A review by thisreadingcorner
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

dark emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Transcendent Kingdom follows Gifty, a neuroscience PhD student doing research and reflecting on the ways in which immigration, addiction, abandonment, and grief have and continue to shape her view of the world. Although we see her in present day, the book toggles back and forth constantly to years past, scaffolding the honest reflections Gifty shares.

My favorite thing about this book is that there is no nobility in suffering. The humiliation of African immigrants (Ghanaian in this case) taking on poorly paid work with deeply racist Americans isn’t remade into sainthood. The family that gets left behind doesn’t take it on the chin. Addiction doesn’t magically get cured or inspire a lofty goal to save the world. A mother’s trauma doesn’t reduce the harm she leaves in her wake. None of them are perfect, all of them are real. So real in fact that I was taken aback by the kinship I felt to these fictional characters with lives so different from my own.

Gifty’s religious devolution is at the core of the book, the impact of grief on a young woman asking why? She sees glaring gaps in a doctrine sometimes merciful and sometimes vengeful, but even her work doesn’t offer her the clarity she seeks. That her faith is so tied to her relationship with her mother only complicates their dynamic when grief devastated the careful balancing act they both lived in. The stories around Gifty’s mother - her calls home, her patients, and her tumultuous mental health are gripping, in part because of the parallels to a common immigrant experience of starting over, but also because it held space for a mother’s humanity and a child’s pain.

 I admired her commitment to her work and willingness to keep trying, even if only as a smoke screen. I empathized with her delayed awakenings in human connection, her constant daydreaming. I was relived to see the version of her we get in the end, fully actualized and moving forward, ambiguity still front and center.

I look forward to more stories like hers, maybe even more ambiguous. Gyasi is a master writer, the words jumped off the page for me, and I found myself grateful for a story so rooted in the grey. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings