Play Book Tag discussion

This book would be a great movie - but only if they found just the right actress to pull it off. To be honest, its hard to quite picture.

I'm always leery of books that are incredibly highly touted, and often that lowers the experience for me a little bit. I do tend to come in just under the rave. But I did end up loving it. It was a slower build for me. One of the things I am finding most interesting about it, is that to me, it wasn't just about Race. It was about Bodies. And also about Personification, kind of like acting, but how you become someone or something else. What does it mean not just to "pass" for white, but to become white? And what had to completely change in Stella to achieve this? Something Jude would never have the option to do. And what is the price of erasing a past, a history, a family, and a twin?

Three associations came to mind for me. The first is having read Passing earlier this year, which was similar. Two women, incredibly light skinned, and one makes the decision to "pass" into white society, and the other is rooted in Black pride and rights. But still this question of what it meant to the 'newly white' character to be leaving a part of her aside or behind, something she was completely unwilling to do. And what that meant to the people left behind.

A thought I had upon finishing has to do with a clinical case. I have been working for years with a multiple personality, and she sees herself, and "becomes" 12 different selves, five of whom I have regularly scheduled appointments or regular interaction with. While her body and what she looks like never changes, over the years, one can completely see a different energy, voice, "look", air, of each of these alters. They do not move the same, they even "look different" although as one body they are of course identical. It is absolutely believable to me, that she presents as 6, as 8-10, as 14, as 40, and as a 45 year old man, whose voice has a bit of a southern twang. I have for myself witnessed the complete changeover of the same body, into something remarkably different and completely identifiable. It is not just about physical bodies. And that is the point I was trying to make. If that if the book isn't just about Race, but is about bodies, and skin, and who we are and who we become, then this is possible. Stella did not see herself as becoming white, she saw herself as becoming "Free!" That is the thing to talk about, to think about. That the trauma of her father's death, of poverty, of being told she couldn't go to college, of young molestation, of a limited mother who saw little for them, and couldn't care deeply. How those elements, which are entwined with Race, are also about how a person sees, frees, and conceptualizes themselves. Which makes it about identity and becoming and bodies, and clearing the past for the future. Every character in the book had to think about who they were and who they wanted to be, and how to make that work in the confines about what they were given and what they could grab. Hands down, favorite character in the book? Early. I thought he also epitomized these choices, and he truly found a way to become rooted and also be a person of the world. It was interesting that he hunted people down, and that he thought they always found their way home - which all of the characters eventually did. But also saw that the world was larger, and that he and others needed to lose themselves in it. I think lost and found and the desire to be lost and found were huge themes in the book. And the characters needed to find their way.

A third association I had, was a paper I wrote in 2004, after concluding a heartbreaking and ultimately freeing case of a twin. I recently re-read the entire case, having re-read all my papers to prepare for a course I was teaching. I immediately fell back into the world, where your other half is inseparable, entwined, thinks your thoughts, and inhabits your soul. But what if your twin is literally also harming/killing you in all kinds of ways, and harming your niece? What if separating and learning to individuate is what's best for you, but wrong for your twin? What if its best for your twin, but wrong for you? In Journey to the Self, a ten year therapy explored this point over and through and over and through again. What is the price you pay for being more than a twin, and in fact, not being so closely connected? What is the price if you don't separate?

I thought the book brought up a lot of emotions, varying characters, fluid identities of all kinds, and its the kind of book that should be talked about - not the kind you read and move on for. I am grateful my book club is doing it together, because this book brings up conversation. So... What did it bring up for you?

Great review!! We are actually talking about this book in my in-person (but virtual tonight) book club as I type this!

Funny that both our book clubs are doing it within days! Ours is Sunday night! We’re gonna have to connect you and I, to debrief!