emma's Reviews > Homegoing
Homegoing
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emma's review
bookshelves: diverse, historical, literary-fiction, non-ya, 5-stars, recommend, favorites-2020, beautifully-written, reviewed, owned, authors-of-color
Jun 07, 2020
bookshelves: diverse, historical, literary-fiction, non-ya, 5-stars, recommend, favorites-2020, beautifully-written, reviewed, owned, authors-of-color
Why are five-star reviews so much harder to write than negative ones?!
All I want to do is say “This book is perfect. Read it. Bye.”
https://emmareadstoomuch.wordpress.co...
Anything more than that is just extraneous.
Okay, I do also want to say that this is such a beautiful and painful representation of how white America has stolen the stories of Black people. As the reader of this story is able to learn the story of these bloodlines over the course of 300 years, constructing a narrative from ancestry to the present, so must the reader be aware of how this history has been kept from the very people who are living it. No character in this story is able to have the breadth of knowledge that any reader does, and that is not only because of the slave trade but because of the school-to-prison pipeline, because of the war on drugs, because of the racism that is present in our society to this day.
If you are able to read this book without awareness of your accountability in that process, read it again.
Also, I can mention that even though we rarely follow one character for more than 20 or so pages, nearly all of them manage to be full and real and unforgettable. (@ authors who manage to write 300 pages about one character who I still can’t be bothered to care about - you are ON NOTICE.)
And lastly, I will write the four nonsense stream of thought sentences I jotted down upon finishing this:
“This is just so gorgeous”
“The first 5 star I’ve given in months”
“You will never ever read a book like this ever”
“What a gift”
Bottom line: Required reading.
---------------
pre-review
“Originally, he'd wanted to focus his work on the convict leasing system that had stolen years off of his great-grandpa H's life, but the deeper into the research he got, the bigger the project got. How could he talk about Great-Grandpa H's story without also talking about his grandma Willie and the millions of other black people who had migrated north, fleeing Jim Crow? And if he mentioned the Great Migration, he'd have to talk about the cities that took that flock in. He'd have to talk about Harlem, And how could he talk about Harlem without mentioning his father's heroin addiction - the stints in prison, the criminal record? And if he was going to talk about heroin in Harlem in the '60s, wouldn't he also have to talk about crack everywhere in the '80s? And if he wrote about crack, he'd inevitably be writing, to, about the "war on drugs." And if he started talking about the war on drugs, he'd be talking about how nearly half of the black men he grew up with were on their way either into or out of what had become the harshest prison system in the world. And if he talked about why friends from his hood were doing five-year bids for possession of marijuana when nearly all the white people he'd gone to college with smoked it openly every day, he'd get so angry that he'd slam the research book on the table of the beautiful but deadly silent Lane Reading Room of Green Library of Stanford University. And if he slammed the book down, then everyone in the room would stare and all they would see would be his skin and his anger, and they'd think they knew something about him, and it would be the same something that had justified putting his great-grandpa H in prison, only it would be different too, less obvious than it once was.”
review to come / 5 stars
---------------
currently-reading updates
150,000 ratings with an average of 4.43..........
if i don't like this book i'm canceling myself.
---
i am spending this month reading books by Black authors. please join me!
book 1: The Stars and the Blackness Between Them
book 2: Homegoing
All I want to do is say “This book is perfect. Read it. Bye.”
https://emmareadstoomuch.wordpress.co...
Anything more than that is just extraneous.
Okay, I do also want to say that this is such a beautiful and painful representation of how white America has stolen the stories of Black people. As the reader of this story is able to learn the story of these bloodlines over the course of 300 years, constructing a narrative from ancestry to the present, so must the reader be aware of how this history has been kept from the very people who are living it. No character in this story is able to have the breadth of knowledge that any reader does, and that is not only because of the slave trade but because of the school-to-prison pipeline, because of the war on drugs, because of the racism that is present in our society to this day.
If you are able to read this book without awareness of your accountability in that process, read it again.
Also, I can mention that even though we rarely follow one character for more than 20 or so pages, nearly all of them manage to be full and real and unforgettable. (@ authors who manage to write 300 pages about one character who I still can’t be bothered to care about - you are ON NOTICE.)
And lastly, I will write the four nonsense stream of thought sentences I jotted down upon finishing this:
“This is just so gorgeous”
“The first 5 star I’ve given in months”
“You will never ever read a book like this ever”
“What a gift”
Bottom line: Required reading.
