Meanwhile, authors like Bennett are erasing their words and encouraging readers to unlearn the underlying racism that still lingers in society. The media and the world around us continue to write the criminalising narrative of black people. The detail and delicacy aired in every sentence Brit Bennett writes is breath-taking.Īlthough I belong to a privileged group, similar to Evaristo in ‘Girl, Woman Other’, Bennett writes with such skill that she brought me closer to something new, something that I can never fully comprehend, but something I can only imagine causes immense heartache and fear. Bennett writes beautifully about race, family, grief, identity, unconditional love, class, and more without ever being preachy. The regret, fear, and heartache that burden the sisters are so poignantly written that they were almost tangible. Spanning four decades, I am in awe of how Bennett seamlessly tells her story from the alternating perspectives of Desiree, Stella, and their daughters. ‘The Vanishing Half’ captured me from the beginning. A summary alone doesn’t prepare you for the journey you’re about to embark. The choices each sister made will alter the course of not only their own lives, but that of their children’s, as well.
Meanwhile, the other sister flees back to Mallard with her ebony skinned daughter who feels like an outcast because of her exceptional darkness. After a few years, one sister abruptly leaves the other behind when she chooses to pass as a white woman – a decision that forces her to lie to her husband and daughter. Even at sixteen when they decide to run away to New Orleans, race factors into their lives and shapes their opportunities. Generations later, no matter how “creamy” their skin is or how “wavy” their hair, the twins are no more invincible to racism. He wished to build a town for men like him, who would never be accepted as white but refused to be treated like Negroes.
Founded by their ancestor in the mid-nineteenth century, what sets the community of Mallard apart is the fact that everyone who lives there has light skin. Stella and Desiree Vignes were born in a small black Louisiana community called Mallard, barely visible on the map. With an endorsement from Bernardine Evaristo and a mention on The High Low podcast - the ultimate source of literary recommendations - it would have been wrong of me not to have read ‘The Vanishing Half.’
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