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Passing

Nella Larsen,

Ntozake Shange (Introduction),

Thadious Davis (Editor)

3.90 · Rating details · 27,338 ratings · 2,639 reviews

Alternate Cover Edition can be found here.

First published to critical acclaim in 1929, Passing firmly established Nella Larsen's prominence among women writers of the Harlem Renaissance. The Modern Library is proud to present Passing—an electrifying story of two women who cross the color line in 1920s New York—together with a new Introduction by the Obie Award- winning pl ...more

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Paperback, Penguin Classics, 160 pages

Published April 24th 2003 by Penguin (first published 1929)

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Mar 17, 2017 Brina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 500-great-books-women, race-relations, african-american, novella

For the first time, I am participating in a women's century challenge in the group catching up on classics. My 1920s selection is Passing by Nella Larsen, a semi-autobiographical novella, in which a young, mixed race woman light enough to pass decides to live her adult life as white. Delving into the perception of race from a myriad of perspectives, Larsen takes her readers back to a bygone era when African Americans were beginning to make inroads in northern society.

Irene Redfield and her husb For the first time, I am participating in a women's century challenge in the group catching up on classics. My 1920s selection is Passing by Nella Larsen, a semi-autobiographical novella, in which a young, mixed race woman light enough to pass decides to live her adult life as white. Delving into the perception of race from a myriad of perspectives, Larsen takes her readers back to a bygone era when African Americans were beginning to make inroads in northern society.

Irene Redfield and her husband Brian are members of W.E.B. DuBois' mythical talented tenth of Negro society. Even though Irene is light enough to pass for white in some circles, Brian is not, and the couple makes Harlem their home. Brian foresaw the danger of raising African American children in an integrated society and has urged Irene to immigrate to Brazil, where race is less of an issue. Yet, Irene is an American, and she is a well sought member of Harlem social circles, so the family stays in New York. A chance encounter with an old acquaintance, however, has Irene questioning her views on race for the first time.

Clare Kendry is light enough to pass for white, so she marries an upper crust banker and alternates her life between Europe and New York. Even after twelve years, Kendry omits the fact that she is black to her white supremacist husband, and after meeting Irene, decides that she wants to be a part of Harlem society instead of white America. Yet, Redfield is reluctant to admit Kendry to her inner circle as she experiences an internal emotional conflict. As a result, she questions her own views on race relations for the first time in her marriage, even wondering if her husband had been right about moving to Brazil. In the duration of the novel, the reader sees Irene's, Clare's, and both their husbands view on race, allowing insight into the country's feelings toward integration during the 1920s.

Larsen herself was light enough to pass and married white in order to better herself in society. As a white woman, she was able to publish Passing, Quicksand, and one other little read novel, but after the truth about her race came out, she was denied publication of her other works; additionally, her marriage ended in a bitter divorce. The migration of African Americans to northern cities had only begun in this era, and Larsen's opportunities were limited. She lived the rest of her life employed as a nurse in a Harlem hospital, living as a negro rather than white.

I found Passing to be a powerful piece of literature as the reader delves into many characters' conflicted emotions as they tackle the race question. Even though there might have been more opportunities as a white person during the 1920s, the talented tenth in Harlem brought their own culture to the American melting pot. Because of the personal nature of the novel, Nella Larsen offers in depth characters in her story. A candid look at the race question, Passing is a gem from 1920s literature, and a worthy entry in a century of reading women, for which I rate 4.5 stars. ...more

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Aug 21, 2017 Jaidee rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: those facing their own ambiguities

Recommended to Jaidee by: a lovely friend

Shelves: five-stars-books

5 "astute, biting, theatrical" stars !!

2017 Honorable Mention with High Distinction Read

This was an extremely thought provoking and personally challenging read for me on a number of levels. Passing is such an odd concept for me to fully grasp on a deeper level. I straddle the line in so many ways in my own life and have always seen the world and expressed my own self in a non-binary fashion. Luckily this was not only accepted by my family of origin but also encouraged and nurtured by a select 5 "astute, biting, theatrical" stars !!

