The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - January 24th 2022

 We are back to Zoom meetings.  Present were Beth, Betty, Carla, Colette, Janet, Linda, Marg, Michèle and Shirley.  We discussed Carla's book choice The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.  

Brit Bennett is a young American author.  This is her 2nd novel.  Both her first novel The Mothers and this novel were No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.  She was born in California, studied at Stanford University and completed an MFA in English Literature.  She also studied at Oxford University. She has written several essays that are interesting.  Links to the essays are on her website. 

The Vanishing Half  is a family saga, the story of twins Stella and Désirée born to a couple from the Louisiana town of Mallard and their families.  This small town has the distinction of having a population of light-skinned black people who do not want to be known as "negroes".  The twins run away to New Orleans at 16 years old and find work.  Stella realizes that she can pass as white and leaves New Orleans and her sister for California where she marries a white man and leaves her life behind. Désirée, who marries an abusive man, eventually leaves him and goes back to Mallard with her dark skinned daughter Jude.  When Jude graduates from high school she goes to California to study at University on a sports scholarship. 

This novel created a lot of discussion and it is safe to say that it was not enjoyed equally by everyone but several found it to be a page turner. Some saw it as a good yarn, others found it sad with all characters being unhappy. Some of us enjoyed the first half of the book but felt that the second half, that concentrates on Jude and Kennedy, Stella's daughter, and multiple other characters sort of went flat. Some storylines were too melodramatic to be believable. There were too many coincidences. In a large over-populated state like California, Jude sees Stella and is stunned by the likeness to her own mother Désirée.  Why was Jude working at that reception in particular, coincidences? Fate?  

We discussed colourism and passing, Stella "passed" and became "white". Jude's boyfriend Reese, who was Therese when he lived with his family in Kansas, "passes" to the male gender and lives as a man.   One of our members discussed a 1949 movie, an Elia Kazan movie "Pinky" in which a young black woman with fair skin moves north and passes as a white woman.  We talked about how, even in the 21st century, society still has difficulty accepting differences in people.  

Thank you Carla for this book choice that generated a lot of discussion.