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Yaa Gyasi’s second novel, “Transcendent Kingdom,” is an intimate look into the life of Gifty, a Ghanian-American neuroscience doctoral student at Stanford. The novel follows Gifty’s efforts to coax her mother out of a depressive episode as she completes the final year of her doctoral program. This novel crafts a raw analysis of religion, mental illness, and addiction through the lens of a uniquely authentic character.
The story oscillates between anecdotes of Gifty’s life leading up to her undergraduate years and her current studies. These stories are often paired with her childhood journal entries that bridge her present to her past, revealing the trip to Ghana when her mother first fell into catatonic depression and the day Gifty was saved in church.
Gifty’s childhood allows Gyasi to project deeply philosophical reflections upon her character. The dimensionality of Gifty’s perspectives make her character so incredibly convincing that it's hard to believe that this is a novel to begin with. Gifty’s childhood turned her into a colder and detached person, which she later transforms into curiosity and experimentation. Through her scientific doctoral work, Gifty seeks out answers concerning the mental health of her mother, her brother's addiction, and her relationship with God. Yet, science alone does not fulfill Gifty, and throughout the novel she finds her answers in unconventional means.
“Transcendent Kingdom” is a story that will stick with you. It won’t fill your mind with wonder and adornment for the strength of the characters, but it is undeniably heart-breaking, and it will give you the opportunity to reflect. Gyasi’s writing forces us to reconsider the notions we hold about sensitive topics like addiction and mental illness. Gifty studies neuroscience to understand why her brother could not kick his heroin habit, and she studies herself to understand how it affected her.
By reading Gifty’s accounts, we begin to learn as well. Her introspections can be used as a foundation for a similar self-examination. Although Gifty is a complex and uncommon character, her struggles can easily be resonated with and that opens the window for self-reflection. She even went to Harvard for her undergraduate degree, and while her experiences are fictional, she comes off as your average Harvard student. Beyond that, her childhood as the daughter of an immigrant family is an accurate and poignant illustration that many can identify with.
“Transcendent Kingdom” does have specific and distinct characters, but that should not deter anyone from reading this novel. For those looking for an exciting and thrilling plot, this may not be a great fit. There is great rhythm in the writing, but it is more of a slow-burn, especially towards the middle.
Another thing of note: religion is heavily emphasized in the work since it was such an integral part of Gifty’s life. The majority of the second half centers around Evangelical Christianity. The narrative shifts its focus towards Gifty’s reconciliation with her faith in light of her mother’s depression. Nonetheless, the discussion of Christianity is not a jaded one, nor is it biased. Rather, it offers an insight into the place that religion has in a scientific world, where the ends of scientific inquiry often turn to philosophy.
Yaa Gyasi’s sophomore novel is a deviation from her previous work, “Homegoing”, but she succeeds tremendously in portraying a character rich in depth, emotion, and determination that is unlike much else out there.
