10th book of 2021
Reading period: Jan 22nd 2021 – Jan 26th 2021
Summary
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities.
Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ storylines intersect?
Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. 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 feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.
Rating
Review
This book was strange to read for me as I loved everything, but I didn’t spend a great time reading it.
I know it’s odd but let me explain. The concept of these two twins who decide to live two opposite lives and happen to be linked back thanks to their daughters is so interesting as you follow them through time, making you connect a lot more with them.
The themes that the author choose to reach are important and well-done in this book as the characters incarnate them. You also have questions through the whole book; you want to understand this family and their choices.
Nevertheless, I started a first time this book last year, and I didn’t connect with it, so I was listening to the audiobook while reading it physically for this second time.
So as you can see I have nothing that I didn’t like, so I only advise you to read it on your own and see if you like it or not.
Liz.
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