⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5
Mallard, a town in Louisiana founded in 1848 by Alphonse Decuir. “As he stood in the sugarcane fields he’d inherited from the father who’d once owned him. The father now dead, the now-freed son wished to build something on those acres of land that would last for centuries to come. A town for men like him, who would never be accepted as white but refused to be treated as Negroes.” - The vanishing half, Brit Bennett.
🐛A quick background of this fantastic book: twin girls, the sisters Vignes grew up in the town of Mallard. They are the great granddaughters of Alphonse Decuir, and can both pass as white women. When the pressure from growing up in a town where they were not allowed to marry anyone darker than them set in, the sisters disappeared. Both took two different paths, one returning to Mallard after an abusive marriage, and the other sister becoming a white woman and moving to a prominent suburb in Los Angeles.
🐛Drea’s take: I have a ton of emotions right now. Brit Bennett’s writing, allowed me to hear each character so clearly. I was able to understand the characters and the motives behind each decision taken. What was so beautiful to me, was the passing of decades and the different cities mentioned in the book. It didn’t take away from the main story, and it made it easy to follow. Another point I like to make, is that the author really made the male characters so interesting in this story to the point where you love the softness of Reese and the harshness or Early. If your book club is looking for its next book, this is the quintessential book club book. It’s the perfect, quotable and emotional driven book, that on one end I didn’t want to put down, but on the other I had to make myself step away and not read it too fast.
🐛Fun fact, there is a rumor that the author signed a contract with HBO to bring Mallard to your TV. If you are anything like me, read the book first 😉
⭐️NPR interview with Brit Bennett: https://www.npr.org/2020/06/05/870303515/brit-bennett-set-her-novel-50-years-ago-she-didnt-expect-it-to-be-timely
Comments
Post a Comment