Review of THE VANISHING SELF by Brit Bennett

 4 Stars

Barack Obama listed this as one of his favourite books in 2020.  It might not rank as one of my favourites, but in audio format it certainly entertained me on my morning walks.

Desiree and Stella Vignes are twins born in Mallard, Louisiana, a place where only light-skinned blacks live.  In 1954, at the age of sixteen, the two run away to New Orleans.  Later the two girls go their separate ways and lose contact.  Desiree moves to Washington where she marries a very dark-skinned black man with whom she has a daughter Jude.  Fourteen years after leaving, Desiree returns to Mallard with Jude who has inherited her father’s blue-black skin. 

Meanwhile, Stella has been passing as white.  She marries her boss Blake Sanders and they move to Los Angeles where they have a daughter Kennedy.  No one knows about her past though she lives in constant fear of exposure, especially when Kennedy meets Jude.

Covering about 40 years, the narrative moves back and forth through time and shifts between characters, primarily Desiree, Stella, Jude and Kennedy.  The women tend to be foil characters.  Desiree is the high-spirited extrovert whereas Stella is the bookish introvert.  Desiree embraces her black identity while her twin totally rejects her ethnicity.  Jude is hardworking and grounded while her cousin is spoiled and rudderless. 

The novel explores how identity is a performance.  We all wear masks so there is often a difference between our authentic selves and our projected selves.  When I was a teacher, I often mentioned how the profession was much like acting; what students saw was not always the real me but the persona I chose to construct.  In the novel, there are many characters who hide parts of themselves.  Stella is the major example, of course, but there is also her daughter who as an actor finds her passion in trying different identities.  Jude meets Reese, a transsexual who hides his female body, and Barry, a high school teacher who regularly becomes Bianca, a drag queen. 

The book also examines the impact of choices on both the one choosing and his/her family.  Stella often thinks of the effort needed to maintain her façade.  She also lives with a constant fear that someone will see her that she is masquerading as a white.  Her life is a lie and so she becomes alienated not just from the family she has rejected but from herself.  Kennedy senses that Stella is hiding things and so comes not to trust her mother.  Stella pays a high price for passing; she has financial security but she does not feel happy and fulfilled. 

Racism is at the heart of so much that happens.  Though the twins and their parents are light-skinned, they are not safe from racialized violence, an instance of which scars the girls for life.  Stella and Desiree are expected to work as cleaners for whites.  Interestingly, Stella’s white life begins when she gets a job as a secretary in the marketing department of the Maison Blanche chain of stores.  Because Jude is so dark, when she moves to Mallard she becomes a victim of colorism (a bias against people of darker skin from others within the same race).  Stella believes that only as a white can she acquire the stability and security she so desires.

There are a number of coincidences that further the dramatic action but still feel forced.  Jude and Kennedy meet by chance in Los Angeles and later in New York.  A bounty hunter is hired to find Mrs. Winston and then learns he is looking for the woman who was his first love.  Of course, these chance encounters are expected if there is to be any type of reunion. 

This book presents many ideas for the reader to consider, so I’d certainly recommend it.  The audiobook version narrated by Shayna Small is excellent.