I just read a book about the holocaust, Mischling, and now I've read a book about slavery. They were both hard to read but at the same time really uplifting and beautiful. The story of two family lineages and their drastically different paths--and what they have in common--was totally engrossing. 
 It's almost a collection of short stories, with each connected to the one before, and the one before that. I found that I missed the characters when their segments were over, but was happy to find remnants of those characters leaked throughout the book. 
 It's obvious that Gyasi is writing about the scars we have obtained from our experiences and our histories affect our futures. I wish it hadn't been quite so obvious. The stone necklace that is carried throughout the book, I could have done without it. I don't think the book needed such an obvious symbol. I didn't need to be hit over the head with it. 
 But the writing was beautiful and I loved the characters. I was lost in the world of Homegoing on every page. 
 There are so many disturbing, violent scenes. But oddly, I was almost most troubled by Marjorie's relationship with Graham. The scene where he denies wanting to be with her and is unable to ask her at the dance are by far the least horrific in the book. But they made me want to die. The characters had come so far, I just wanted something good for them. And this discomfort was relatable. It was unbelievable (but totally believable.) 
 This book made me think of being "African" and "African-American." The characters in Africa do not see why their distant relatives in America call themselves African-American. They are American in every way. That was the first time I wondered if my husband disliked being called "Asian American," when he was born in raised in America, and is as American as they come. I asked him this, and he said his attitude has changed with his crescendoing ability to identify with being Asian. When he was in high school and college, he was fighting to be American. Now, he is more at home with himself and his family's culture, and he is happy to be called Asian-American. But he seemed unsure. It is not an easy question to answer. 
 What a brave and well-done book.