Good Book ~~ Wrong Time

Sometimes you have a good book in your hands — one with great reviews and hailed as a must read — but the timing is wrong. Somehow it just doesn’t take. Pick it up, put it down – try again – re-read the back cover and the author profile — just trying to get inspired.

The Vanishing Half

by Brit Bennett

I had requested this book ages ago from the library, after my pledge to read and learn more about the black experience and racism.

The NY Times called it “a stunning new novel about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and one white.”

The Vignes are identical twin sisters and after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen — their lives have taken very different paths. Years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other, now living in California, secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Even though separated by many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. And as a multi-generational saga the book story line will take the reader to the next generation, and their own daughters’ fates.

Sounds really good doesn’t it? At first I was intrigued by the perceptions of shades of black within the black community. Not to mention, a compelling study of race and interracial tensions.

The Vanishing Half opens with the story of the twins growing up light skinned in the South, their eventual escape to New Orleans, and one of the twins (sorry can’t remember which one) goes back home having escaped an abusive marriage and with a dark skinned daughter in tow. I plowed on — trying to care, or even get interested. Such an interesting premise, I keep telling myself. But alas, no spark — no book tingle.

And, I did get about 75 pages in before I just gave up. That’s about when the author moves forward in time and we meet one of the twins’ daughters and her issues not only with her race but her sexual orientation. And, at that point folks, I just couldn’t go on, I couldn’t care less And, after trying to read just one more chapter — in frustration, I clicked the button and digitally whisked my copy back to the library for the many readers still on the waiting list.

Give it a try, perhaps you’ll enjoy The Vanishing Half. It has been reviewed and judged as an important book, and even an admirable book, but just the wrong time for this reader. I may try again in the future – again I blame it on timing.

Full disclosure: During my attempt to read this book, the newest Louise Penny arrived — teasing me on the shelf – calling me, charming me.