The Vanishing Half

Passing ist ein Phänomen, dass es bereits länger gibt, in Europa aber eher unbekannt ist, obwohl es auch hier existiert. Dabei wird die soziale Identität eines Menschen (Geschlecht, Klasse, Ethnie usw.) von seiner Umwelt nicht erkannt, so dass die damit verbundenen Erwartungen, Rechte und Pflichten nicht existieren. Wie beispielsweise in Deutschland die Juden während des Dritten Reiches, die ihr Jüdischsein verheimlichten, um so der Verfolgung zu entgehen. Heute ist es insbesondere in den USA Thema, wobei Schwarze mit sehr heller Haut für Weiße gehalten und entsprechend behandelt werden, wovon dieses Buch unter anderem auch erzählt.

1938 werden die Zwillinge Desiree und Stella in dem kleinen Nest Mallard im Süden der USA show more geboren, dessen BewohnerInnen es sich zum Ziel setzen, mit jeder Generation hellhäutiger zu werden. Mit 16 Jahren brennen die Beiden durch und gehen nach New Orleans, wo sich ihre Wege trennen. „… Desiree heiratete den dunkelsten Mann den sie finden konnte.“ und bekommt eine Tochter, „… so schwarz, schwärzer geht’s nicht.“
Stella hingegen „… wurde zur weißen Stella.“, was sie jedoch nur sein konnte, „…, wenn Desiree nicht dabei war.“ Sie heiratet einen vermögenden weißen Mann aus dem Geldadel und bekommt eine blonde Tochter.
Die Lebenswege der beiden Frauen entwickeln sich so weit auseinander, dass sie sich nie wieder gesehen hätten, wären ihre Töchter sich nicht begegnet. Denn Desiree kehrt mit ihrer Tochter Jude nach Mallard zurück, während Stella ihr Leben als Weiße in der High Society in Los Angeles führt.

Brit Bennett, die Autorin, zeigt in diesem Buch überdeutlich, wie groß die Unterschiede der Möglichkeiten sind, die je nach Hautfarbe zur Wahl stehen. Während Stella praktisch alles werden kann, bleibt für Desiree letzten Endes der Job in der Kneipe. Aber das Leben auf einer Lüge aufzubauen, hat ebenfalls seinen Preis.
Überzeugend stellt Bennett dar, wie Stella aus Angst, enttarnt zu werden, am heftigsten gegen die ersten schwarzen Nachbarn protestiert. Und wie sie ständig in der Furcht lebt, als das erkannt zu werden, was sie ist: schwarz.
Auch gut gefallen hat mir, wie Bennett die Charaktere der Töchter in Teilen fast spiegelbildlich zu denen ihrer Mütter entwirft. Desirees Tochter Jude hat mehr Ähnlichkeit mit Stella, während Stellas Tochter Kennedy viele Wesenszüge ihrer Tante aufweist. Doch Beide tragen ganz klar das Erbe ihrer Mütter in sich, während die Väter kaum eine Rolle spielen.

Wirklich lesenswert! show less

Twins Desiree and Stella are light-skinned Black women living in a town that is aggressively and protectively populated by other light-skinned Black people. Even with this meager amount of privilege they run into the kinds of discrimination and potential assaults that Black women are generally faced with. The sisters escape to New Orleans but not long after, Stella completely disappears. Desiree mourns her missing sister, suspecting she is 'passing' as a white woman somewhere.
The story follows Desiree, and then her daughter Jude, finally also encountering Stella and her daughter, Kennedy. The four women have very different experiences, particularly the two cousins. The story is engaging, and definitely did not go where I expected it show more to. The characters and their thoughts about Blackness and the relative hues contained therein are fascinating, particularly as their treatment and opportunities change over the decades.
I read this book with my book club, and we had some great discussions about these topics. I recommend this book. show less

When I initially started to read this book, I read the first chapter and it wasn’t the right time for me to read it. I am so happy I picked this book back up because the writing was phenomenal. I’m from Louisiana and I know of those small towns the twins were from. In fact, my family was from a town that no longer “exists” on the map anymore. I was captivated in every way how the twins split, one becoming a white woman and the other kept to her roots and maintained she was indeed a black girl. Creoles live a lonely life, they never seem to fit in any category because of their “yellow skin”.

