Kathryn Cope - Study Guide for Book Clubs: The Vanishing Half

T here are few things more rewarding than getting together with a group of like-minded people and discussing a good book. Book club meetings, at their best, are vibrant, passionate affairs. Each member will bring along a different perspective, and ideally, there will be heated debate.

Nevertheless, a surprising number of book club members report that their meetings have been a disappointment. Even when their group enjoyed the book in question, they could think of astonishingly little to say about it and soon wandered off-topic altogether. Failing to find interesting discussion angles for a book is the single most common reason for book group meetings to fall flat. Most groups only meet once a month, and a lacklustre meeting is frustrating for everyone.

Study Guides for Book Clubs were born out of a passion for reading groups. Packed with information, they take the hard work out of preparing for a meeting and ensure that your book group discussions never run dry. How you choose to use the guides is entirely up to you. The Background, Style, and Setting chapters provide useful context which may be worthwhile to share with your group early on. The all-important list of discussion questions, which will probably form the core of your meeting, can be found towards the end of this guide. To support your responses to the discussion questions, you will find it helpful to refer to the Themes & Symbols, and Character sections.

A detailed plot synopsis is provided as an aide-memoire to recap on the finer points of the story. There is also a quick quiza fun way to test your knowledge and bring your discussion to a close. Finally, if this was a book that you enjoyed, the guide concludes with a list of further reads similar in style or subject matter.

This guide contains spoilers. Please do not be tempted to read it before you have finished the original novel as plot surprises will be well and truly ruined.

Kathryn Cope, 2020

B rit Bennett is an American writer. She grew up in Southern California and lives in Los Angeles.

Bennett took a Bachelors in English at Stanford University. She then completed an MFA at the University of Michigan. While studying, she received the Hopwood Award for short fiction by graduates and the Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers.

In 2014, Bennett caught public attention with the essay, I Dont Know What to Do With Good White People. First published on the blog Jezebel , the essay received over one million viewings in three days. The article discussed the issue of white people who claim to oppose racism but expect admiration for taking this stance. Bennett argued that it is easier to challenge overt racism than this form of white self-aggrandizement.

Bennetts debut novel The Mothers was published in 2016 when the author was 26. The novel met with critical acclaim and was a New York Times bestseller. The authors second novel, The Vanishing Half, was released in 2020. It was an instant New York Times bestseller as well as a Good Morning America Book Club choice. In a reputed seven-figure deal, HBO swiftly acquired the rights to adapt the novel into a TV series.

T HE HISTORY OF PASSING

The Vanishing Half explores the history of passing in the USA. Passing is when a person of colour deceives others into believing they are white. From the antebellum era onwards, many African Americans attempted to pass as white to improve their chances in life. In some cases, this was to avoid slavery or persecution. In others, it was to gain access to the social and economic privileges enjoyed by white Americans.