A review by starrysteph
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Transcendent Kingdom was quiet and inquisitive - a beautiful piece on grief, addiction, and life in a family of immigrants. The characters felt so grounded and so real that it almost reads like a memoir, a peek inside of the pages of a journal. 

“We humans are reckless with our bodies, reckless with our lives, for no other reason than that we want to know what would happen, what it might feel like to brush up against death, to run right up to the edge of our lives, which is, in some ways, to live fully.”

Our narrator is Gifty, a neuroscientist studying reward-seeking behavior (especially in relation to depression & addiction). We hop back and forth through time as she reflects on her childhood in Alabama, her athletic brother Nana who died from his addiction after an ankle injury, and her mother who is currently unable to get out of bed. Her father - whom she calls the Chin Chin Man - left her family and returned to Ghana when she was quite young.

Gifty grapples both with the science around her family’s pain and grief and her religious upbringing. She questions faith alongside logic, wondering if the two can coexist in her life and if the draw of religion is worth it to her. Meanwhile, she flounders with friendships & romance, struggling to be open & vulnerable.

“I would always have something to prove and that nothing but blazing brilliance would be enough to prove it.”

It’s a moving piece, with so many poignant moments and quotes. Gifty is struck with loud and subtle racism, with disparaging remarks about religion, with offhand comments about addiction. But her internal struggle is much more gripping. She writes to God in her journal as a child - and uses ‘secret’ code names for her family members - and rereads it as an adult as she interrogates her current belief system and identity.

Gifty is a young adult diving deep into analyzing her entire life, and I found that so relatable. She holds up so much to the light, both literally in her lab and in her words: grief, pain & pain relief, pleasure, family, fear, faith. It’s a very philosophical read. 

I didn’t feel ready to leave Gifty behind when the book ended, and while I certainly wouldn’t expect this story to have a neat ending, I feel like it perhaps deserved a little bit more of a conclusion.

But wow. This story was intimate, tender, and loving. It has a lot to offer and to ruminate on. It would be an excellent book club pick and a great piece to journal about. 

CW: death (child/parent), addiction & drug abuse, mental illness, grief, racism & slurs, suicide, animal cruelty/death, religious bigotry, abandonment, xenophobia, chronic illness, forced institutionalization, sexism, vomit

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