Homegoing

Toni Ann Johnson has in Homegoing harnessed the unique power and grace of the novella. There's not a wasted word in this cinematically told, immediately engaging story, and yet the form affords her the length to develop characters whose deeply felt humanity makes them memorable.

Toni Ann Johnson's novella Homegoing is the perfect story for this moment in history. How do we, as Black people, understand all of what is changing about racism and all that is not? All of this in a moment of massive upheaval. What can women learn about ourselves when our lives fall apart? Just like in Johnson's novel, the prose is beautiful. Yet in addition to the earnest prose, the novella brought unexpected laughter. Exactly the type of humor that we need to get through these tough times.

The poignant story of a discouraged middle-aged woman, a recently divorced, childless lounge singer who finds herself going back to the suburban town where she grew up as the only Black girl in her school. Maddie's caustic, quite funny, relationship with her mother Velma is at the heart of what is essentially a story of healing; a woman trying to find her way again.

In her novella Homegoing, Toni Ann Johnson examines issues of race, racism, forgiveness, and family. Her prose is luminous yet wickedly funny—an enviable combination—and her characters searingly flawed. Homegoing is that rare, wondrous literary achievement: it makes you laugh even as it breaks your heart.