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I judged this book by its cover a few years back and obv had to buy it.
The story follows multiple generations of two sides of the same family. It starts in 1700s Ghana — one sister is enslaved and sent to the states while the other marries a British colonizer. The chapters alternate between the American side and the African side, with each generation relating to one another in different ways.
There are so many great motifs…fire x water, cleanliness, food…and of course bigger themes of love, colonialism, racism, etc. You know each following chapter will be a child of the character you’re reading about, so I always found myself trying to figure out how that child comes into play. The characters range in age, and you sometimes read more about them in their kid’s and grandkid’s chapters.
The imagery of the book sucked me in the most. You can feel the heat in all of the places the characters end up in. Despite the billions of names I read, I was never too confused. Still, the book was fast paced and kept me hooked.
I’m realizing how sad a lot of the book is, which I didn’t feel much of because how beautifully written it was and how little time we got with each character. But I really loved the ending and didn’t expect it, even though I maybe should have
I haven’t read any reviews yet, but here’s mine: if you’re looking for a historical fiction book to burn through, read Homegoing!
Feb 22, 2024
Related Recs
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The year is off to a sumptuous and riotous start with these three novels, each containing some of the most glorious, delicious, nostalgic, aching, and poetically articulate turns of phrase I’ve ever been lucky enough to absorb.
1. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Prose: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Heart: ❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹
Intellectual Stimulation: 🧠🧠🧠🧠
I devoured this in about a week. Waugh’s prose is some of the finest I’ve ever come across. A nostalgic wine-soaked novel that follows the lives of a couple of privileged Oxbridge students in the 1920s/30s. A love letter to the things that used to be so big and full, and are now decayed.
Some favorite quotes:
“The fortnight at Venice passed quickly and sweetly—perhaps too sweetly; I was drowning in honey, stingless.”
“But I had no mind for these smooth things; instead, fear worked like yeast in my thoughts, and the fermentation brought to the surface, in great gobs of scum, the images of disaster.”
2. Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Prose: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Heart: ❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹
Intellectual Stimulation: 🧠🧠🧠
Yearning!!! Gilded Age New York City!!! High society mean girls and soft bois!!!
Wharton spent her high society years in New York City during the Gilded Age which makes reading her novels set in this time period so thrilling because she was writing directly from experience. Rustling silks and satins and candlelight and calling cards and yellow roses and hair and gloves and the opera and love notes and yearning glances and upstate New York and Park Avenue. GIMME IT!
3. Atonement by Ian McEwan
Prose: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Heart: ❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹
Intellectual Stimulation: 🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠
This entire book is an utterly magnificent, staggering masterpiece. I love the movie and it was a treat to discover it is very faithful to the book. I think I would re-read Atonement before I would re-watch the movie, simply because McEwan’s prose is perhaps the greatest of any living author.
I simply don’t understand how one person is able to articulate so many rippling, shimmering ideas and emotions with such economy, clarity and poetry. Perfection. Read it.
Jan 28, 2025
just finished this for my book club at work!! read if u like family anthropology and a touch of magical realism
Apr 4, 2025
It’s been three days since I’ve finished that book and it’s on my mind all the time.
when I brush my teeth I think about Nettie and her time in africa , I make myself a drink and I think about Sofia and her brave struggles , it really stuck with me .
It’s bleak but it’s because a woman’s life can be bleak , it’s also happy and theological and compassionate.
Anyways check the trigger warnings but if you want to dive into a beautiful story and a sapphic one at that check it out ! 😜♥️
Apr 17, 2024
Top Recs from @bionicwaffle
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A privilege in the highest sense
Feb 24, 2024
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Seeing it waaaaay more in Internet Land lately and it’s just gross. Feeling like I’m back in middle school with how carelessly it’s thrown around. Not only is it offensive, but there are so many other words you can use that fit better.
If you have been saying or typing it lately, ask yourself why. If you’ve been typing it but not saying it, you already know you’re being stupid.
Feb 29, 2024
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The power of choice can be harnessed best here. Creating your own bowl of fun and cooking whatever you want with it…with a sauce of your creating? So interactive, cozy, and silly
Feb 25, 2024