2017 Honorable Mention with High Distinction Read

This was an extremely thought provoking and personally challenging read for me on a number of levels. Passing is such an odd concept for me to fully grasp on a deeper level. I straddle the line in so many ways in my own life and have always seen the world and expressed my own self in a non-binary fashion. Luckily this was not only accepted by my family of origin but also encouraged and nurtured by a select few.
And yet for others convenience or comfort I was sometimes pegged, labeled, at times ridiculed, singled out. Others wanted me to pass in some or all environments as white instead of mixed, straight or gay instead of bi, middle class instead of working class, masculine instead of androgynously. This was challenging and when feeling threatened I would do it myself not for acceptance or gain but rather to be safe or mix in and not be a target. This led to a dissonance at times not in terms of my own self identity which always felt solid but in terms of getting on in the world. As the world in my urban center has changed and become more welcoming of diversity of all kinds passing is less of an issue, less dangerous and I have a number of circles where being myself is not only just OK but welcomed. Interestingly, though, this matters less and less to me as I spend more and more time alone, or with my partner and our respective families deepening my spiritual faith and exploring my artistic interests. I am less frightened by others' misunderstandings and other's cruelties, prejudices and more willing to look in the mirror and challenge my own that come up daily. Challenging our own prejudices is very important work for ourselves, our society and the world. The more I understand that I am no different from others the more I can work towards personal and societal change. I am particularly interested in working within marginalized groups and how they oppress and marginalize sub groups and others. You see, the hunt for power and control and dominance is universal. I see it within all genders, sexualities and racial groups. We will never have a level playing field but that does not mean that we should not work towards this and fight for social justice for all and not just who we personally think is deserving.

This book is so brilliant in its execution. It very much appealed to me that both female protagonists were mildly unlikable. Their emotions, motivations and actions appeared so genuine in their contrived social niceties and their upward mobility in passing as white or greatly identifying as white when they were mixed race. The use of their beauty, grace, intelligence to manipulate their partners and society in general for a measure of security and social standing. Their reluctance to be devoted mothers, their submerging of racial identity and knowledge. This left them both bereft, vulnerable, mistrusting and every move was not only for survival but to usurp the other for a bigger piece of the societal pie.

Anxiety pervaded their lives and I felt it in my own being as I read.

Thank you Ms. Larsen for giving me another chance to reflect and gaze upon my own reflection and see myself for who I am today that might be somewhat different from whom I am tomorrow. ...more

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Apr 08, 2017 Lisa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, unforgettable, so-good-it-hurts, favorites

What if I could be someone else?

Crossing borders, sneaking into a different society through the back door, and living a secret life, fearing the consequences of detection - that is the main theme of "Passing", which I read directly after Quicksand, but had to let sink in for a couple of days before reviewing.

Quicksand is about how you slowly, steadily sink deeper and deeper into life, choking when you feel the lack of choice, the lack of freedom in a world that judges you for the colour of yo What if I could be someone else?

Crossing borders, sneaking into a different society through the back door, and living a secret life, fearing the consequences of detection - that is the main theme of "Passing", which I read directly after Quicksand, but had to let sink in for a couple of days before reviewing.

Quicksand is about how you slowly, steadily sink deeper and deeper into life, choking when you feel the lack of choice, the lack of freedom in a world that judges you for the colour of your skin, your gender, your attitude towards traditions."Passing" is about rebellion against the status quo, and it ends with an explosion of violence I was rather unprepared for, and still can't digest entirely, as it challenged my perception of "good" and "bad" characters to the breaking point, - which is something I appreciate in a novel.

Nella Larsen is definitely a new discovery for me this year, writing seemingly effortless stories of women facing racism and male dominance in the glamorous New York of the 1920s. But she does not end there. Her stories are also deeply concerned with the relationship between women themselves, and their contrasting responses to their shared situation. It is a tale of love and friendship and hate and betrayal, of victors that turn into victims and vice versa.

"Passing", the main topic of the short novel, was something completely new to me, as a phenomenon. Light-skinned women who have African American heritage choose "to pass" for white in certain circumstances to be able to move in the world that is closed to them if they admit their ancestry. In the time of strict segregation, this is a risky business. Fearing the humiliation of detection and expulsion from the society they are not allowed to enter on equal terms if they are honestly admitting their roots, they live a thrilling, but also nerve-racking life on the border of everyday, institutionalised racism.

