Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half unflinchingly portrays the story of ‘coloured twins’ in 1950s America – their families and the journey of living with daily prejudice and discrimination due to being black. Particularly, the author focuses on colourism in the country and the different ways it plays out, not only within the black community but in wider society as well.
The story is about Desiree and Stella Vignes and is set in the fictional town of Mallard; a town for residents who are not ‘white enough’ for society but aspiring to be accepted by it. It sets the tone for the rest of the story and endears the characters and the difficult choices they make. Such as Stella ‘passing’ to be white and divorcing herself from her family so as to marry a Caucasian man, and trying her utmost in being ‘white enough’ to gain their entitled benefits of being ‘free’ and its opportunities. Her trauma is so deep that Stella never seems able to face the root of the oppression and her feeling of clutching at being white and free, to even denying her black heritage, the book’s impactful emotions staying with you.
As it does with another character, Jude – Desiree’s “blueblack” child who, having grown up in Mallard, believes that the taunts she receives for her colour hides true affection. Then later as a teen, having a clandestine relationship with one of Mallard’s ‘light skinned’ men who taunted her as a child, and who would never accept her in public, but to her mind it’s the best that she can hope for. All these complexities and more – the slow burn of a complicated romance, being forthright about one’s sexuality, surviving poverty and chasing happiness (despite having the cards stacked against you) – speak of the book’s depth and pull.
Bennett is a masterful storyteller, evoking feelings and mind frames in her readers, with both tenderness and bravery – the unease of never being seen as ‘enough’ in terms of race, a yearning for acceptance and belonging, the vulnerabilities of raising a child and the disillusionment of how your gender is treated.
Book Edition Information:
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
ISBN: 0349701474
Presented Edition: 2021 Paperback
Cover Designers: Nico Taylor and Jo Taylor
Cover Concept: Mike McQuade
Background image courtesy of Bady Abbas on Unsplash
