Transcendent Kingdom: A novel

I loved Homegoing and was so excited to read this. Wanted to love it, but really don’t. Finding it a tedious slog actually, without particularly compelling characters or storyline. Story could’ve been interesting but maybe because of flat characters against a backdrop of trauma and paralyzing depression, I find I’m not engaged with Gifty or her story. I don’t even know what kind of person Gifty is beyond being 1)devastated by the death of her brother, and 2)burnt out by caring for her mother who suffers from near-paralyzing depression. Gifty is trying to combat the incomprehensibleness of the tragedies she’s experienced with an obsessive dedication to the concrete logic of science. Which might be an understandable response in real life. However it makes for an extremely tedious read. Very dull indeed. The negative themes are not counterbalanced with any positive ones so it’s hard to feel drawn in. It’s hard to care what happens next when the shadow of sorrow and bitterness never retreats. It has been cast over the entirety of what I’ve read so far. About 3/4 through and not particularly interested in finishing...

Gifty has endured more than her fair share. But what she does with the hard stuff is turn her pain into something concrete. To better understand. She doesn’t want to let the trouble that has been heaped upon her family undo her.Gifty’s family, mother, father, and baby boy, immigrated to the United States from Ghana, landing in Alabama, where she was later born. Her family’s circumstances did not turn out to be what they imagined. Her mother suffered the indignity of racism and working brutal hours at her thankless job, for what she hoped would be a better life, to provide her children with an education.Their beloved son, Nana, whose future was so bright, as everyone kept reminding them, went awry. Gifty, the youngest, knew nothing of her family’s roots, nor did she fit into this foreign southern land. We come to know her for her work as a scientist, working her way through her lab, trying to come to terms with her brother’s tragic demise, through her research with mice, and making sense of the utter loss that has woven its way into her mother’s veins as well. Gifty’s studies keep her alive, but in a sense, the work is also somewhat of an atonement for what she was unable to do for Nana. Perhaps even for her mother.Searching for answers about addictive behavior and depression – through science, a higher calling, or desperately avoiding love. Gifty is at a loss. She is desperately trying. She carries an enormous weight and you can’t help but bear the heaviness alongside her.Psychologically astute, relevant to the world we are in, and a reading experience of the sublime.

Book binding was poor quality. There was a "read with Jenna" stamp on it that I didn't appreciate on my first edition. Homegoing was one of the best books I've read in a while. This one really fell short of the high hopes I had for it.

If you want to find your way back to something this book is for you. We are all broken in our own way and this book shows you. An learn to trust the beauty in that.

so many quotable lines that it was hard to just choose one, but here it is:"...memories of people you hardly know are often permitted a kind of pleasantness in their absence. It's those who stay who are judged the harshest, simply by virtue of being around to be judged." The novel moved me in ways I cannot describe. yaa gyasi touches so many complex themes, such as family, religion & science, the immigrant experience, depression, addiction, loss, and identity. some experiences I could personally relate to and others, not so much. it read more like a reflection and discussion of those themes, but I enjoyed the emotional journey.

I wasn't very impressed by this book. It just seemed to speak on addiction, mental illness, religion and familial constructs. But not in any way that was intriguing or interesting. Unlike Homegoing, this was a miss.

There’s a sweet spot in a book that is again to riding an airplane- the story takes a moment to ascend and then when it reaches a certain altitude, it’s cruising all the way until you arrive at your destination. Yaa reaches this point and, for chapter after chapter, keeps the reader on an engaging ride. Even the landing of the epilogue was so smooth you could barely tell she’d brought us to the gate. What a flight!

Don’t understand why anyone would recommend this book I found it boring and I wasn’t interested in the main character in the Least bit. It’s nicely written but the story of a woman who worked in a science laboratory who took care of her mentally ill mother and mourned for her dead brother was dull. Onto another book but not one recommended by Jenna Bush Hager . Janet B.

There are many themes - love, racism, family and, mental health etc but the writer approaches the controversial topic of science and religion in a most unconventional way - that's what sustained my interest in this book. While she clearly explores the complex scientific processes involved in the attempt to explain the human condition under discussion, she objectively acknowledges the limitation of a wholly scientific theorization. Religion too, (in spite of some of its absurdities) is not treated in the usual predictably dismissive ways that are popular in contemporary discourses. This novel is a good example of modern creative fiction - sometimes it feels so real that you forget it is fiction.

Me gusto mucho este libro. Con temas de familia, inmigración, educación, religión, uso de drogas, ciencia etc etc, la autora escribe con palabras muy bonitas e emocional.

I related a lot to this book, both to the action and to the thoughts expressed by the author about the events. Excellent writing.

Book came wrinkled and days late

This book doesn't go anywhere. I'm not sure if the science or the family relationships are the key. It does give an insinto addiction