Passing
Books | Fiction / Classics
3.7
(374)
Nella Larsen
"Absolutely absorbing, fascinating, and indispensable." — Alice Walker"A work so fine, sensitive, and distinguished that it rises above race categories and becomes that rare object, a good novel." — The Saturday Review of LiteratureMarried to a successful physician and prominently ensconced in Harlem's vibrant society of the 1920s, Irene Redfield leads a charmed existence-until she is shaken out of it by a chance encounter with a childhood friend who has been "passing for white." An important figure in the Harlem Renaissance, Nella Larsen was the first African-American woman to be awarded a Guggenheim fellowship. Her fictional portraits of women seeking their identities through a fog of racial confusion were informed by her own Danish-West Indian parentage, and Passing offers fascinating psychological insights into issues of race and gender.
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Author
Nella Larsen
Pages
112
Publisher
Courier Corporation
Published Date
2012-03-05
ISBN
0486113469 9780486113463
Community ReviewsSee all
"From the very first page, I was hooked. Clare has a magnetism that draws readers in and refuses to let them go. The prose is beautiful and has such rich imagery that I felt I was in every scene with Irene. Readers know something dramatic is going to happen at the end and there is a sense of foreboding that hangs over the entire story. I liked that the ending was left kind of ambiguous and really made the reader analyze everything they just read. This story is short and could be read in a single sitting if you have a couple hours."
A C
Alyssa Czernek
"Incisive skewering of the cruelty of Black high society during the 1920s. Light skinned Clare Kendry, with her "having" ways is determined to escape a humiliating existence as a poor "tar brushed" relation, making the most of her looks and charm and to "pass" into white society. However, when she attempts to re-enter her old South Side community in Chicago, the results are devastating."
Lesley Williams
"Well written tale of friendship. Unexpected ending"
Jessica A
"Thought provoking"
R T
Rebekah Travis
"If you like to great Gatsby you’ll love passing "
Michaela’s
"Very well written, but some odd behaviour from the main two characters that didn't seem that plausable. Over all I enjoyed it though."
John Woakes
"I’ve read this novella about 4 times and have always read it literally as a story of the choices of two women, both who have the ability to “pass”, but who choose to benefit from it in different ways. I was today years-old when thanks to an amazing book club I belong to, that I discovered that the story is also fraught with an underlying sexual connotation as well. Thank you Black Girls Read, for I now must go back and for my own edification of this story. Larsen uses sexuality as way to dismantle the Black woman as loose or sexually amoral trope often perpetuated in media, as well as tackles taboo relationships. This story is about so much more than merely passing in regards to race, it’s about passing oneself off as a different human all together."
Liz Thurman
