Title: Transcendent Kingdom*
Author: Yaa Gyasi
Rating: 5 stars / 5 stars
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Favorite Quote: “I would think, God, I wish it was cancer, not for his sake but for mine. Not because the nature of his suffering would change significantly but because the nature of my suffering would. I would have a better story than the one I had. I would have a better answer to the questions ‘Where’s Nana? What happened to Nana?’” Gyasi, Yaa. Transcendent Kingdom. Alfred A. Knopf, 2020.
Review: If you’ve seen my Top Reads of 2021 post (shameless plug, I know), or my Women’s Prize Reflections post (shameless plug part two), you’ll know that this was one of my favorite reads of 2021. This was the first book by Yaa Gyasi that I read, but I immediately added Homegoing to my TBR.
Transcendent Kingdom follows Gifty, a woman raised in the US South, though her family was originally from Ghana. She is a bright, talented, driven PhD student who is struggling with the grief over losing her brother as well as the sudden burden of caring for her mother whose long term, generally ignored, mental health issues, have reemerged with a vengeance.
First off, I am a big fan of academic fiction, and at its most basic plot, Transcendent Kingdom is, in part, a book about a student. Gifty is so much more than just a student, and her story involves loss, trauma, identity, and religion as well as academia, but there is still that element of the novel that immediately drew me in. I stayed for the rest…but I definitely was intrigued by the college (or PhD) aspect.
This book, like so many others that I praise, is also an example of absolutely exemplary use of language. The quote that I discuss below is my favorite for emotional reasons, but Gyasi also has a way of so expertly crafting a narrative that I don’t think a single sentence ever struck me as clunky or out of place. For example - “If I’ve thought of my mother as callous, and many times I have, then it is important to remind myself what a callus is: the hardened tissue that forms over a wound.” Gyasi, Yaa. Transcendent Kingdom. Alfred A. Knopf, 2020. The use of metaphor here? Absolutely impeccable.
Finally, Gyasi does something with her book that many depictions of addiction fail to do - she humanizes the addict in the story instead of demonizes him. That doesn’t mean she glorifies or fetishizes his struggles - she certainly does not. Her depictions of addiction in this book are raw and emotional and devastating. But she doesn’t make Nana (Gifty’s brother) a villain. She forces readers to see how addiction can ravage a family, but does so by showing just how special and precious the person is who is struggling with the addiction. This is certainly in part a product of Gyasi’s talent as a writer, but it also shows her empathy and her understanding of the struggles she’s writing about.
About that Quote: Have you ever read a quote that so completely captures a feeling you’ve never been able to articulate before? I’ve felt that way a few times (one of the many reasons I love reading), and this is one of those times. Not because the nature of his suffering would change significantly but because the nature of my suffering would. I grew up around someone suffering from addiction. And at my angriest, at my saddest, and at my most bitter - this is how I felt. I just couldn’t articulate it. It’s been a while since I’ve read this book, and yet the experience of reading this line is still burned into my memory. I firmly believe that one of the myriad benefits of literature is the way that it can lay bare an experience and show how common it is, when the experience itself can feel so isolating. Transcendent Kingdom does this by showing the stark reality of a family struggling with the effects of addiction. And this quote exemplifies its ability to do so.
TW for Transcendent Kingdom: MH issues, addiction, OD, character death
Have you read Transcendent Kingdom? Share your thoughts below!
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