www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jun/23/the-vanishing-half-by-brit-bennett-review-two-faces-of-the-black-experience
North American literature is rich with dramatic tales of light-skinned black protagonists who attempt to “pass” for white. At their peak in the 1920s – whether in Nella Larsen’s Passing or Jessie Fauset’s Plum Bun – these mostly young women wrestled with the fear of being uncovered while being seduced by the rewards of freedom from the perceived stain of blackness.
Brit Bennett's intriguing new novel, The Vanishing Half, amplifies the trope of the “tragic mulatto” (a self-loathing mixed-race American) by sharing the dilemma of “passing” with identical twin characters, Stella and Desiree. In 1950s America the teenagers disappear from Mallard, a fictional small, racially homogeneous and snobbish “coloured” town in Louisiana, and embark on lives marked by opposing trajectories.
Purchase link if required:
www.amazon.co.uk/Vanishing-Half-bestselling-author-Mothers/dp/0349701466
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