The two main characters are childhood friends who choose different paths in life: one of them marries a white, blatantly racist man and lives her life in privilege and fear of discovery, while the other chooses to stay within the Harlem community and raise her children in the African American cultural setting.

Tension grows over the years, as the friends meet and compare notes. What are the rules for these women, in a society that is hugely unjust towards them? What is the game they are playing themselves? And what compensation are they entitled to?

It is a story of what women do to each other as well. Instead of uniting to create a better platform for themselves, they develop a (sub?)conscious competition. And the stakes are high! If you fall, they are deadly.

This novel left me deeply saddened, but also grateful. It opened a new door, and widened my perspective on discrimination, while giving me the kind of shiver only a good thriller can produce. ...more

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Feb 22, 2017 Sean Barrs rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, 4-star-reads, modernist-movement, postcolonial

I read this a few months ago now, and I drastically undervalued its brilliance. I’m writing an essay on racial encounter in the modernist movement for university, so I’ve been picking this book apart during my second and third readings of it.

During the course of it, I’ve noticed something equally as important. Racial encounter is at the centre of this book, but it is not the heart of it. Indeed, repressed sexual desire and love are what drive the narrative forward. But love isn’t easily recogni I read this a few months ago now, and I drastically undervalued its brilliance. I’m writing an essay on racial encounter in the modernist movement for university, so I’ve been picking this book apart during my second and third readings of it.

During the course of it, I’ve noticed something equally as important. Racial encounter is at the centre of this book, but it is not the heart of it. Indeed, repressed sexual desire and love are what drive the narrative forward. But love isn’t easily recognisable to our narrator Irene Redfield. She’s in love with a woman, and she doesn’t quite know it yet. Her feelings for Clare Kendry switch back and forth between lust and hatred; she hates how this woman has a pull over her, an irresistible force of attraction that she cannot shy away from.

And it’s ruining her life; thus, the completely open end of the book. She wants to destroy such an object of power, but I don’t think she really ever stopped to consider what the object actually meant to her. Her marriage is cold and loveless; she doesn’t know what love is, so when she experiences it she doesn’t recognise it or understand it. There are so many passages I could quote here. I have them marked down in my edition. There’s so many suggestions of it, some subtle musings and others plain lust. It’s worth reading the book with this relationship in mind.

But, anyway, issues of race and postcolonialisms are what I’ve been really looking into. More and more I seem to be referencing the ideas of Franz Fannon’s Black Skins White Masks whenever I review a book like this. It’s so ridiculously apt and summarising the situation. Fannon’s arguments suggest that the black man has been indoctrinated with this idea that he is inferior. Who he is, and where he comes from, is inferior. Therefore, he is forced to adhere to this model of what is superior. And at this time that was the foolish notion of elite white culture. The black man then pretends to be white; he speaks like a white man, he dresses like him and acts like him: he tries to be him, rather than establishing his own sense of identity.

So what is the concept of Passing? Essentially, it is where people of black heritage, who are very white, can pass of as completely white. For example, you may have had a black grandfather or great grandfather who has intermingled with white culture and has watered down his blood. So the result is a child who is what 1920s American society would still deem a “Negro” but to all appearances is not one. The individual is left with two choices: own their heritage, and embrace it, or pretend to be something else.

“It’s funny about passing. We disapprove of it and at the same time condone it. It excites our contempt and yet we rather admire it. We shy away from it with an odd kind of revulsion, but we protect it.”

And this book captures both sides. To be a Negro here is to be a second class citizen, nobody wants the stigma attached with that, so they distance themselves from the label as much as possible. Even if it means marring a racist bigot of a husband who has no idea his own wife is actually descended form black heritage. Some embrace who they are and are proud of it. The psychological framework that has built the prior example is understandable. Nobody would want to be in such a situation, though the truly brave are those that resist it and stand up for who they are. Those that ignore the societal pressures, as they should, are the ones that help make change and social progress.

