After seeing all the hype about The Vanishing Half book everywhere on social media and in book stores, I decided, ok, I’ll see what it’s about. I read this book on the 6-8hr roundtrip train ride to Italy. And wow, it did not disappoint! But… I did hope for a different ending.
Synopsis
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett is a historical fiction novel held in the 1940s-1990s that centres around two identical twin girls, Desiree and Stella Vignes. They are two light-skinned black girls that were raised in a tiny rural town in Louisiana. At 16, they leave the little town to explore a big city life and find themselves. But they ultimately split and lead two different lives, one in the little town again and one in Beverly Hills; one living on paycheck to paycheck and one with a very wealthy husband; one struggling and one privileged; one black and one white.
Their lives unfold in different ways and so do the lives of their daughters, each having one daughter around the same age. The daughters’ lives intertwine and they develop a particular relationship, despising each other at times, but also feeling the need to support each other.
Theme: Duality
- The twin sisters, Desiree and Stella
- Their personalities are completely different – Desiree is outgoing, full of energy, unable to stay still, whereas Stella is quiet, calm, and composed.
- Despite having these personalities, they grow up and live the opposite lives as what was expected of them
- Desiree has always talked about leaving their little hometown, everyone knows. And she does, but after a few years of an abusive relationship, she returns home with a girl on her waist. Then stays in that town for most of her life.
- Stella has always been anxious and nervous about doing anything out of her comfort zone. But after she’s been sexually assaulted a few times, she agrees to go to New Orleans with Desiree. Afterwards she gets tempted by “switching over to become white” and falls in love with a rich white man, then leaves Desiree with only a note behind to live a privileged white life she’s always wanted.
- Race
- Desiree lives a black life and Stella lives a white life
- It’s prominent throughout the book on the different privileges each race has during that time period. It dictates a lot of the resources each obtains and the opportunities they can have. It also controls how they see themselves, it affects their confidence and self-acceptance.
- It’s interesting to see two identical people lead such different lives just from being different races. It says a lot about the societal racism during that time.
- Desiree lives a black life and Stella lives a white life
- Sexual Identity
- Jude, Desiree’s daughter, has a long term boyfriend, Reese, who is a transgender man
- Reese, originally Therese Anne Carter from Arkansas, finds out he’s actually a boy interested in girls. Not just lesbian though, the masculinity part is very important to him. He runs away to LA and transitions to become a boy with steroids and chest bandages.
- The process in becoming fully physically male is very important to him, he saves up just to take sketchy steroids in the black market. But he still struggles accepting the her before him, which strains his relationship with Jude until they have a raw, genuine, and vulnerable conversation.
- Jude has a close friend, Barry, who by day is a bald chemistry teacher, but by night is a glamorous drag queen.
- Barry lives these two lives, he pays the bills by teaching chemistry, but every Saturday night he lets Bianca out. It’s interesting to see how he balances the two and develops a strong friendship with Jude – he teaches her chemistry and she will accompany him to buy makeup.
- Jude, Desiree’s daughter, has a long term boyfriend, Reese, who is a transgender man
- Careers
- Desiree is a waitress at their local pub, whereas Stella is a stay-at-home mom, then a math professor.
- Desiree has a manual labour job, trading time and physical energy for hourly pay
- Stella gets a degree and goes into academia
- Jude (Desiree’s daughter) pursues medicine in university and becomes a doctor, whereas Kennedy (Stella’s daughter) tries to become an actress and ultimately fails and turns to real estate
- Jude goes into the academic and professional route after discovering that she’s fascinated by human anatomy. She works and studies hard while running for the varsity team, and finally becomes a doctor.
- Stella hates school, hates studying, and only graduated because her parents begged the administration. She drops out of university to pursue acting full time, she does a few gigs here and there, but never gets a real breakthrough. She needs to make a living by waitressing and bartending, and finally goes into real estate and finds success there.
