2021 Book Review #8: The Vanishing Half

 

This novel.

So well written!

A new-to-me author again (I'm on a roll!) and one of the best books I've read since January.

Every white American should be required to read this book.  Very eye-opening.

STORY SUMMARY

Desiree and Stella Vignes will always be identical twins.  Always. Their mother, Adele Vignes raised them alone after they saw their Daddy get lynched by a bunch of white men. She worked hard to "raise them right" in the little "light black" town of Mallard. Mallard is a small, black community in the south but when the girls turned 16 they ran away. They both escaped for different reasons.

Their daily lives are completely different many years later. It begins with their racial identity. One sister lives with her very black daughter in the same southern town where they grew up, even though she vowed she would never return. 

And across the country, in California, the other sister is secretly passing as a white woman.  Her white husband knows absolutely nothing about her or her past. 

The fate of the twins becomes entangled. They are separated by time, distance and lies yet will come together in a most unexpected way.  What's going to happen when their own daughters' lives intersect??

MY THOUGHTS

 This book spans the 1950s to the 1990s.  It includes three generations of family and many different strands to the story. 

This book is full of emotion.  It explores the topics of racial identity, gender, and the pervasive influence of the past and the way the past shapes a person's destiny and expectations.

This book contains elements of familial love, familial estrangement, poverty, wealth, gender issues, change, forgiveness, and acceptance. 

I loved the psychological insights throughout this story.  There were many sentences that leaped off the page for me and as a white, upper middle class urban woman, who was raised in a blue collar, small -somewhat- rural village, I learned a LOT about the black community and their thoughts and feelings during a time that was at once chaotic, full of political turmoil, and prejudice. 

It's a look at racism and the effects of it on various communities, families and individual lives.

Here are a couple of quotes that really spoke to me:

"You could live a life this way, split.  As long as you knew who was in charge." (pg 129, The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett c. 2020)

"You could convince anyone you belonged somewhere if you acted like you did" (pg 149) 

"but soon she felt comfortable disappearing. You could say nothing and, in your nothingness, feel free." (pg 234) 

In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to some mature content).

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 9.