Since I treated myself to these three books in an Ohio Target, I've run into them everywhere. Friends mention them in countless "good books to read" lists, people at the beach peer into their pages, and their colorful covers pop up in endless photos of beautiful bookshelves.
I'm not claiming that they are the best three books of modern times. But for keeping my reading habit alive and giving me lots of interesting things to think about, all three of these books are sure-fire winners.
The Vanishing Half | Brit Bennett
At the ripe old age of sixteen, identical twin sisters leave their small town roots and run away to the big city. In another two years' time, they part company and follow their own paths toward lives that end up in very different places. Due to not just the physical distances that separate them but the lies that are told, the sisters are lost to one another for decades.
Race drives the plot.. The sisters are black but their skin is quite pale. Desiree marries a man with deep-toned skin and their daughter, Jude, shares his ebony complexion. But Stella marries a white man and spends her life passing as white, as does her daughter, Kennedy. Through multiple generations, the story explores the complicated and tragic forces that are unleashed when human beings are pigeon-holed into categories based on the color of their skin.
Race drives the plot.. The sisters are black but their skin is quite pale. Desiree marries a man with deep-toned skin and their daughter, Jude, shares his ebony complexion. But Stella marries a white man and spends her life passing as white, as does her daughter, Kennedy. Through multiple generations, the story explores the complicated and tragic forces that are unleashed when human beings are pigeon-holed into categories based on the color of their skin.
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Fascinating concept.
Believable characters.
Intriguing conflict.
"You can escape a town, but you cannot escape blood. Somehow the Vignes twins thought they were capable of both."
But like a fisherman trying to reel in a great grey whale, I feel like the author couldn't quite land the multi-generational, multi-decade, highly topical and complicated plot that she took on with this book. In the first half of the story, Bennett shines a light on the twins' lives and how Stella's decision to pass destroys their relationship. Then the action passes to their daughters, and a new set of topical issues reveals itself in their plot lines, leading the readers away from Desiree and Stella's central conflict.
"In the dark, you could never be too black. In the dark, everyone was the same."
By the end, I found myself a bit dizzy what with all the jumping from one character to the next to the next, and skipping ahead long periods of time with little warning from the author. I'd had liked more time to get to know Desiree and Stella, and learn how the experience of passing affected each of them in more nuanced ways other than simply disappearing from each others' lives.
"She hadn't realized how long it takes to become somebody else.or how lonely it can be living in a world not meant for you."
Rather than setting her sights on that grey whale, I can only wish that our author had struck out to catch a few fine trout. Then we would be enjoying a fresh dinner of those lovely little fish sizzling over a fire, rather than shaking our heads in disappointment over the one that got away.
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Read the story of my first trip since Covid to visit my daughter in Ohio, told from finish to start.
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Hey! Wanna read more about the books I've read in 2022? Check these out:
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For a full list of books I've read in the past few years, click here:
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