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A review by baoluong
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
4.0
my heart is breaking
Seriously, what does it mean to be white? Is it just skin color or a way of life like picket fences and football? Rather I think race is something intangible that no one possess, not even “white people”. It’s a social construct that very much determines who will be disadvantaged. Given the chance, would you take the opportunity to be inducted into the white people club if it meant continuing to keep others underneath your boot heel?
Stella and Desiree were born light skinned mixed race twins. One decides to identify as black while the other chooses to integrate herself as a white woman. I’m not one to say either are wrong because at the end of the day they are of mixed race and the conversation of race in America is very black and white, literally. But the difference in “passing” is enough to allow one of the twins to live in a gated community with an architect husband and a daughter in college without having to work her way through it.
The book goes into detail explaining the racial makeup of the sisters’ lineage and inevitably the day a Stella disappears. It isn’t until we also follow their daughters’ journey that the two reunite. While the ending is bittersweet, it’s the path the each character has chosen for herself.
The writing jumps perspective frequently and while at times I find this distracting or messy, I think the purpose is to ultimately create little cliff hangers in the story. It just so happens, that in order to pick up from another narrative, we have to trudge through their own little flashbacks and then hopefully remember where we last left off. I recommend this for fans of own voices and wanting a fiction revolving around hidden identities.
Seriously, what does it mean to be white? Is it just skin color or a way of life like picket fences and football? Rather I think race is something intangible that no one possess, not even “white people”. It’s a social construct that very much determines who will be disadvantaged. Given the chance, would you take the opportunity to be inducted into the white people club if it meant continuing to keep others underneath your boot heel?
Stella and Desiree were born light skinned mixed race twins. One decides to identify as black while the other chooses to integrate herself as a white woman. I’m not one to say either are wrong because at the end of the day they are of mixed race and the conversation of race in America is very black and white, literally. But the difference in “passing” is enough to allow one of the twins to live in a gated community with an architect husband and a daughter in college without having to work her way through it.
The book goes into detail explaining the racial makeup of the sisters’ lineage and inevitably the day a Stella disappears. It isn’t until we also follow their daughters’ journey that the two reunite. While the ending is bittersweet, it’s the path the each character has chosen for herself.
The writing jumps perspective frequently and while at times I find this distracting or messy, I think the purpose is to ultimately create little cliff hangers in the story. It just so happens, that in order to pick up from another narrative, we have to trudge through their own little flashbacks and then hopefully remember where we last left off. I recommend this for fans of own voices and wanting a fiction revolving around hidden identities.