I loved that this went past multi generations and how the two nieces grew up with such different life’s because of the color show more difference of the skin.

This is a moving, touching and makes you realize just how important family is to you. No one can truly understand you like your family can.

My only downside was that there wasn’t that first chapter hook. show less

In [The Vanishing Half], [[Brit Bennett]] explores what happens when external perceptions clash with internal perceptions. Twin light-skinned sisters who are raised as Black, escape from their small town. One disappears, deciding to "pass" as white and marrying a wealthy white man and having a white daughter. The other twin ends up marrying a dark-skinned man and having a dark-skinned daughter. This daughter meets and falls in love with a transgender man. In all of this, there is so much to think about regarding race and gender and how our preconceived notions and biases affect how we live our lives and interact with others.

I liked that Bennett accomplished all of this without a heavy hand or any "preachiness". I was glad that I had show more read [[Nella Larsen]]'s book, [Passing], which is an obvious influence on this novel. Overall, I'd say this novel lives up to the hype and I would recommend it. show less

I have other book reviews to write, but somehow, writing about The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett feels like the most important review to write given what is happening around the country right now. Its release date of today, 2 June 2020, is timely, as its discussion of race is one we all need to have right now.

The thing is, I don't have the words or experiences to do the novel justice. I am white. I was born into a lower-middle-class family of educators. We did not have a lot of money, but we were not poor by any means. We lived in predominantly white neighborhoods and never had to worry about crime or violence. I went to predominantly white schools, with just enough diversity for the school district leaders to feel good about show more themselves. The police were not something to fear but something to honor and respect. I did not have to choose between my education or getting a job when I was a teenager; I got a job for spending money only. I almost never had to worry about the color of my skin when in certain situations, although I am ashamed to admit that there were certain neighborhoods we passed through to get to my brother's baseball games where we would lock the doors and try not to call attention to ourselves for fear of harassment or even violence against ourselves. In other words, Stella's and Desiree's situations are so far removed from my own as to be almost foreign.

Yet, it is this unfamiliarity that makes such novels like The Vanishing Half so important. We don't just learn about the experiences of others. These novels force us out of our comfort zones by challenging us to look at what makes up reality for millions of others. They demand us to directly look at racism and hatred in ways not available to us, and in so doing, requires us to understand their situations. For me, The Vanishing Half did nothing but raise questions I would love to ask but am afraid to do so because it shows my ignorance of the Black experience.

The story's premise is one that follows the lives of twin girls, born and raised in a poor Louisiana town that prides itself on the whiteness of its denizens, even though the town is a Black town. One of the twins disappears one day, having decided to pass herself off as white, forever leaving her family and heritage in the past to prevent her secret from becoming known. The other twin ends up marrying a very dark black man but moves back home when she starts to fear for her life at the hands of her husband. Both sisters have daughters, whose stories we also follow.

The story itself is impeccably written, balancing between establishing the setting without sacrificing character development. We feel all four ladies' shame and fear, their anxiety, and their love. We care for all four women, in spite of their very different lives. Even if we don't agree with some of their decisions, we appreciate their sacrifices and the journies they travel.

But the questions are what will make me remember The Vanishing Half. More than Stella's passing, more than Jude's compassion, I remain haunted by the questions I have because of their experiences. Just the idea of a Black town that is as white in skin tone and hair and eye color as most of the neighborhoods in which I grew up is fascinating to me and makes me ask what actually defines race? According to the novel, it is not necessarily skin color, and yet, isn't that what we are taught? That we base race on skin color? Yet, this town, which is fictional but I'm sure exists somewhere, identifies itself as a Black community, faced with the same laws of segregation and fears of lynching as any other Black community in the South in the 1950s. Does this mean we define race based on identity? Or is it heritage?

