts of freedom. The vast array of lives and emotional interiors are difficult to take in; the book becomes overloaded, lacks a central thread, and it gets easier to forget key characters of the novel. Despite the confusion, the West African chapters are the heart of the book and reflect a deep channeling of multilayered humanity. Gyasi evokes what was lost to those who were sold away, from the sense of individual and collective identity to a wealth of rituals and customs significant to Ghanaian culture. These distinguishing attributes are what makes one truly human, for without uniqueness, there is no real
Yaa Gyasi’s extraordinary novel illuminates slavery’s troubled legacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed. To further exemplify …show more content…
Yaa Gyasi’s use of varying dialects, vivid imagery, and mythical allusions do history justice by providing a clear image of the struggles faced by Africans in a white-dominated world. Gyasi has developed a style agile enough to reflect the remarkable range of Homegoing’s storyline as she moves across centuries from old and new Ghana to modern-day Palo Alto. Yaa’s prose moderates subtly according to the time and setting: the 18th century chapters resonated with stern tones of history while the contemporary chapters embrace true realism. Nevertheless, Homegoing does lose some of its urgency in the later segments due to the lack of heartwarming love scenes and sudden thefts of freedom. The vast array of lives and emotional interiors are difficult to take in; the book becomes overloaded, lacks a central thread, and it gets easier to forget key characters of the novel. Despite the confusion, the West African chapters are the heart of the book and reflect a deep channeling of multilayered humanity. Gyasi evokes what was lost to those who were sold away, from the sense of individual and collective identity to a wealth of rituals and customs significant to Ghanaian culture. These distinguishing attributes are what makes one truly human, for without uniqueness, there is no real