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Jan 15, 2009

Samantha rated it:

I must admit that Nella Larson completes a fantastic feat in only 114 pages.

This book makes you think: about race, race relations, and one's own anxieties about "the other". It makes you question your own sense of self, what it means to be, to identify with something, anything really. What does it mean to be authentic? To be an individual? To be part of a group? To be a human being? To have a color of any type, and to accept it, or reject it. What does it all mean?

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Nov 25, 2010

Pamela rated it:

"Passing" by Nella Larsen was a very poignant and powerful read. It explores the concept of passing which is basically pretending to be someone you're not for your own personal, selfish gain. Ms. Larsen's achieves this through her two main characters, both African-American women, Irene and Clare.
Irene was born African-American, and she grows up to marry a successful African-American doctor. As a result, she chooses to stay within the African-American community, and she only " More...

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Jul 23, 2007

Steven rated it:

This book isn't all that much fun to read, but it asks a lot of questions. It is about a black woman that passes as a white person, even her husband doesn't know. She has to live a life of fear and lies.
How many of us "pass" and live a different life than who we really are? What do we sacrifice to appear as someone else?

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 07, 2009

Dan rated it:

this short, deceptively simple novel is full of great ideas. the story concerns a conflicted friendship between two light-skinned african-american women, one of whom "passes" for white. the novel was written in the 1920's, and provides an interesting look at black cosmopolitan life during the jim crow era. in fact, it addresses a whole host of things in addition to the racial predicament of its title: desire, etiquette, parenthood, marriage, jealousy. passing is occasionally melodramat More...

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Jan 09, 2009

Erendira rated it:

Really enjoyed reading this book!! It was recommended to me from a high school student in my old youth program. It was written during the Harlem Renaissance and written like a play in 3 acts. The two main characters are African American women. One "passes" as a White woman when it's convenient to her but is married to a Black man. The other "passes" as a White woman all the time and is a married to a man who is racist...and doesn't know she's black! I found the plot int More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 15, 2008

Elizabeth rated it:

Nella Larsen’s remarkable second novel, first published in 1929 during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, is about the fraught relationship between two very different women who engage in very different kinds of passing. Irene and Clare were friends when they were growing up on Chicago’s south side, but haven’t seen each other for a dozen years when they meet by chance at a ritzy segregated hotel. Both women are passing as white; however, Irene only passes occasionally and for the sake of conv More...

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Feb 04, 2008

Jocelyn rated it:

Big stories sometimes come in small packages. Nella Larsen’s 1929 novella Passing packs a punch that’s even felt in today’s society. The story centers around the mixed blessing of being a “black” who is able to “pass” as white. Two women, old acquaintances, rekindle their friendship, one choosing to pass, the other silently envious as well as patronizing of the other’s choosing to do so as she chooses not. The writing is careful in word choice and texture. It gave me a feel for the setting More...

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Jun 30, 2011

Sophie rated it:

"'I guess,' she told the Samaritan, 'it's tea I need. On a roof somewhere.'"

"She had been alone there at the window and it had been so satisfyingly quiet. Now, or course, they would chatter."

"Irene couldn't quite define it, but she was sure that she would have classed it, coming from another woman, as being just a shade too provocative for a waiter."

"With each succeeding one she was taller, shabbier, and more belligerently sensitiv More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 28, 2011

Vasha7 rated it:

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Apr 22, 2011

Badly Drawn Girl rated it:

A book small enough to feel like a short story but deep enough to feel like a tome on race. What an accomplishment! Passing is about passing for white in the 20's. The story takes place in New York. Irene, a married woman with two sons, occasionally passes when it's convenient to do so. But her husband is dark and she cannot maintain a false self. When she is reunited with an old childhood friend, Clare, who has not only completely made the transformation from black to white but is al More...

