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Bibliophiles of the internet, my name is Adriana
and today I want to talk a little bit about "Homegoing" by Yaa Gyasi.
This is #ownvoices fiction. It's about two half-sisters named Effia and Esi who are both raised in Ghana,
but they're born into two separate villages.
Effia is married off to an Englishman, a slave trader, and they remain in Ghana living in Cape Coast Castle,
and unbeknownst to both of them, Esi is one of the slaves that her husband actually ships off and sells to America.
So the story is told through chapters that alternate between Effia's descendants and Esi's descendants,
and we follow all of their journey from 18th century Ghana up until the modern day.
And because of that broad scope, we can see how these historical events involving colonization,
and the slave trade, and slavery itself actually fit into the lives and decisions of the characters,
and how that directly influences the generations to follow.
Simply put, this novel is incredible. It's an epic tale that delves into inherited cycles of grief, loss,
pain, and fear, and the story explores that in a really refreshing way.
I love the method of storytelling, with these alternating chapters that kind of feel like isolated short stories,
but that very naturally bleed into one another. And because we do follow this journey from the 18th century,
that does help generate a real sense of immediacy.
And so the audiences really gets to feel the impact of all that accumulated history in each and every individual characters'
decisions and situation that much more acutely.
But at the same time, I feel like the structure also serves to emphasize this dichotomy that so many of us feel,
where we are disconnected from our collective history; it feels like something out of reach,
something that happened to someone else.
But at the same time, it's something that's inextricably a part of us, something that built us,
something that brought us to where we are, something that we escape or forfeit.
The characters in this story don't have the same advantages as the audiences does.
They don't necessarily remember exactly what happened with their ancestors even three or four generations back,
but those circumstances irrefutably impacted their lives, whether they remember it or not.
But that's the beauty of the narrative, I feel, because, for instance, it shows how even the modern day characters
sort of lean towards this tendency, this ingrained instinct, to fear,
to always be ready, to always be prepared for the next awful thing.
And the book ventures to ask: Where does the source of this trauma begin? Who is responsible?
How has this continued, and evolved, and changed faces throughout history?
That was one of the main, reoccurring themes that really held all of these narrative threads together,
this idea of where does it begin and where does it end, if anywhere?
And what I really appreciate is that the story is more focused on posing those kinds of questions to readers
rather than attempting to provide one concrete blanket answer, if that makes sense.
More importantly, I think this book serves as a much-needed reminder that the devastation brought on
by Western and British colonization and slavery is very recent history. It's ongoing, it's an open wound.
And I think a lot of people tend to forget that just because we've put a few generations between then and now.
Or people think that just because so many who experienced it or who took part in it are no longer around,
that means that the resulting trauma, and pain, and fear is no longer real or relevant—
—and that's simply not true. It's still very much with us.
That's it, that's all I've got, that's the best I can do today.
And I'm sorry, I know I'm neglecting to mention so many incredible things about this exquisite story,
but needless to say, if you have not read this book...
you should probably read it.
So those were some of my thoughts on "Homegoing" by Yaa Gyasi.
If you have read this book or if you would like to read this book in the future,
please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
But that is everything I had for this review today. Thank you so much for watching this video.
I really hope that you enjoyed it, and I will catch YOU on the flip-side of the page.
Bye!
[♫ snazzy end screen music ♫]