Transcendent Kingdom

 by Yaa Gyasi

This book is getting a lot of acclaim these days.

It is the story of a young American woman, of Ghanian descent, who is trying to make her way in the academic community and try to understand all the tragedies that have occurred in her family, through her scientific pursuits.

The girls mother was very religious and the girl spends a lot of time in her youth attending church, praying to God and trying to figure out how to be a good person.  She sees contradictions around her, e.g. the Minister's daughter gets pregnant out of wedlock.  Part of the story, perhaps not written outright, is the conflict of praying to God for help and not getting the help you need.

Her parents moved from Ghana to America before she was born.  Her parents struggled to make survive financially in the U.S.  Her mother was a care giver for sick people, her father did odd jobs for not a lot of money.  Eventually the marriage broke down and the father returned to Ghana.  It took the kids a while to figure out he has never coming back.

The brother was a very successful basketball player and people thought he would have great success.  However, after an ankle injury he was prescribe oxy contin and became a drug addict, eventually dying from a heroine overdose.

After the brother died the girls mother retreated to her bed.  After a few months the girl was sent to Ghana to stay with an Aunt.  After her mother recovered somewhat the girl came back to live with her mother. But the mother's grief was still hanging around her.

The girl went on to university and was working on the study of addiction and avoiding negative stimuli by studying mice, including attaching electrodes to their brain.  She could see what parts of the brain were activated by different stimuli.  But did this tell her anything about why people do what they do and how to stop doing things that are bad for them?? It is obvious that she did this in a desperate attempt to try to figure out what was/had gone wrong with her family members.  I am not sure she found an answer.

While the girl is close to finishing her work at university her mother has another breakdown and comes to live with her.  The mother basically just lies in bed.  The girl doesn't know what to do but tries to provide food to her. 

I found the book hard to read at times because it was so sad.  Some people try to befriend the girl but she seems reluctant to take their friendship.  Her lab partner tries to be her friend. If people really believe in God, (the Mother)why can't they find the relief they need from their depression through him???  I think this just confirmed how irrational people can be, unable to do what is really best for them and avoid what is bad for them.

At one point the girl attends a funeral for one of her mother's patients.  The girl is shocked by all the nic things people say about her mother, about how caring she was etc.  This does not jive with the girl's impression of her mother.  Her mother was not a warm person, never gave hugs, was often critical of her and her brother.  How can a person be so different to strangers and to their own family.

I think the author did a great job of portraying a young person trying to figure out what life is all about and struggling with their identity and religion.

The book is called Transcendent Kingdom.... no idea why, not sure I saw any transcendence here. The ending is a bit surprising and I think weak.  After all the sadness, the book ends, in a few pages, with the character having married her lab partner and having a family.  Not that this is a bad thing but I think there could have been a bit of an explanation for why/how the character decided to take a chance on a normal life.  It almost seemed like the author didn't want the book to end on a sad note so she quickly came up with this ending.