The Vanishing Half: A Novel

At UCLA, Jude makes friends with a handsome White boy from Arkansas named Reese. She later learns that Reese was once a girl named Therese before he made the decision to change his gender identity. By the time Reese reached Los Angeles, he had started taking hormones to begin transforming himself into a male.

Jude is accepting of Reese’s new persona, and he introduces her to his circle of friends, many of whom perform as female impersonators in their off-hours. Barry is a Black transvestite who teaches high school chemistry by day. He seems perfectly ordinary until he transforms into one of his flamboyant female personas. Since everyone in Reese’s clique has an alternate identity, they’re all accepting of Jude’s ultra-dark skin, even though she remains acutely aware of how dark she is compared to other Black people. Jude and Reese begin to spend all their time together, and Reese teaches Jude about his passion for photography.

Reese persuades Jude to move into his apartment though the two aren’t lovers. Jude is confused about the nature of their relationship. She’s attracted to Reese, but he hasn’t approached her romantically yet. One day, she catches him emerging from the bathroom with his breasts tightly bound. He lashes out at her but later apologizes, explaining that he’s going to have surgery to have his female breasts removed.

During a citywide blackout, Reese finally confesses his attraction toward Jude, and the two make love.

Jude happily settles into the routine of being Reese’s lover. Because Reese hasn’t had a sex change operation yet, he doesn’t want her touching his breasts and insists on keeping all the lights off when they make love. Jude herself feels a little self-conscious about a handsome White boy keeping company with a girl as black as she is. She thinks:

She wasn’t in Mallard anymore, but somehow, the town wouldn’t leave her. Even now at Venice Beach, she pictured sunbathers laughing as soon as she tugged off her shirt. Snickering at Reese, too, wondering what on earth is he doing with that black thing? (125).

Jude and Reese talk about Reese’s harsh upbringing in Arkansas, where his parents couldn’t accept his gender identity. After Reese fled home, he survived as a prostitute by working gay bars in Los Angeles. It’s here that he first met Barry, who offered him a meal and a place to crash until he could get on his feet. Reese is genuinely attracted to Jude and admires how smart she is, but she still can’t understand why he would want to be with her.

Knowing that Reese’s meager savings will never cover the cost of his surgery, Jude takes a side job working for a caterer to help him. She gets the job through Barry’s brother but doesn’t tell Reese why she wants the extra cash. He might be too proud to take money from her. Reese complains about the amount of time that Jude spends working late, but Jude is fascinated by the wealthy homes she visits on her various jobs.

While bartending at a retirement party for a man named Hardison, Jude strikes up a conversation with the teenage daughter of Hardison’s successor. The girl is about the same age and a student at the University of Southern California, a rival school. She complains that her mother couldn’t be bothered to attend the party despite the fact that her father got a big promotion because of Hardison’s retirement. As if on cue, the girl’s mother sweeps into the room wearing a fur coat. Jude drops a bottle of wine in shock because she thinks the woman might be Stella.