---------------
pre-review
“Originally, he'd wanted to focus his work on the convict leasing system that had stolen years off of his great-grandpa H's life, but the deeper into the research he got, the bigger the project got. How could he talk about Great-Grandpa H's story without also talking about his grandma Willie and the millions of other black people who had migrated north, fleeing Jim Crow? And if he mentioned the Great Migration, he'd have to talk about the cities that took that flock in. He'd have to talk about Harlem, And how could he talk about Harlem without mentioning his father's heroin addiction - the stints in prison, the criminal record? And if he was going to talk about heroin in Harlem in the '60s, wouldn't he also have to talk about crack everywhere in the '80s? And if he wrote about crack, he'd inevitably be writing, to, about the "war on drugs." And if he started talking about the war on drugs, he'd be talking about how nearly half of the black men he grew up with were on their way either into or out of what had become the harshest prison system in the world. And if he talked about why friends from his hood were doing five-year bids for possession of marijuana when nearly all the white people he'd gone to college with smoked it openly every day, he'd get so angry that he'd slam the research book on the table of the beautiful but deadly silent Lane Reading Room of Green Library of Stanford University. And if he slammed the book down, then everyone in the room would stare and all they would see would be his skin and his anger, and they'd think they knew something about him, and it would be the same something that had justified putting his great-grandpa H in prison, only it would be different too, less obvious than it once was.”
review to come / 5 stars
---------------
currently-reading updates
150,000 ratings with an average of 4.43..........
if i don't like this book i'm canceling myself.
---
i am spending this month reading books by Black authors. please join me!
book 1: The Stars and the Blackness Between Them
book 2: Homegoing
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Quotes emma Liked
“Originally, he'd wanted to focus his work on the convict leasing system that had stolen years off of his great-grandpa H's life, but the deeper into the research he got, the bigger the project got. How could he talk about Great-Grandpa H's story without also talking about his grandma Willie and the millions of other black people who had migrated north, fleeing Jim Crow? And if he mentioned the Great Migration, he'd have to talk about the cities that took that flock in. He'd have to talk about Harlem, And how could he talk about Harlem without mentioning his father's heroin addiction - the stints in prison, the criminal record? And if he was going to talk about heroin in Harlem in the '60s, wouldn't he also have to talk about crack everywhere in the '80s? And if he wrote about crack, he'd inevitably be writing, to, about the "war on drugs." And if he started talking about the war on drugs, he'd be talking about how nearly half of the black men he grew up with were on their way either into or out of what had become the harshest prison system in the world. And if he talked about why friends from his hood were doing five-year bids for possession of marijuana when nearly all the white people he'd gone to college with smoked it openly every day, he'd get so angry that he'd slam the research book on the table of the beautiful but deadly silent Lane Reading Room of Green Library of Stanford University. And if he slammed the book down, then everyone in the room would stare and all they would see would be his skin and his anger, and they'd think they knew something about him, and it would be the same something that had justified putting his great-grandpa H in prison, only it would be different too, less obvious than it once was.”
― Homegoing
― Homegoing
Reading Progress
June 3, 2020
– Shelved
June 7, 2020
–
Started Reading
June 8, 2020
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-21 of 21 (21 new)
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Veronika
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Jul 06, 2020 11:37AM
Good books tend to be more difficult than the bad ones, but it is so worth it... Loved the extract!
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Veronika wrote: "Good books tend to be more difficult than the bad ones, but it is so worth it... Loved the extract!"
so true!!!! yay!
so true!!!! yay!
Ahhh so glad you enjoyed it!! It's an excellent book, so beautifully written! I'll forever be blown away by how she wrote all of this in about 300 pages🤯
Anne-Marie wrote: "Ahhh so glad you enjoyed it!! It's an excellent book, so beautifully written! I'll forever be blown away by how she wrote all of this in about 300 pages🤯"
me too!!! what an incredible thing
me too!!! what an incredible thing
s.penkevich wrote: "Read this review at work and now I own this book. You win. Stunning review as always!"
you are my favorite, seriously, thank you. i hope you love it as much as i did
you are my favorite, seriously, thank you. i hope you love it as much as i did
This book came into my feed at a strangely opportune time, as I am getting to know the Black side of my family and their history and legacy. I need to read this.
Dida wrote: "This book came into my feed at a strangely opportune time, as I am getting to know the Black side of my family and their history and legacy. I need to read this."
i recommend it for everyone!!!
i recommend it for everyone!!!
I think half of my comment got cut off? What did get posted was the gist of it, though, so that's good enough for me.
I felt the same after reading. Not easy to sum up all this book entails. Actually blown away by what was contained in its 300 pages. Gyasi is a very gifted storyteller.
I haven’t read this book, but I must admit I’m not at all enticed either TO read it, given the description and these comments.
Isn’t it time and past to stop raking up a terrible past that most of have moved on from? Are we really served by reliving our less enlightened national history? I guess it depends upon the conclusions drawn by the author. I just hope they are reasonable and fair. But if the point of this novel is to paint our nation as racist — that would be a terrible disservice to most Americans living today. Just a thought.