This is an interesting novella, it captures an element of the postcolonial legacy I was unaware of previously, and it has suggestions of homosexual desire which really is highly characteristic of some of the literature of the period. It's really worth a read. ...more

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Mar 11, 2017 Michael rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: recs, 2017

A novel about passing as white, coded with queer subtext, Passing follows protagonist Irene Redfield as she rekindles a deep bond with her childhood friend Clare Kendry at the height of the Harlem Renaissance. Both Clare and Irene are light-skinned Black women who grew up in the same neighborhood; since the time of their separation from each other, though, Clare has married an aggressive white supremacist and begun passing as a white woman, while Irene has thoroughly involved herself in the raci ...more

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Mar 26, 2019 BlackOxford rated it it was amazing

Shelves: new-york-city, american, african-american

Our Most Common Prejudice

This novel is an extended example of a figure of speech called synecdoche in which a part is used to reference the whole. What makes it unusual, and highly creative, is that the part that Larsen uses is the gross and glaring fact of racial prejudice. The whole is a much more subtle and barely expressible prejudice that most of us find instinctive - prejudiced rejection of the purposes of others.

The storyline appears straightforward. Because she is light-skinned, Clare, I ...more

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Jul 22, 2019 Monica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: aoc, kindle_fiction, female-author-fic, pub-b4_1950, 5-star, classics, racial-matters, aoc-female

Since joining goodreads, I've made an effort to read the classics. Sometimes they fall flat, but most of the time they are better than expected. Passing is an example of the latter and I absolutely loved it! This novel at 90 years old feels like it could have been written today. What Passing has revealed isn't a huge revelation in my mind. First of all let me get my literary impressions out of the way. Nella Larsen is quite a talent. There is something about the way she writes that just blew me ...more

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Sep 13, 2015 Samadrita rated it really liked it

Shelves: by-women-who-matter, in-by-about-america, racism-slavery-post-colonial, sociology, bygones-are-never-bygones, human-drama, cherished

Huzzah for neat seguing of plot pulse and theme! This one proves to be a much better outing than Quicksand because it relies on dialogue and interactions between characters to gradually disclose its cleverly withheld secrets. Till the very end Larsen successfully kept me guessing at the hidden fears, ambitions and motivations that drive Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry - two light-skinned black women who subscribe to different forms of morally ambiguous survivalist ideology to counter the omnipre Huzzah for neat seguing of plot pulse and theme! This one proves to be a much better outing than Quicksand because it relies on dialogue and interactions between characters to gradually disclose its cleverly withheld secrets. Till the very end Larsen successfully kept me guessing at the hidden fears, ambitions and motivations that drive Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry - two light-skinned black women who subscribe to different forms of morally ambiguous survivalist ideology to counter the omnipresent threat posed by a white supremacist socioeconomic milieu.

She was caught between two allegiances, different, yet the same. Herself. Her race. Race! The thing that bound and suffocated her. Whatever steps she took, or if she took none at all, something would be crushed. A person or the race.

Unlike Quicksand, the plot doesn't reflect a monomaniacal desire to observe the unities of time. Snippets of disconcerting social gatherings and passive-aggressive conversations are braided together to represent the common thread of an uneasy, even dysfunctional, relationship spread out over the span of years. In a way, 'Passing' is less about two intelligent women cautiously toeing the invisible boundary separating white and black America and more about characters futilely grappling with a malignant identity crisis. The race issue looms large in the background like a perpetual accompaniment to the marital discord and sexual jealousy but it never overshadows the finely balanced interplay of thought and action that steers the story ahead.

She was surprised that, having thought the thought, conceded the fact, she was no more hurt, cared no more, than during her previous frenzied endeavors to escape it. And this absence of acute, unbearable pain seemed to her unjust, as if she had been denied some exquisite solace of suffering which the full acknowledgement should have given her.

