The iconic author of the bestselling phenomenon Crazy Rich Asians returns with the glittering tale of a young woman who finds herself torn between two men.

On her very first morning on the jewel-like island of Capri, Lucie Churchill sets eyes on George Zao and she instantly can’t stand him. She can’t stand it when he gallantly offers to trade hotel rooms with her so that she can have a view of the Tyrrhenian Sea, she can’t stand that he knows more about Casa Malaparte than she does, and she really can’t stand it when he kisses her in the darkness of the ancient ruins of a Roman villa.

The daughter of an American-born Chinese mother and a blue-blooded New York father, Lucie has always sublimated the Asian side of herself, and she adamantly denies having feelings for George. But several years later, when George unexpectedly appears in East Hampton, where Lucie is weekending with her new fiancé, she finds herself drawn to him again. Soon, Lucie is spinning a web of deceit that involves her family, her fiancé and ultimately herself, as she tries to deny George entry into her world – and her heart.

Kevin Kwan’s Sex and Vanity is a modern retelling of A Room With a View, a decadent love story between the wealthy and elite. With a large cast of Asian characters, the novel spans across Italy and America.

Whilst I’m familiar with Kevin Kwan’s previous works, including Crazy Rich Asians, I’m not familiar with A Room With a View .Truthfully, I’ve never read the book nor seen the movie.

Sex and Vanity, much like Kwan’s previous works, sarcastically pokes fun at the uber-rich. However, it falls short of making a lasting impact on the reader. The story is slow at times and I found myself quite bored through the middle. Lucie is not nearly as likeable or as relatable as she could’ve been and George feels quite scarce in the story (strange, considering he’s the love interest). There are some scenes where there are so many characters talking I got confused about what was happening and had to retrace my steps and reread.

Lucie’s relationship with Cecil never makes much sense, and I never got a strong sense of her connection to George. I certainly couldn’t understand why she felt so reluctant to admit her feelings for George. By the time we get to the end of the book, the build-up to Lucie and George’s reunion is completely skipped over. I felt cheated.

“Lucie reached for the crystal goblet in front of her. She wasn’t much of a drinker, but if she had to endure this inquisition for another three courses, she might as well get completely shit-faced.”

There are some notable strengths in the book. George’s mother Mrs Zao is one of the best characters — she steals the attention in every scene in which she appears. Additionally, the insufferable Cecil Pike is also entertaining. His dialogue is quick and witty, and despite him feeling like a caricature and therefore wildly un-relatable, I did enjoy reading about him.

The atmosphere is also fun and engaging. Wealth touches every aspect of the characters’ lives, from their accommodation and their holidays, to their choice of cars and jewellery.

We first meet the characters at an exorbitant wedding in Capri — it’s expensive, over-the-top and there’s a wildly embarrassing incident involving a drone. We’re then whisked away to New York five years later, where Lucie is being proposed to through flash mob dance.

“Lucie said nothing for a moment. She thought of how trivial those sandals had suddenly become to her. In the course of one afternoon, everything had changed. In the blink of an eye, someone had died.”

For a book called Sex and Vanity, there’s not a whole lot of sex happening.

I would’ve liked the romance between Lucie and George to be more present in the book. They’re together briefly in the beginning, but then when we skip forward to New York Lucie is engaged to someone else and her path only collides with George’s sparingly. As a result, their romance just doesn’t feel overly captivating.

“Scanning the cards, Lucie saw that she was assigned to table 3. Almost reflexively, she found herself searching for George’s card and saw that he was at table 8. Damn, was this going to be yet another night where they wouldn’t have the chance to talk at all?”

To be completely honest, it just didn’t feel like this novel explored anything deeper than a romance between two rich people. There’s brief mentions of the difficulties being mixed race, but it’s a very minor mention and other than that, the novel falls flat of more substance.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sex and Vanity
Kevin Kwan
July 2020
Penguin Random House Publishers

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities.

Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ story lines intersect?

From author Brit Bennett comes The Vanishing Half, another powerful, epic novel that weaves multiple strands and generations of one family, spanning the Deep South of the United States to California and New York, and set between the 1950s to the 1990s.

In The Vanishing Half, we meet identical twin sisters Stella and Desiree, who grow up in the small town of Mallard, Louisiana — it’s inhabited by people who strive to marry lighter. When they’re sixteen, the twins stage their runaway and settle into a new life in New Orleans. However, Stella soon disappears to lead her own life and the book documents how their lives progress over the next couple of decades.

The Vanishing Half explores identity, and the impact of decisions and choices, and how childhoods and adolescent years have a lasting influence on how a person shapes the rest of their life. While Stella and Desiree both came from the same family and the same small town, the stark contrast between their adult lives — Desiree is a single mother running from an abusive husband, and Stella is trying to pass as a white woman in an affluent, all-white LA neighbourhood — illustrate how differently they regard their origins.

“Leaving Mallard was Desiree’s idea but staying in New Orleans was Stella’s, and for years, Desiree would puzzle over why. When the twins first arrived in the city, they found work together in the mangle room at Dixie Laundry, folding sheets and pillowcases for two dollars a day.”

The writing is exquisite — poetic and lyrical, and so incredible I felt absorbed in the story from beginning to end. Brit has a way of weaving sentences together; they’re paired back and they hit the reader straight, but they also evoke incredible imagery and emotion.

The novel weaves between past and present incredibly well, inviting the reader into Desiree and Stella’s childhoods to explain why they left, where they went, and how they separated. The Vanishing Half does span decades, allowing us to meet the girls’ children. Desiree returns home to Mallard with her eight-year-old daughter Jude, and a decade later, Jude is pursuing a career as an athlete when she meets Kennedy — Stella’s daughter, an aspiring actress.

“She felt pathetic, drinking alone in the middle of the day, but what else could she do? She needed a job. Money. A plan. But those children staring at her daughter. The deputy dismissing her. Sam gripping her throat. She waved over Lorna again, wanting to forget it all.”

The Vanishing Half features a cast of characters who are all fleeing in search of a better life. There’s Desiree and Stella, and their children Jude and Kennedy. Additionally, Jude meets and falls in love with a trans man called Reese, who has run away from his unsupportive family.

Brit draws parallels between many of the characters.

Stella and Desiree’s plights are noticeably reminiscent in their children’s lives. Jude leaves Mallard to pursue bigger dreams, much like her mother, and Kennedy spends a lot of time trying to better understand her mother and her origins — Stella is incredibly closed off, and reluctant to share information on her childhood.

The Vanishing Half is a crisp examination of racism in 1950s-1980s America. Stella’s decision to “pass” as white allows her to forge a comfortable, safe existence with considerable wealth. Stella’s life improves after she casts her family aside and starts pretending to be a white woman, but Desiree — who marries a black man and gives birth to a “blueback” baby — goes through incredible torment and pain before fleeing back to Mallard to live with her mother again.

“The landlady grew silent after that, then said she had to go. A coloured man asking after a white woman — she’d already said too much. But not enough for Early, who hadn’t even found a forwarding address.”

Rich and riveting, The Vanishing Half will have you enraptured and mesmerised. Recommended for all readers, particularly fans of literary fiction and stories that sweep across generations of family.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Vanishing Half
Brit Bennett
June 2020
Hachette Book Publishers