The novel Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi has been around for a few years now. I read it on the advice of a friend. It’s very much a work of historical fiction. The reader begins in the Gold Coast of the eighteenth century and finishes in the United States around the turn of the millennium.

Structure of Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

The way the reader reacts to the book’s structure will probably make or break their enjoyment of the book. It does not have a standard plot structure. Gyasi traces two families from the late 1700s to the near-present. Each chapter is the story of one character, and each character comes from one generation of their respective families. This has been done before, of course. But it comes with risks.

For one, every chapter must strike a delicate balance. It must introduce a new character, connect that character to the last one, and also move the story forward. Hopefully, in the process, the reader likes the character and their contribution to the overall story. Ambitious, to say the least.

Setting of Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

The books takes place in two settings—the Gold Coast of West Africa (modern Ghana) and the United States. As one might expect, this means slavery, the slave trade, and the toll these take on black people are central to the narrative.

Most of the time, Gyasi succeeds in portraying a nuanced view of what happened. Without giving much plot away, I’ll state that the portrayal of the slave trade was quality. The reader finds great cruelty, yes. But they’re also exposed to the complicity of Africans in the slave trade, the way this shifted political power in West Africa, and the dilemma some African leaders faced as a result—cooperate with colonizing Europeans against traditional enemies, or fight the colonizers to maintain freedom and independence?

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Was the Story Enjoyable?

I’ve described the ambitious structure of the book, but does everything fit together? For me, not quite. I struggled with tracing the story from one generation to the next. About the time I became invested in one character, their chapter ended. And because the advance of time meant that each generation of characters faced new problems, the book lacked a real antagonist. I guess the slave system, and it’s legacy in America, was the villain. But the slave system is an established historical fact. It’s not a villain the characters can even oppose, much less defeat, other than by the small acts of individual dignity with which oppressed peoples have always fought their oppressors.

In addition, I found the author’s writing style relentlessly simplistic. I didn’t do a reading level check, but the writing was not complex. This isn’t necessarily bad. But I certainly could’ve handled more expansive thoughts.

It’s possible I’m not the greatest person to read and review this book. I already knew the complexities of the slave trade, the prison labor system in the US (my book Darkness in Dixie is all about this heinous institution, click the link to check it out), and much of its impact on African people both before and after coming to North America. None of these parts of the book held surprises for me.

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Final Thoughts

Readers who aren’t history PhDs will get more out of the potential shock value of these scenes than I did. But as a result, I read the book in chunks. I’d put it down for a week and then come back. This made the structure of the book even more problematic for me because I’d have to reconnect to the entire storyline after a pause.

So, if you’re going to read this book, try to do it at a constant pace without gaps. Should you? Maybe. If you can handle a book with no main character that tries to give you a feel for 200 years of history through a dozen separate characters, go for it. If you like more depth and must have a character to connect to, you’re probably best to stay away. I can see how readers would have a wide range of reactions to this book. For me, I suppose I’m right in the middle—decent story, decent writing, but an approach too ambitious to crown the book a complete success.

To check out my other recent reviews, please read:

Every Breath, by Nicholas Sparks

The Return, by Nicholas Sparks

East of Eden, by John Steinbeck

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