The rating is an acknowledgement of the degree of my emotional involvement and the fact that the ending left me slightly slack-jawed. ...more

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Nov 22, 2010 Fabian rated it really liked it

Unfortunately I've not read many Harlem Renaissance greats. I've only previously read the novels "Native Son," "Go Tell it on the Mountain," "Invisible Man," &, well, pretty much. 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 & at ...more

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Oct 16, 2017 Steven Godin rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, america-canada

Written in the late 1920's, this is indeed a powerful piece of writing, and all these years later still remains an important one, dealing with the uncomfortable critique on modern race relations. Nella Larsen holds her own place in history for being the first African-American woman to receive a Guggenheim fellowship, and while her body of work hardly got off the ground in terms of numbers, what she did produce was fascinating insight into the tough lives people of mixed race had to endure. This Written in the late 1920's, this is indeed a powerful piece of writing, and all these years later still remains an important one, dealing with the uncomfortable critique on modern race relations. Nella Larsen holds her own place in history for being the first African-American woman to receive a Guggenheim fellowship, and while her body of work hardly got off the ground in terms of numbers, what she did produce was fascinating insight into the tough lives people of mixed race had to endure. This short novel was an uneasy read, with some quite painful moments, which looks at the lives of two very different young, black women in Harlem. Irene Redfield, is part of the elite. Accomplished, reasonably wealthy and sophisticated, but living in a cultural enclave. Whilst Clare Kendry, is just as isolated, but worryingly from her own race. Like a handful of others, Kendry is 'passing' for caucasian, her husband makes jokes about her skin tone, but has no idea she is classed as non-white.

This is as much a story about the gap between private and public selves as it is about racial identity, but what I found particularly thought-provoking was the subtle nature it offers on standards of beauty from within as well as on the outside. That, it seems, are just as ingrained now as they were back then nearly one hundred years ago. Even today, there appears a constant stream of controversies involving black celebrities having their skin lightened in tone for magazine covers and interviews. Does for example buying into black idols just perpetuate the idea that women have to conform to a white woman's standards of beauty in order to get in the spotlight? Absolutism though has no place in Larsen's novel, there is much sympathy for Clare, even if she is participating in events that harm and insult other black women. There is a desire to be swept up in a social group that was still very much above the one she was born into. She still want's to hang out with her real kind, and through letters this leads her to rekindle a friendship with Irene (or Rene) who is wholly uncomfortable about the idea.

Obviously America has come a long way since this book was written, but not far enough (having a racist leader doesn't help), this could quite easily be happening out there right now. Certainly there are plenty of pressures on all of us at some point in out lives, but it always ends up with non-whites bearing the brunt of it. I have to be honest, although Larsen raises a serious topic here, the story as a whole just kind of underwhelmed me. The structure of the narrative never gave me the impression of being anything that great. I was certainly drawn to the circumstances of both women more than how Larsen went about telling it. It did however feature a shocking finale which I didn't see coming, but ultimately it shouldn't have surprised me, as what went before was never on the happy side. A major work on race it maybe, but just lacked that extra something to be a memorable one. A solid 3/5 ...more

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Aug 09, 2020 Katie Lumsden rated it it was amazing

Truly fantastic – compelling, gripping, thought-provoking and powerful. What an ending! I completely loved it.

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Jun 26, 2020 Mara rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: recommended-to-me, physical-owned

Wow, for such a short novel, this one packs a punch! A classic of Harlem Renaissance literature, this little book explores what the concept of "passing" as white has meant for Black women throughout history. This book challenges our notions of what makes someone a part of a racial group, and hooboy. That ending though. ...more

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Oct 07, 2020 Gabrielle Grosbety rated it really liked it

“ “It’s funny about ‘passing.’ We disapprove of it and at the same time condone it. It excites our contempt and yet we rather admire it. We shy away from it with an odd kind of revulsion but we protect it.” ”

This book reminded me of The Vanishing Half in the way that it focuses in on one light-skinned black woman’s journey to deciding to pass as white while someone that used to be close to her, who is also a light-skinned black woman, watches from afar. Afar in the way that everything that “ “It’s funny about ‘passing.’ We disapprove of it and at the same time condone it. It excites our contempt and yet we rather admire it. We shy away from it with an odd kind of revulsion but we protect it.” ”

This book reminded me of The Vanishing Half in the way that it focuses in on one light-skinned black woman’s journey to deciding to pass as white while someone that used to be close to her, who is also a light-skinned black woman, watches from afar. Afar in the way that everything that person does is slightly beyond comprehension. The person’s decision to pass as white deeply fraying the ties they once had to the black community, effectually estranging them from it to the point that they can’t remember what it feels like to be around a community that recognizes them in their entirety. Even their most intimate partner in life doesn’t truly see them because they are leading a double life that requires the utmost precision in upholding.

