I have personally never read any books by Brit Bennett and I kept seeing that this was by the author of The Vanishing Half and also that it was her debut book. It took me a silly amount of time to realize that this book was written by Brit Bennett before The Vanishing Half came out and I wonder how this was celebrated as a debut. I picked this book up with the expectation that it was about mothers, literally but only to realise that there was a Greek chorus type group of women called the mothers not realising that these omniscient women are elderly women who volunteer their time in a church. I am not sure what the literary purpose of needing to assign this chorus quality to the mothers was as the book had no Greek references nor was the story a tragedy, just a love triangle. I can only imagine that there was a motif that the author wanted to pursue with mothers given that the two lead women characters in this book, Nadia and Aubrey, had absent mothers. Nadia’s mother was dead whilst Aubrey’s was just absent and not interested in a relationship with her. The author attributes parts of Nadia and Aubrey’s personalities to their missing mothers and their longing for their mothers but at the same time “The Mothers” in the church have no parallels to motherhood or offer any insight about mothers. The author also writes out all of Nadia’s, Luke’s and Aubrey’s thoughts as an omniscient narrator so the chorus of The Mothers was even more superfluous, simply repeating what was supposed to be gossip in the church and community. There was promise here of how secrets, tight knit communities, gossip and hearsay could impact the fabric of relationships but it was never fleshed out. If the author speaks a lot about secrets and their “taste” and how sometimes secrets have to be ripe for the telling. I wish the author went further about how secrets in a community could unravel relationships.
On the plus side, characters of Luke and Nadia were well developed and I really enjoyed the progression of seeing Luke grow from a 21 year old boy to a man who has been jaded by his lost opportunities due to a sports injuries. He was a believable character with his underlying love for Nadia and mistakes he makes as an insecure 21 year old who hasn’t quite grown up. Nadia was also a well developed and likeable character, despite having lost her mother at a young age and being described as extremely beautiful, she doesn’t come across as indulgent or petulant. She is much like any strong headed teenage girl who thinks she is stronger and older than she is and who is determined not to let her misfortunes define her. She is not self-pitying and seeks to grow herself through her opportunities and education. I was extremely delighted to read a love story about a heroine who gets pregnant accidentally but clearly states she obviously cannot have the baby as she has been accepted into a top college on a full scholarship.
While the characters were real and believable, I just didn’t buy the friendship between Aubrey and Nadia. The author skimmed over this and said they were best friends and close whilst never really establishing what they ever connected over.
At the end of the book, I felt like this was a love story about a love triangle that wanted to make a statement about close knit communities (in this case all the characters attend the same church) that gossip and how secrets can damage lives but never really did it.
The Transplant 
Leave a comment