'A Chosen Exile': Black People Passing In White America, Identical Twins Become Divided By Race In 'The Vanishing Half', 'The Vanishing Half' Counts The Terrible Costs Of Bigotry And Secrecy, Ordinary Black Lives Are What Matter In 'The Mothers'. $13.99 . 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013. 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. 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. On how Stella, the twin who lives as a white woman, must keep changing her performance of whiteness. "1968 is a year that's on everybody's mind right now," Bennett says, because of parallels between the 1968 protests, and the protests happening today. ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR. Brit Bennett pushes questions of race and color to their extremes in her new novel, The Vanishing Half. . . The Vanishing Half: A Novel #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2020 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES * THE WASHINGTON POST * NPR * PEOPLE * TIME MAGAZINE* VANITY FAIR * GLAMOUR . HBO acquired the rights to develop … I was interested in ... the idea of race as something that is both fictional and also something that is real. As with her … 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. Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Vulture, USA Today, GQ, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, and Bustle Praise for The Vanishing Half: “[Bennett’s] second [book], The Vanishing Half, more than lives up to her early promise. The idea that these twins are identical and one essentially becomes white because she declares herself to be white and one is black because she does not do that. The Vignes twins grew up inseparable in the ’60s in Mallard, Louisiana, a small town reserved for black residents with light skin. On the fictional Louisiana town where her story is set during the Jim Crow era. NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, “cookies”) to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR’s sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR’s traffic. 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. Passing is "both an act of self-creation and also an act of self-destruction," she explains. How? The Vanishing Half speaks ultimately of a universal vanishing. Des milliers de livres avec la livraison chez vous en 1 jour ou en magasin avec -5% de réduction . hide caption. The Vanishing Half is written in a more conventional tight third person, shifting between characters and generations – primarily Desiree and Stella and their daughters, one "blueblack" dark, one blonde, one smart and grounded, the other spoiled and lost. It’s the story of light-skinned Black identical twin sisters who grow up inseparable in a light-skinned Black community in Louisiana. What would you like to read? Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Bennett says that narratives of "passing" often include a lot of moralizing, but she wasn't interested in telling that sort of story. As with her … And I was able to draw on some research from similar Creole communities that were similarly sort of insular and organized around people having light skin. NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2020 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES * THE WASHINGTON POST * NPR * PEOPLE * TIME MAGAZINE* VANITY FAIR * GLAMOUR** “Bennett’s tone and style recalls James Baldwin and Jacqueline Woodson, but it’s … And she has to perform whiteness in a different way. Beth Novey adapted it for the Web. #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR TIME MAGAZINE'S #1 BOOK OF THE YEAR A WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2020 BY NPR LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE A GOOD MORNING AMERICA Book Club Pick … To me, it was not interesting to think like: Is it good or bad to pass? Both are haunted by personal and collective traumas of the past, and the book explores whether it’s possible to erase the past, in the name of a better future. She is also the author of The Mothers. . Racism, brutality and inequality still infect America, 400 years after the first enslaved Africans were brought here. One sister lives as a black woman, while the other passes as white. . There is an aspect of that that reveals how flimsy those categories are. The Vanishing Half tells the multi-generational story of the Vignes sisters, Desiree and Stella, two very pretty identical twins who grow up in the small town of Mallard, La. It is a clear and direct descendant of that literary heritage and is a strong entry when compared to its ancestry. It concerns the half of everyone that disappears once we leave home — love or hate the place, love or hate ourselves.” —Los Angeles Times “Provides a meditation on the nuance of race that feels important, now more than ever. In that post-civil rights movement era, Stella is learning how to perform whiteness at a time in which whiteness itself is also changing. A Novel, The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett, Riverhead Books. . Brit Bennett's latest novel is set in the late 1960s and '70s and — in the five years she was working on it — she never anticipated that when it came out it would be framed as "timely.". The Vanishing Half is about identical, African American, twins. . 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. For protesters in cities across the country, the past is the present. Race, class, and gender discussions are wrapped in beautiful language that is confident yet compassionate toward both reader and character. The Vanishing Half is a historical fiction novel by American author Brit Bennett. Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Vulture, USA Today, GQ, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, and Bustle Praise for The Vanishing Half: “[Bennett’s] second [book], The Vanishing Half, more than lives up to her early promise. Both are haunted by personal and collective traumas of … It is her second novel and was published by Riverhead Books in 2020. I got the idea for the book from a conversation I had with my mother, who told me very offhandedly one day about a town she remembered from her Louisiana childhood, where everyone sort of intermarried so that their children would get lighter with each generation. As with her … Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Vulture, USA Today, GQ, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, and Bustle Praise for The Vanishing Half: “[Bennett’s] second [book], The Vanishing Half, more than lives up to her early promise. You may click on “Your Choices” below to learn about and use cookie management tools to limit use of cookies when you visit NPR’s sites. If you can transgress them through performance, if you can perform whiteness and become white through that performance, then what does it actually mean to be white or black or anything? 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. You know, how she comes to think of herself, how this changes her relationships and her family, the choices that she's making, how they affect her marriage. And I didn't want to do that. "I found that complexity a lot more interesting than the possibility of condemning her for this choice," Bennett says. See details. A three-generational novel that is anything but old-fashioned, a central topic concerns identity fused with acting and lying. . . You can read stories now about people who have had ... [DNA] tests and they've discovered that, you know, their racial breakdown is different than what they always thought it to be. Both are haunted by personal and collective traumas of the past, and the book explores whether it's possible to erase the past, in the name of a better future. 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. Author: Brit Bennett Narrator: Shayna Small. It really affects so much of their material lives, even though the idea of race and these categories are so flimsy. I was not interested in punishing Stella, I was not interested in condemning her. On people making discoveries about their own ancestry. It debuted at number one on The New York Times fiction best-seller list. Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Vulture, USA Today, GQ, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, and Bustle Praise for The Vanishing Half: “[Bennett’s] second [book], The Vanishing Half, more than lives up to her early promise. Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Vulture, USA Today, GQ, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, and Bustle Praise for The Vanishing Half: “[Bennett’s] second [book], The Vanishing Half, more than lives up to her early promise. So what does it mean to not exist in either? Brit Bennett says it has been "surreal" to publish her post-civil rights era book this week. On resisting the question of "is it good or bad to pass?". Description **#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. It concerns the half of everyone that disappears once we leave home — love or hate the place, love or hate ourselves.” —Los Angeles Times “Provides a meditation on the nuance of race that feels important, now more than ever. Mix and match the filters below and the years above to explore nearly 2,500 recommendations from NPR staff and trusted critics. 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