A notice was pinned to the front door of every house in the Palace Estates, calling for an emergency Homeowners Association Meeting. The Estates, the newest subdivision in Brentwood in 1968, had only called one emergency meeting before, when the treasurer was accused of embezzling dues, so that night, the neighbors gathered in the clubhouse, whispering hotly, expecting the hint of a scandal. What they did not expect was this: current president Percy White standing in front of the room, his face beet red as he delivered regretful news. The Lawsons on Sycamore Way were selling their house and a colored man had just placed an offer to buy it. The room sputtered to life, and Percy threw up his hands, suddenly finding himself in front of a firing squad.
“Just the messenger,” he kept saying, although no one could hear him. Dale Johansen asked what the hell was the point of having an Association if not to prevent such a thing from happening. Tom Pearson, determined to out-bluster him, threatened to withhold his dues if the Association did not start doing their jobs. Even the women were upset, or perhaps, especially the women were upset. They did not shout like the men but each had made a certain sacrifice in marrying a man who could afford a home in the most expensive new subdivision in Los Angeles County and she expected a return on that investment. Cath Johansen asked how they ever expected to keep the neighborhood safe now, and Betsy Roberts, an economics major at Bryn Mawr before she’d married, complained that their property values would plummet.
But years later, the neighbors would only remember one person speaking up in the meeting, a single voice that had, somehow, risen above the noise. She hadn’t yelled — maybe that’s why they’d listened. Or perhaps because she was ordinarily so soft-spoken, everyone knew that if she was standing to her feet in the middle of a raucous meeting, she must have had something urgent to say. Or maybe it was because her family currently lived on Sycamore Way, in a cul-de-sac directly across from the Lawsons, so the new neighbors would affect her most directly. Whatever the reason, the room quieted when Stella Sanders climbed to her feet.
“You must stop them, Percy,” she said. “If you don’t, there’ll be more and then what? Enough is enough!”
Brit Bennett is the talented American author behind “The Vanishing Half.” This novel, published in June 2020, is her second work. Let me tell you a bit more about it: “The Vanishing Half” is a historical fiction novel that explores themes of identity, race, and family across generations. The story centers around identical twin sisters, Desiree and Estelle “Stella” Vignes, and their daughters, Jude and Kennedy. Desiree and Stella are black but have exceptionally light skin. They grow up in the fictional town of Mallard, Louisiana, where residents exclusively have light skin. The novel spans from the 1940s to the 1990s and takes us from Mallard to New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and beyond. Stella decides to pass as white, leading her to an affluent life in California, while Desiree faces heartbreak and an abusive marriage. Their daughters, Jude and Kennedy, grapple with their own identities and the secrets of their mothers’ pasts. The novel delves into complex family dynamics, societal expectations, and the choices that shape our lives. Brit Bennett’s writing has garnered acclaim, and “The Vanishing Half” debuted at number one on The New York Times fiction best-seller list. HBO even acquired the rights to develop a limited series based on the book, with Bennett as an executive producer.
