The Vanishing Half starts off in the fictional town of Mallard, which was built in 1848 by a person with mixed parentage for “men like him, who would never be accepted as white but refused to be treated as blacks”. Even as his black mother keeps him in the sun to darken his skin, he eventually marries a woman with lighter skin than even his own, hoping that future generations get lighter and lighter, “like a cup of coffee being steadily diluted with cream”, as Bennett puts it. This – the tussle between wanting to pass as white, for that meant to pass as free, and the fierce need to own and protect one’s racial identity – then forms the core of this novel.
Desiree and Stella are twin sisters and descendants of Mallard’s founder, physically identical but as different as chalk and cheese. Desiree is the more adventurous and rebellious of the two while Stella is the staider, and they run away from home at the age of sixteen – Desiree because she hates the pretentious town where people are “colorstruck” and Stella simply because she wants a better life. And as fate would have it, and due to individual choices that the sisters make, Desiree returns home while Stella passes as white and leads a life filled with lies.
The story spans about 40 years and touches upon three generations, with intertwining stories, and is filled with an interesting and well-fleshed out supporting cast – Early Jones, who had a childhood crush on Desiree but could not express it due to his color and who eventually becomes her main pillar of support, Desiree’s dark-skinned daughter Jude, who like her mother, is unforgiving of people who refuse to recognize their heritage, her boyfriend Reese who has been grappling with issues related to his sexuality and Stella’s daughter Kennedy, a Californian blonde, with a chequered relationship with her mother.
The contrast between Desiree and Stella is one of the most interesting aspects of the book, and also likely to be one of the most debated topics for any reading club. Ostensibly, the portrayal of Desiree seems more sympathetic and that of Stella seems somewhat cruel. But the story gradually reveals several layers to their characters. For example, it is unclear whether Desiree’s marriage to dark-skinned Sam is driven purely by love or to an extent by her hatred of what Mallard stood for and Stella’s behavior is partly explained by the racial and sexual violence witness by her during her childhood and teen years.
Finally, Bennett’s writing is top-notch – simple yet evocative. At one point, Stella, who spends nearly her entire life hiding things from everyone around her, notices her husband’s arousal and feels embarrassed for him as “she could think of nothing more horrifying than not being able to hide what she wanted” and metaphors such as these add to the reading pleasure!
Pros: Interesting plot, well-defined characters, beautiful writing
Cons: None really, unless this genre does not appeal to one
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