Add to Wish List. The omniscient authorial voice is gentle and compassionate in a tale that inverts and confounds expectations. Stella has to sacrifice so much of herself to maintain the lie. We know these spaces not from life but from literature. The period details in The Vanishing Half are offered just as casually; an emergency Homeowners Association meeting in Brentwood in 1968, for example — the emergency being the “regretful news” that “the Lawsons on Sycamore Way were selling their house and a colored man had just placed an offer to buy it”. But Bennett excels in conjuring the silences of families and in evoking atmosphere: the claustrophobia of the small town and its scuzzy and beloved saloon (“Cold Women! The extrovert Desiree is also a homing bird who returns to her sleepy home town. https://guardianbookshop.com/the-vanishing-half-9780349701462.html HBO acquired the rights to develop a limited series with Bennett as executive producer. every book you buy helps support independent journalism, find reviews, recommendations and special offers on the books we think you’ll love, get the best prices on the books we publish, SIGN UP FOR NEW ARRIVALS AND INSIDER-ONLY DISCOUNTS. by Brit Bennett. One, Desiree, eventually returns and finds her life hemmed in by discrimination and circumstance. Philip Jones, editor of The Bookseller and chair of the British Book Awards judges, said: “From Shuggie Bain to The Thursday Murder Club, from All the Lonely People to The Danger Gang, from Hamnet to Black and British, these were the books that answered the call during this period of turmoil, debate and hope.”, Chair of judges and novelist Bernardine Evaristo, said: ‘…with this shortlist, we are excited to present a gloriously varied and thematically rich exploration of women’s fiction at its finest. Twins Stella and Desiree grow up in a small black community in the southern US, until they run away at 16. Guardian. And she is deft at using figurative language. The timbre of the woman’s voice didn’t really appeal to be, I found it to be a bit thin, but there was nothing objectively wrong with it. Stella, ensconced in White society, is shedding her fur coat. 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By AMBER PEARSON. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. All positive reviews › Daniel S. 5.0 out of 5 stars The Road Not Taken. Bennett has not been published in the UK before, although her debut, The Mothers, was a bestseller in her native US. The Vanishing Half is a historical fiction novel by American author Brit Bennett. Very compelling (I was hooked straight away) and beautifully-written. Dialogue have swooped in over here, making this a super lead for 2020, and it deserves to be big. The Vanishing Half has unforgettable characters, complex familial ties, long-lost sisters, tragedy, and romance. Available for everyone, funded by readers. It seduces with its literary flair, surprises with its breath-taking plot twists, delights with its psychological insights, and challenges us to consider the corrupting consequences of racism on different communities and individual lives. In The Vanishing Half, she follows a set of twins after they leave their small, mainly Black hometown in Louisiana. The Vanishing Half...belongs to a long tradition of literature about racial passing ... Bennett roots out these withered tropes and reanimates them in a fresh, surprising story ... she leans into their prescribed melodrama. Stella eventually marries her white boss, who is unaware of her roots, and lives in a wealthy, white Los Angeles suburb. In 1950s New Orleans, an identical twin, desperate for dignity, abandons her beloved sister to begin a starkly different life: she passes as white, her blackness kept secret for the rest of her life. Read Article Weaving together multiple strands of generations of this family, from the Deep South of California from the 1950s and 1990s, this emotional family story is also a timely exploration of American history. The Vanishing Half has sold thousands of copies across the world this summer, and if thousands of people can forget the deadly virus, political mismanagement, racial violence, domestic violence, economic uncertainty and ecological disaster (as well as the washing-up, their overgrown fringe and their neighbours’ suspiciously un-distanced-sounding party), while reading a book that touches on all these things, resolves happily but not stupidly, and reintroduces them to Nella Larsen and Zora Neale Hurston and Lorraine Hansberry – well, that’s good enough. Bennett is a gifted storyteller. While the first 50 pages were a bit slow as the reader tries to figure out the lay of the land, thereafter, you simply can’t stop thinking about this book and waiting to dive back into it at every chance you get. It debuted at number one on The New York Times fiction best-seller list. In “The Vanishing Half,” her follow-up to “The Mothers,” Brit Bennett writes about twin sisters from Louisiana who set out in very different directions. Los Angeles-based Brit Bennet’s second novel, The Vanishing Half is the timeless tale of the Vignes twin sisters, who – while born identical – grow up to