Then there is this idea of degrees of blackness, where even Black people favor those with whiter skin. Desiree sees this firsthand in how the community does not accept her husband and later actively prejudices itself against her dark-skinned daughter. Why would a community do this? Do we, as humans, need to feel like we are better than someone else, so much so that we look down on people of our own race

One cannot discuss The Vanishing Half without talking about Stella's passing over. I admit that there is still a part of me that wonders why this is such a big deal. After all, don't we, as parents, want our children to have a better life than the one we had? So, for a Black mother, would that not mean becoming white if possible? I recognize how ignorant this question is because I do understand that Stella's passing over means that she is making a statement about her heritage being less important to her than her own comfort. But Stella doesn't just pass over because she no longer wants to fight against racism and segregation. She does so because she can and because she likes the feelings passing as white gives her. This put my mind down a completely different path, as I wonder how often people passed over in the past. How often does it happen now? Most importantly, why would someone do it? If you do, do you hate yourself, do you hate your family or your heritage, or is it something else?

Stella's behavior toward Blacks as a white woman of privilege also raises eyebrows and questions. Or maybe it doesn't if you are a BIPOC reading it. I just don't know. I do know I struggled to like Stella as a person as she focused only on the inexplicable idea of how being near another Black person would jeopardize her secret, which then allowed her to treat them as bad or worse as anything she experienced as a child. I don't understand it, and I definitely don't like it or her for doing it.

Lastly, I find it very telling that Stella, as a white woman, is the only one of the four women to get married or remain married. Desiree marries someone who abuses her and leaves him fairly quickly in the novel. She finds her long-time love but never makes it official. Jude finds her one love but does not marry him for various reasons. Kennedy never finds the one. What does this say about the institution of marriage among Blacks versus whites? Is there something Ms. Bennett is saying about marriage in Black culture that I don't understand?

The thing is that I most likely will never get satisfactory answers to my questions, and I think that is okay as well. Learning comes through exposure to new ideas and situations and asking questions about them. I may never understand why Stella does what she does or the level of fear and degradation Desiree and Jude feel, but by reading The Vanishing Half I know more than I did before. The questions the novel raises for me will make me seek out other novels written by Black authors or books about race, and I will continue to seek answers and listen to others' experiences. As a white woman, that is the very least I can do. show less

No one noticed the Vignes twins sneaking out of town one evening. Ten years later, Desiree has returned with her daughter, escaping an abusive relationship, but of Stella there has been no word — only speculation that she discovered she could "pass" as white and quietly slipped into a new existence.

This was a mesmerizing and well-written story, and one I found difficult to put down (I actually brought it home from work to finish over the weekend, allowing it precedence over my "home" book, so that says something!). There is a lot of food for thought and plenty to discuss about family, identity, secrets, so I'd definitely recommend as book clubs.

Charlotte Brontë wrote scathingly more than once about her near contemporary Jane Austen's novels. She dismissed Pride and Prejudice as an "accurate daguerreotyped portrait of a common-place face; a carefully-fenced, highly cultivated garden with neat borders and delicate flowers." In Emma, she claimed, Austen "ruffles her reader by nothing vehement, disturbs him by nothing profound." Much as I don't agree with Brontë's views, I thought of her words more than once while reading Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half.

For a book which touches so many weighty, important issues—racism, colourism, identity and performance, passing, transness, segregation—this felt very safe, very benign. I think I was something like 280 pages in before I show more had a moment where I as a reader felt challenged by anything I read, but that was all contained within a paragraph or two and then never further engaged with. (In this case, the Black boyfriend of white(-presenting) Kennedy asks her to call him the N word during sex. The way my eyes widened.) Also, since we never really see inside Reese's head and his character goes under-developed, I'm not sure what Bennett was trying to do with the apparent paralleling of being trans and racial passing, but I was side-eyeing the implications.

And then, after the atmospheric opening chapters—where I could understand the twins' desire to leave stifling small-town 1950s Mallard, Louisiana, and to head for the big city—the characters just increasingly acted in unconvincing ways. There were things that characters did or didn't do that seemed to make sense only from the perspective of permitting some aspect of the plot, or to fit with the Capital T Themes that each character is supposed to represent.

It's all very neat: carefully-fenced, highly cultivated, nothing vehement. show less