- It’s interesting because Desiree has always wanted to become an actress after performing in her grade school, and Stella’s daughter is the same and pursues it. They share the same outgoing, full of energy personality, and Jude often is reminded of her mom when she interacts with Kennedy. Whereas Stella has always wanted to study at university and envisioned herself teaching at school, and Desiree’s daughter goes down the same path just in medicine. Kennedy feels intimidated by the similarity between the two because she feels pressure to be like her mother, when she’s just not, and when she sees Jude accomplishing her mom’s dreams, she feels ashamed of herself.
- The cross between mother and daughter connect them closer than they think they are. Even though they aren’t in contact, they share personalities. Blood is thicker than water.
- Desiree is a waitress at their local pub, whereas Stella is a stay-at-home mom, then a math professor.
- Men
- The men in this book are vastly different and affect the two twins in different ways
- Their father
- Their father was beat up and lynched in front of them when they were 10 years old. A gang of white men accused him for something that was impossible for him to do, and made him pay for it.
- How this affected the twins
- Desiree became hard-shelled and protective of her sister, and never wanted to speak of it.
- Stella suppressed any fear, sadness, or emotion that she felt. On the outside she was tough, but on the inside she was shattered. She had nightmares every night of a gang of white men coming to beat her.
- Sam vs Early
- Sam is Desiree’s abusive husband and Early is Desiree’s lifelong partner and lover
- Both romantic partners of Desiree, one goes sour and beats her up daily in front of their child, and one protects her from a distance and is always there for her.
- It’s interesting that the two are connected because Sam hired Early to hunt down Desiree to bring her back to him, and that’s how Early and Desiree reunited.
- Early vs Blake
- Early is Desiree’s partner and Blake is Stella’s partner
- Both men love their partners very much and show it in different ways. They both have different situations, Early gets gigs to track people down, which leaves him to often drive to different parts of the country and sleep in his care, whereas Blake is a wealthy business man.
- Early shows love by constantly coming back to see Desiree and helping her track down Stella. Blake shows love by providing a comfortable rich life with extravagant gifts and leisures.
- Their father
- The men in this book are vastly different and affect the two twins in different ways
Thoughts
- I didn’t like how Stella just upped and left Desiree for a white rich guy. It makes sense that she’d do that to “be white” and have a comfortable life, but what if he didn’t love her as much? What if he didn’t want to marry her? She shouldn’t rely on someone else just because they’re privileged and wealthy, she should rely on herself. And in one perspective, you could say that this decision is her relying on herself because she has decided to “be white” and to take the leap, but it just doesn’t seem right to break all contact.
- I didn’t like the ending
- There’s this one part as we near the end (you’ll know if you’re reading it), where there’s an obvious happy ending possibility… but it doesn’t happen. What happens is very realistic to the characters’ personalities, but I still don’t like it. The split of Desiree and Stella has never sat well with me, probably because it reminds me of my own life. My sisters, like Stella, have chosen their own route with no communication. I try to reach out to them, like Desiree asking Early to track down Stella, but they don’t reply. I wish with all my might that we’ll become sisters and best friends again. But if my ending is like this book, then we won’t. But maybe this book is actually a wake up call for me, if I’m passive like Desiree, I’ll get her ending. If I’m more active and try more, maybe I’ll get my own ending.
Questions
- I still don’t understand how Desiree and Stella are “in between races”. From what I know, they’re born black people with pale skin… but how can your skin be so pale that you can pretend to be white? Perhaps I’m naive on the visual difference between two races. But if they really look white, then why don’t they all leave their hometown and “become white”? Maybe it’s because the societal pressures on black people engrains in their minds that they will always be “below” and at a “disadvantage” to white people, therefore they’re unable to bring themselves to “the other side” because they know they can’t… I’m not sure.
Quotes
- “In the dark, you could never be too black. In the dark, everyone was the same color.”
- “You can escape a town, but you cannot escape blood. Somehow, the Vignes twins believed themselves capable of both.”
- “She hadn’t realized how long it takes to become somebody else, or how lonely it can be living in a world not meant for you.”
- “You didn’t just find a self out there waiting. You had to make one. You had to create who you wanted to be.”
- “True acting meant becoming invisible so that only the character shone through.”
- “A body could be labeled but a person couldn’t,”
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If you have read this book, please share your thoughts in the comments below! I’d love to read them.
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