live two very different lives. Bennett is an excellent storyteller, though some of her secondary characters – a white academic blind to how white and middle class her version of feminism is – are overshadowed by the plot and can feel like plants. Book club questions for The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett will take an in-depth look at this engaging novel about race, family and fate. Brit Bennett’s new novel, “ The Vanishing Half,” is about people who disappear, in search of another life, a better place. For this mixed-race reader, each page of Stella’s fakery, each page of her pretending to be white even in the face of so much racism, felt like a punch to the gut. The Vanishing Half garnered acclaim from book critics, and was found by Emily Temple of Literary … The Vanishing Half may seem old-fashioned but it’s cleverly constructed to both match and critique the conservativism of the 1950s and 60s: the attenuated tone chimes with the restrained language and style of the period. Kennedy refers to her mother’s past as ‘a barren pantry shelf’; and Desiree, on returning to her hometown, reflects on how it looks different — ‘like a house where all the furniture had shifted three inches. January 7, 2019 | Full Review… David Edelstein. Hot Beer!” its sign proclaims), the jazz clubs in New Orleans where the twins first taste freedom. The Vanishing Half Book Review. The Vanishing Half explores themes of race, family, and identity. The dual narrative ebbs and flows through this astounding book. I think this book works so well because the author has very carefully and thoughtfully There will be spoilers so for more context about the story, check out my spoiler-free review. Support The Guardian. Looking well beyond issues of race, THE VANISHING HALF considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes … Her omniscient narration roves among story lines, introducing us to a cast of stock characters ... More than once, the plot turns on an outrageous coincidence. Read more... Return purchased items within 30 days for a full refund. The Guardian - Back to home. Fascinating, and beautifully written. There’s something deeply familiar but weightless about her settings. The handling of Stella’s secret struggles is, however, an especial achievement. "The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett for me started slow until I got invested in the characters and once that happened, I could not put it down! Which brings us to the water we’re swimming in now. But the novel is driven by the intelligence and agility of her writing, which is tender without being sentimental, and stark when it needs to be. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. You wouldn’t mistake it for a stranger’s house but you’d keep banging your shins on the table corners’. The Vanishing Half Audiobook Review. This immersive novel about twins Desiree and Stella, who run away from the small, suffocating Southern town of Mallard when they're 16 to carve out a new life for themselves, should win many, many awards. The source material for HBO's new limited series is Bennett's epic 2020 novel. Four years later, her second, The Vanishing Half, more than lives up to her early promise. Write a review. The Guardian Bookshop is the online bookshop for The Guardian and The Observer. And this feeling of utter frustration fuels the book’s power as a page-turner. Can you truly leave behind the identity you’re born with? The Vanishing Half: A Novel. All Rights Reserved. Bennett’s arresting, humane novel is an indictment on race and class in America. Named as one of Oprah’s most anticipated books of 2020, The Vanishing Half follows the identical Vignes twin sisters, who choose to live in very different words – one Black, and one white. Bennett is at her most compelling when she describes the emotionally fraught bond between women, a subject she previously explored in her debut, The Mothers. These novels will take the reader from a rural Britain left behind to the underbelly of a community in Barbados; from inside the hectic performance of social media to inside a family beset by addiction and oppression; from a tale of racial hierarchy in America to a mind-expanding tale of altered perceptions. The Vanishing Half may seem old-fashioned but it’s cleverly constructed to both match and critique the conservativism of the 1950s and 60s: the attenuated tone chimes with the restrained language and style of the period. Tending bar as a side job in Beverly Hills, she catches a glimpse of her mother’s doppelgänger. Ten years later, Desiree has returned with a young daughter in tow, but no one has seen or heard from Stella, who, it turns out, is secretly passing for white, and her new family know nothing of her past. In a style as easy and candid as a detective story, she scatters clues for us to gather just as, crucially, the twins’ contrasting daughters, Jude and Kennedy, piece together fragments of their painful heritage. Biography & autobiography: business & industry, Biography & autobiography: arts & entertainment, Biography & autobiography: historical, political & military, Biography & autobiography: science & technology, Biography & autobiography: religious & spiritual, Language teaching & learning (other than ELT), Modern history to 20th century: c1700 to c1900, Children's & YA poetry, anthologies & annuals, The Orwell prize for political fiction 2021, The Orwell prize for political writing 2021, The Women's prize for fiction 2021 longlist, Skip to the beginning of the images gallery. Born in 1938 in Mallard, a small town in Louisiana, while their fair appearance may disguise their negroe heritage, they are very much part of the black community. Ultimately, it’s a quietly damning account of acquiescing to an imitation of life and the delusion of the American dream. This generous, humane novel has many merits, not least its engrossing plot and richly detailed settings, from smoky small-town diners to gleaming laboratories. Review of The Vanishing Half. It is her second novel and was published by Riverhead Books in 2020. It fills you with questions, exposes you to realities you may never have thought of and of course keeps you up into the night reading. From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Mothers, a powerful new novel about the parallel lives of estranged twin sisters who choose to live in two very different worlds - one black and one white. Fiction by women defies easy categorisation or stereotyping, and all of these novels grapple with society’s big issues expressed through thrilling storytelling. The violence is indelible, the twins’ complicated bond beautifully real. Dialogue's super lead for 2020. 'The Vanishing Half is an utterly mesmerising novel. The movie is phenomenally well made and the three actors who fall apart on our watch suffer magnificently. by Deepa Gahlot August 27, 2020. written by Deepa Gahlot August 27, 2020. ' The Vanishing Half is an utterly mesmerising novel. Daily Mail - Eithne Farry. Last updated at 19:07 29 June 2007 Jude, so Black that strangers routinely stare, is unrecognizable to her aunt. It seduces with its literary flair, surprises with its breath-taking plot twists, delights with its psychological insights, and challenges us to consider the corrupting consequences of racism on different communities and individual lives… The other, Stella, reinvents herself as a white woman and spends decades in an upper-middle-class California community, where she is forced to hide her secret. She lays out the twins’ paths from the shared trauma of their father’s lynching in the 1940s to their own daughters’ disparate outcomes into the 1990s. 'The Vanishing Half is an utterly mesmerising novel. Sign up to get the best reviewed books of the week delivered every Monday morning - How are ratings calculated? Her shy sister turns out to be more adventurous and sheds her family as easily as a snake shedding its skin. There is a third reading of a novel when you’re writing about it, one that necessarily takes you further away from the sunny weekend lying on the grass. This book has everything: enticing plot, memorable characters and beautiful, melodic writing. The Vanishing Half – Book Review. It begins in a small town in the Deep South, a place identical twins Stella and Desiree ran away from as 16-year-olds in 1954. Dialogue's super lead for 2020. “Passing” requires utter vigilance; Stella must avoid black people who are most likely to spot her deception. “It’s not something I imagined when I started this book in 2014,” Bennett told Vanity Fair, “that it would be framed as being topical in some way.” But, of course, it does feel intensely topical; a novel that deftly rehearses the history of prejudice and suffering leading up to the present moment. All this is expertly paced, unfurling before the book is half finished; a reader can guess what is coming. By tracing Stella and Desiree’s diverging paths, and the way their daughters are affected, the novel maps the lines drawn between white and Black people and dramatically exposes the emotional stakes of identity. The characters in this book are so real, so warm and so … 'The Vanishing Half' is a multi-generational tale that explores the changing times and beliefs of America in the latter half of the 20th century. Worldwide delivery available. We have over 140,000 titles available to buy, and can ship all around the world. It tells the story of twin girls growing up in the segregated South. The Vanishing Half gave me the kind of reading experience where I wanted to know what happens, but at the same time, I wanted to read slowly and be immersed in the story longer.It’s also the kind of book where I wanted to keep reading so badly, despite the need for sleep. Review the reviews: The Vanishing Act Of Esme Lennox. The Vanishing Half waseasilya five-star book for me. Contribute Subscribe Contribute Gift options Search … Ultimately, it’s a quietly damning account of acquiescing to an imitation of life and the delusion of the American dream. In Louisiana damning account of acquiescing to an imitation of life and the.... Unaware of her roots, and it deserves to be a timely testament the! Jagged introspection that threatens the life she has so painstakingly built early promise I was straight... 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