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Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi


 


The Urban Life Experience Book Discsussion Series continued on Jan. 9, 2021, with our first book discussion of the new year. The book, Homegoing, was published in 2016. Of course we met over Zoom.



 There were actually 19 of us this time, one of the all-time highest number of participants. The book follows the generations of two sisters (unknown to each other), one stays in Africa and marries a British soldier, the other is enslaved and brought to what is now the US. 




As the book moves down generations, the characters only refer to stories about their grandparents as though they're fables. The novel spans a great deal of time but each chapter is somewhat a short story in itself.  That's why the novel moves fast, covering a great span of time as a whole but focusing on individuals during their time. I had to keep going back to the family chart at the beginning in order to keep everyone straight.


One of our readers, Marion S., pointed out that we have the family tree to refer to but the actual characters don’t. They can’t see this chart themselves. The fragmentation of the family is reflected in the fragmentation of the character’s stories.

Homegoing is a novel consisting of one example of a person's life in each generation, so it's not necessarily a novel with strict continuity. For example, Effia's story is separate from Quey's story (even though he's her son.) There are threads, however, such as the necklace with the stone, the terrors of or attractions to water, the terrors of or attractions to fire. 

Another reader, Wendy, drew our attention to one of the most eloquent passages in the book, starting at the bottom of p. 226

“…’Whose story do we believe, then?’ ‘We believe the one who has the power. He is the one who gets to write the story. So when you study history, you must always ask yourself, Whose story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice could come forth? Once you have figured that out, you must find that story too. From there, you begin to get a clearer, yet still imperfect picture.’”

Everyone in our group commented on how hypocritical the British were concerning religion. Rachel called our attention to a baptism that turns into a murder on p. 189:

“’After you were born, I took her (your mother) to the water to be baptized. She didn’t want to go, but I –I forced her. She thrashed as I carried her through the forest, to the river. She thrashed as I lowered her down into the water. She thrashed and thrashed and thrashed, and then she was still.” The Missionary lifted his head and looked at her finally. ‘I only wanted her to repent. I _ I only wanted her to repent…’”

So many of these characters' stories reminded me of other characters in other books we read. For example, the Harlem setting for Sonny's character reminded me of James Baldwin's short story called "Sonny's Blues" that we read in Going to Meet the Man.

The severely scarred character, Yaw Agyekum, reminded me of Washington Black by Esi Edugyan. The character Kojo Freeman who loved his job caulking ships in the Baltimore harbor reminded me of Frederick Douglas's biography. 

According to the author, the title Homegoing refers to the belief that once a slave dies, his spirit can go back home to Africa. Marcus though, the last generation represented on the American side of the family, receives a welcome from his companion (who is actually his cousin seven generations down!) when he overcomes his fear of water, while visiting Ghana: 

p.300 "Here," Marjorie said, "Have it." She lifted the stone from her neck, and placed it around Marcus's. "Welcome Home."


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