Maine Mom asked this question about The Vanishing Half:
I didn't entirely get ending with Jude and Reese. Was the idea that Jude and by extension Reese were somehow more free of the repercussions of Stella's lie? And what were they trying to forget? Is forgetting desirable?
Bette I think Bennett ended the book with Jude and Reese because despite traumatic childhoods, they have grown up to be pretty healthy people psychological…more I think Bennett ended the book with Jude and Reese because despite traumatic childhoods, they have grown up to be pretty healthy people psychologically. Jude accepts and loves Reese from the start. Her acceptance and love contrast pointedly with the hatred and rejection exhibited by other characters in the novel. Stella rejects her own family and heritage and so is rootless and unable to have a true relationship with her own husband and child. She is a void. And Kennedy suffers too from that because she only feels fulfilled when she is acting the role of an imaginary person. It's like she didn't have a role model of how to develop a coherent self. Still, she isn't horrified by the news that Jude is her first cousin, which is a point in her favor. She does want to know about her roots. Of course the white families living in Stella and Blake's gated community are also contrasts to Jude and Reese as they are prejudiced and reject anyone different from them. I don't get the trying to forget part at the end though because Reese and Jude seem to have already done a good job of, if not forgetting, coping with their difficult pasts.(less)
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by Brit Bennett (Goodreads Author)
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