Ambiguity and murky haziness in being and identity belies Passing the most as there is a double-sidedness to the surrealness of someone’s consciousness and the setting that they’re in, which happens vividly within the character of Clare. Clare fully and entirely breaks from her identity as a black woman and lives entrenched in the depths of a larger than life lie. She paradoxically goes to the greatest of dangers in hopes of ensuring her safety, but every minute her safety is put under incalculable duress as she dissociates from the woman she once was, in the way that she talks, acts, and thinks, and is complicit in her husband’s casual, despicable racism. However, everyone in this time becomes products of a socially conditioned system, in which their socialization teaches them to hate or fear what they don’t understand. It teaches them to go to great lengths to alienate and segregate from ‘the other’ as everyone lives in discordant, distressing acrimony.

Irene, also a light-skinned black woman and Clare’s childhood friend, feels wildly conflicted with the idea of Clare. As she becomes recklessly enthralled and intrigued by her charms and the “caress” of her smile, but also feels uncomfortable and intensely emotional towards her, which sometimes harvests itself to become bitterly filled aversion and distaste. In fact when I imagine Irene’s reaction to Clare I see bright paint splattering itself over an empty canvas because it feels like each part of the color is constructing a charged narrative of what it’s like to lay eyes on Clare and feel so deeply what she has done as it refreshes itself with each new appearance she makes.

“Actually they were strangers. Strangers in their ways and means of living. Strangers in their desires. Strangers even in their racial consciousness.”

The moment that Clare and Irene first meet again after so much time has elapsed, however, feels especially meaningful as they eye each other across a room that resembles an ethereal dream, which all may shatter if just a piece of their interaction goes astray. Moments are fragile and this one felt alive with possibility and confusion because there’s no denying that there’s something magnetic about the way that these women are drawn deeper and deeper in to each other. It’s like the other is a long forgotten song that they’re just beginning to remember the lyrics to: with caution at first, but then letting the other in for better or for worse with the consequences that it will bring.

This novella strikingly analyzes what can be the troubling irresoluteness in identity, amongst the backdrop of 1920s New York, and just the lengths that someone will go to in order to escape the chains that would accompany their existence otherwise. However, what that person doesn't fully initially realize, however, is that on their way to liberating themselves from the fears of living in their own body and existence, they replace them with new fears of working in overdrive not to be found out. In the end, liberation is a complicated concept, not fully fathomable like the rest of what occurs in this novella, and comes at a price never to be underestimated. ...more

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Oct 12, 2016 Duane rated it really liked it

Shelves: american-classics, 2016-book-challenge, reviewed-books, rated-books, guardian-1000

Nella Larson (1891-1964) was born in Chicago to mixed race parents. Her mother was Danish and her father was Afro-Caribbean, also with a mixed race heritage. So Nella was caught in between worlds, not quite white, not quite black, so it was natural for her to write of her life experiences. And that's what she does in Passing (1929). The story is set in Harlem and revolves around two women, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, both light skinned, one secure and happy, accepting her racial identity, t ...more

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May 15, 2016 Majenta rated it liked it

Shelves: friends

PASSING gets an above-passing grade. It was on my TBR list for so long that I'm not sure why I might have wanted to read it, but I'm glad I got through it and...yeah, I'm glad I read it. ...more

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Apr 11, 2015 Dem rated it really liked it

Passing is a novel by American author Nella Larsen. Published in 1929 and set in 1920s Harlem, New York City. The plot centers on the meeting of two childhood friends of mixed-race African-American ancestry.
Clare Kendry and Irene Redfiel are friends from old and a chance meeting sees them rekindle a forgotten friendship. The title ( Passing) and central theme of the novel refer to the practice of racial "passing"; Clare Kendry's passing as white with her white husband, Jack Bellew, is feature ...more

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Oct 11, 2020 Anne (on semi-hiatus) rated it really liked it

Shelves: nyc, novellas-and-short-stories, historical-fiction, 2020, audio

“ It was, she cried silently, enough to suffer as a woman, an individual, on one’s own account, without having to suffer for the race as well.”

