Book Review: "The Vanishing Half" By Brit Bennett

 

Image Source: www.shelit.com

Introduction

Book Name: The Vanishing Half 

Author: Brit Bennett 

Language: English 

Genre: Fiction

Author

Brit Bennett, who was born and raised in Southern California, received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University and then went on to the University of Michigan to complete her MFA in fiction. While there, she won the 2014 Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers and the Hopwood Award for Graduate Short Fiction. The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, the Paris Review, and Jezebel all feature her work. She is one of 2016 5 Under 35 honorees of the National Book Foundation.

Plot

The lives of two identical Black girls with light skin who flee their homes at the age of sixteen are followed in The Vanishing Half. While Stella lives her life pretending to be white, Desiree marries a dark-skinned Black man and has a child. The book follows their lives across generations as they diverge from one another while still being connected. It's a story that sensitively and provocatively examines the complexities of race, family, and identity.

Desiree Vignes returned to Mallard in April 1968, fourteen years after leaving. She shows up with Jude, a dark-skinned Black girl who is her daughter. The events that caused Desiree and her twin sister Stella to leave Mallard in August 1954, their separation in New Orleans, and Desiree's decision to leave her abusive husband, Sam Winston, in Washington, D.C. are all covered in the first section of the book. 

Desiree obtains employment at Lou's Egg House while back in Mallard and residing with her mother Adele. She also meets up with Early Jones, a former lover. Early on, Desiree learns the truth from a bounty hunter her husband had hired to find her, and the two start dating.

Ten years later, in the second section of the book, Jude, Desiree's daughter, is following her to UCLA in Los Angeles on a track scholarship. Jude meets Reese, a transgender man who is aspiring to be a photographer, at a Halloween party. Jude moves in with Reese that summer and starts to fall in love with him, though she finds it difficult to express her feelings. One evening, Reese confronts Jude after the latter made a remark about Reese's chest bandages. Barry, a drag artist who goes by the stage name Bianca, offers Jude a place to stay the night.

Reese visits Barry's apartment that evening and consoles Jude. Finally, they give each other a kiss to show their affection. Jude takes on a second job as a caterer to help Reese with the cost of her breast removal surgery. Jude, who is employed as a caterer in Beverly Hills, accidentally spills a bottle of wine on a pricey carpet after spotting a person who resembles Stella, her mother's twin sister.

Personal Review

Many lists of the most anticipated books for 2020 included Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half, but now it has been picked up for an HBO limited series in a seven-figure deal. I really loved this book, and I can't wait for it to be made into a television series because I think it would be amazing. But before then, I believe reading this book is worthwhile.

I was taken aback by how easily I became engrossed in this tale. Bennett's prose is straightforward but appropriately descriptive. There isn't much filler, which is something I usually like, and the plot advances at a fairly steady pace. 

In addition, considering the somewhat heavy subjects covered in the book, reading it was surprisingly simple. I was aware from the reviews that it would probably be a book with insightful observations on race, but I was still taken aback by how much I enjoyed the story on its own. It's a complex tale about family, identity, and the secrets we harbour.

The Vanishing Half weaves together a variety of characters with diverse backgrounds throughout the narrative. Jude's tale is one of a young, dark-skinned woman coming of age and realising who she is. Desiree is a light-skinned Black woman who chooses to maintain her Black identity, whereas Stella is a light-skinned Black woman who chooses to pass as white. Kennedy believes she is exclusively white as she grows up. Additionally, Reese is transgender, whereas Barry only wears drag occasionally.

Although Bennett's novel The Vanishing Half is set a few decades in the past, she uses its premise to examine several extremely current racial issues. Stella, for instance, ends up residing in a white neighbourhood full of the kind of people who might agree with Dr. King's viewpoints but who also object to Black people residing there.

While overt racism like that is less prevalent in 2022, there are still many so-called "woke" liberals who refuse to date or hook up with someone of a different race, and whose social circles are made up entirely of white people with maybe one token Black friend added on.

Written by: Greeshma Chowdary

Edited by: Nidhi Jha