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Feb 03, 2011

Ari rated it:

This is one of my new favorite classics. It's short and to the point. I love that the author says what she means, instead of beating around the bush. I've come to the conclusion that a preresquite for classics is that they must have a tragic ending and this book does not disappoint on that end. Furthermore, I've noticed that the person who commits the crime is never sure as to what exactly happens and the whole thing is rather vague. The one thing I didn't like was that Gertrude didn't have much More...

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Nov 14, 2010

Jeff rated it:

Though not written with any particular superb brilliance, Passing is extremely poignant when it comes to social commentary in or around Harlem in the 1920s, when race turmoil was more prevalent in NYC than car horns. Clare's "passing" off as a white woman and what it means in her infidelity to her native culture is distinctly vilified by Larson, who punishes the character with death. Conversely, Irene, who is truly the protagonist, as our gaze is wholly upon her, acts out of a defens More...

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May 24, 2010

Sally rated it:

"Passing" by Nella Larsen is a book that deals with racism and sexuality. There is a woman named Irene who finds an old friend that she comes to learn is passing as a "white" woman.They become friends again although Irene really doesn't want to be her friend. Irene can't help but to be sucked into her friend,Clair's, magnetic personality. There is a certain mystery to Clair that makes her popular with many and a flirtation in her actions that makes many question "Has she More...

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Mar 12, 2010

Jacob rated it:

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Mar 07, 2010

Tony rated it:

Larsen, Nella. PASSING. (1929). ****. Larsen was perhaps the leading woman writer during the Harlem Renaissance, and explored the shifting racial and sexual boundaries between black and white. In this novel, we meet clare Kendry. She is living a dangerous and false life. She is fair skinned, elegant, and ambitious. She is married to a white man who is unaware of her African-American heritage, and has severed all ties to her past. Clare’s childhood friend, Irene Redfield, who is just as More...

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Jul 01, 2009

Carolyn rated it:

Excerpt from a reflection for a course entitled "Queer Narratives/Queer Sexualities":

"I think it beautifully illustrates the idea that identity is not and can never be one thing for individuals in a group, despite the fact that they may place themselves underneath one particular identity heading. The explicit disjunction that Irene feels between her own personal interests and the collective interests of her race when it comes to Clare is a perfect example of this; con More...

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Jul 22, 2009

Jenny rated it:

I wouldn't call this book a great, enormous masterpiece but I really enjoyed it. It's about Irene and Clare, two black women living during the 20s around Harlem. Both have fair skin and can pass as white. Irene is married to a black man and they have two children and she is part of the black bourgeoisie. They have a nice house and a maid and they go on nice vacations and eat off of fancy china, etc. Totally members of the black upper middle class establishment. Clare, on the other hand, passes a More...

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Oct 12, 2011

Meg rated it:

Passing takes a hard look at race, specifically African American and Caucasian, the difference between black and white, and what happens when someone crosses those lines. Both Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield are very light skinned; Irene chooses to remain in the African American community while Clare passes and marries a white man, not even telling him of her race. A chance meeting reunites them after years of separation and Clare becomes again part of Irene's life, much to her eventual displeas More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 08, 2010

Katja rated it:

Passing is an intriguing book. The concept of passing, or a black person slipping into white society unnoticed due to their light skin, is an interesting concept. However, Nella Larsen focuses more on the emotions of the protagonist, Irene Redfield, than her experiences while ‘passing’. The book had some action in it, but it took a while to reach it. Some of the problems with racial loyalty approached by the book were interesting but more action would have been preferable. Overall, Passing was a More...

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Apr 26, 2009

Jessica rated it:

This book started out strong, but I found the ending so boring that it dropped from a five-star book to a three-star one.

In Passing, two women meet on the rooftop of a hotel in 1920s Chicago, recognize each other, and begin a conversation. Both are black women "passing" as white, one (the protagonist) just for the convenience of enjoying a cool drink on a hot day, the other because she has fully left black society, having married a white man unaware of her ancestry. The pro More...

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Jan 06, 2009

Jane rated it:

A spare, psychological portrait of race, class, and gender, set and written in the 1920's. As the author herself, the book redefines assumptions about the African-American experience and transcends the politically correct. Riveting.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 08, 2011

Elijah rated it:

First of all, please, for God's sake, if you're thinking of reading The Help, just fucking stop yourself and read something that's about the actual effects of real racism on real people, and not engineered to make white people feel good about themselves. In Passing, even many of the most enlightened folks carry some bigotry around, and the most horribly racist character is still, terrifyingly enough, a human being.

Passing is a hard book to write a comprehensive review of because it's More...

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2011

Julia rated it:

Passing
Nella Larsen
(1929)

This book was doubly enticing for me since I haven't delved all that deeply into Harlem Renaissance writing and because the idea of "passing" is a persistent interest and concern of my from a disability standpoint. Recently, in fact, public conversations about being "out" as a disabled scholar and my reading of Brenda Jo Brueggemann and Debra A. Moddelmog's "Coming Out Pedagogy: Risking Identity in Language and Literature More...

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Jan 06, 2011

Jessica rated it:

I was so sure I'd reviewed this early on in my tenure on goodreads,
but I can't find it...

I read this only a few years and could not believe I'd never come across it sooner. Fascinating...and I will have to write a real review of it.

====
and now I see I'd reviewed a different edition, which included other works of hers as well:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/124...
I read this book because I'm interested in the literature of "Passing" More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 22, 2009

Ciana rated it:

After reading this book for the third time I finally have developed my opinion about the open plot. Critics have constantly said that this ambigous novel leaves the reader the opportunity to create their own meaning of the text. I personally think this text is discussing the inner struggles of what it means to African American and a woman in American in the late 1920s. A time when these women were too black to be apart of the women's suffragist movement and too feminine to hold a position of pow More...

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Apr 13, 2009

James rated it:

This small but powerful volume is sort of an anti-"race novel". I cannot imagine why Larsen's work is so often ignored when people discuss the Harlem Renaissance, except that her opposition to racial delineation of *all* kinds -- including that which is meant to encourage solidarity among the underprivileged -- has never been fashionable in any social circle.

SPOILER ALERT

One complaint: what is it about women committing suicide, and why is it so commonly u More...

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Nov 23, 2010

Fabian rated it:

Unfortunately I have not read many Harlem Renaissaince greats. I've only previously read "Native Son," "Go Tell it on the Mountain," "Invisible Man." The simplicity of the way this story is told, with a heavy and interesting overuse of commas and a well-rounded anecdote which deals with self-proclamation and self-deception, makes this my favorite one in the canon. It speaks of the race problem with the use of melodrama, a very tricky device which feels snuggly and a More...

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Feb 21, 2009

James rated it:

In 1929, Nella Larsen published Passing, her second novel. It is the story of two childhood friends, Clare and Irene. They lost touch when Clare's father died and she moved in with two white aunts. By hiding that Clare was part-black, she was able to 'pass' as a white woman and married a white racist. Irene by contrast lives in Harlem, commits herself to racial uplift, and marries a black doctor. The novel centers on the meeting of the two childhood friends later in life, and the unfolding of ev More...

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Feb 10, 2012

Crystal rated it:

I feel like this book is ahead of its time, but at the same time, it totally fits in with where it was written from. Written from the Harlem Renaissance, Passing is a story about two women, Irene and Clare, and their struggles with racial identity/passing. At least on the surface. Beneath that, this book has a lot to be said for alienation, the concept of home/belonging, voice, race, gender, and sexuality - which is why I say it's somewhat ahead of its time. From my understanding, a lot of these More...

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Dec 18, 2008

Jodie rated it:

Despite the number of stars I gave it, I did actually like this book. I think that it was such a fast read, that it just didn't really have time to sink into my consciousness. Who knows.

This book was first published in 1929 (I think) and that says a lot about how the characters act and interact. The book explores the concept of individuals from an ethnic background "passing" for caucasian. The characters explore the personal pros and cons as well as the larger ramification More...

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