Book No. 17 of 2021
One of my more tiresome recent behavioral tics is my propensity to loudly proclaim that every character in a book, TV show, or movie needs therapy. I’m like a weird subjunctive Oprah: “YOU should get therapy, and YOU should get therapy! EVERYONE should get therapy!” This book was no exception (and in fact I texted @cozyreadingclub “Everyone in this book needs therapy but especially Stella”).
I did truly enjoy this book, which in addition to being a beautiful and quietly heartbreaking saga also provided a lot of rather trenchant insight and commentary on identity, comfort, and privilege. The comments made by wealthy white folks on how they wish Black people would behave differently “for their own good” during the 60s hit especially deeply because truly, nothing has changed! (How often you see uncomfortable white people saying “of course I support equality but I think they’re going about it all wrong” in this day and age!) Also, so much internalized racism, wow.
The juxtaposition between one character passing as white and another passing as a man was especially compelling—in the hands of a lesser writer this comparison may have been tenuous and sloppy, but Bennett writes so skillfully and emphatically that the duality is gorgeously done. Similarly, characters who may otherwise have seemed monstrous are written in a way that even as you disapprove of, well, everything they do, you fully understand why they do those things, and even feel sympathetic.
Similar Reads
The combination of sister dynamics + systemic barriers + dying parents reminded me of Catherine Chung’s Forgotten Country.
Multiple elements of the story reminded me of Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere.
Black identity + one ultra specific detail reminded me of Raven Leilani’s Luster.
The multigenerational perspective (with wayward daughters) also reminds me of Jacqueline Woodson’s Red to the Bone.
The “sisters going in opposite directions” thing reminded me of Mira T. Lee’s Everything Here is Beautiful.
This book has edged out my previous all-time contender for most deeply internalized racism, The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan.