The Vanishing Half

"To be American is to self-invent, and if you think you’re not part of that, talk to a grandparent. In The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett’s novel about Black identical twins who can pass as white, nearly everyone is self-invented. Stella Vignes leaves her Louisiana town and crosses the color line; she marries a white man, has a white daughter, then mistreats them to keep her secret. (It’s a testament to Bennett’s writing that Stella is not unlikeable.) Stella’s niece and foil, Jude, is unwilling and unable to pass. Instead, she reinvents herself as something deeply satisfying: a happy, successful adult. The past always catches up, though, and when the family reunion comes, it’s spectacular. To reinvent yourself is to add and subtract, as Bennett makes clear. This book adds."