Passing, written a century ago in 1922 by Nella Larsen is a complex and compelling novel which looks at the relationship between racial loyalty and identity. It is a study in contrasts, following the increasingly fraught relationship between two very different biracial women. They are both able to pass as white, but the ways that they choose to pass revea “ It was, she cried silently, enough to suffer as a woman, an individual, on one’s own account, without having to suffer for the race as well.”

Passing, written a century ago in 1922 by Nella Larsen is a complex and compelling novel which looks at the relationship between racial loyalty and identity. It is a study in contrasts, following the increasingly fraught relationship between two very different biracial women. They are both able to pass as white, but the ways that they choose to pass reveal their racial identities, concerns and personalities which could not be more different. This important novel written so long ago and raising so many important questions about race, especially for women,  is written in a very spare style and reads like a page turner.

The novel starts with a chance encounter at a tea shop between Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry. Once childhood friends in Harlem, New York, Irene and Clare are separated when Clare decides to leave the Black community behind, to ‘pass’ for white, marry a white man, and live as a white woman. While the 2 women catch up Clare asks Irene if she could come to one of her parties; she misses being around Black people. Irene agrees and then she meets Clare’s racist husband. Irene is shocked. She lives within the African-American community, is married to a black man and is anxious about passing though she does it. In fact, Irene’s biggest desire in life is for security, while Clare is a risk taker.

Irene, now sorry that she invited Clare to a party, questions her about coming to a party in Harlem and her husband finding out. Clare says that she will only come over when her husband is out of town.

The first party feeds Clare’s desire to be among black people again and Clare seeks out Irene more and more while Clare tries sometimes unsuccessfully to avoid her. In the end, Clare secretly joins Irene and her husband at the best clubs and parties where the Harlem literati and intelligentsia meet not caring that her husband will discover her identity. While Irene nervously warns her of the terrible danger of discovery -- the ever-present cost of ''passing'' -- Clare welcomes it as an opportunity to end her marriage, wanting to live again as a black woman.

Irene, is not only concerned about Clare’s safety; she is also very worried about her own passionless marriage and begins to see Clare as a threat. The more Clare shows up at Irene’s house and parties, sometimes unannounced, the more anxious Irene becomes not only about Clare’s safety but about the safety of her own marriage. Irene begins to suspect a special relationship between Clare and Brian, her husband. In her mind, the only way that she could lose her husband to Clare is if Clare’s husband found out the truth about Clare’s color. So, while Clare wants her husband to find out that she is black, Irene is terrified of the same.

As partying and worrying on Clare's part continues the tone of the novel becomes increasingly tense until the surprising ending.

  ...more

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Jul 28, 2014 Zanna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 500gbw, bechdel-pass

Judging by the fact that this book has an introduction by the awesome Ntozake Shange, extensive notes and a detailed critical foreward by Mae Henderson loaded with references to related books and other critics who have written on Larsen, and that Bitch magazine devoted a feature to the book in their early 2015 issue, Passing has only become, if anything, increasingly relevant over the decades since its publication in 1929. The explanatory power of the concept of 'passing' has been utilised to ma Judging by the fact that this book has an introduction by the awesome Ntozake Shange, extensive notes and a detailed critical foreward by Mae Henderson loaded with references to related books and other critics who have written on Larsen, and that Bitch magazine devoted a feature to the book in their early 2015 issue, Passing has only become, if anything, increasingly relevant over the decades since its publication in 1929. The explanatory power of the concept of 'passing' has been utilised to make sense of the experiences of a wider range of marginalised groups thanks to the networks formed by social media activism. It seems particularly relevant for trans people who until recently were advised by medical care providers to conceal their trans histories (see, for example, Transgender History by Susan Stryker). Inspiring author Janet Mock has often spoken about this issue and her complicated relationship with it as a trans woman, but not, to my knowledge, as a woman of colour.

The slippage in the specificity of 'passing' produces both light and heat - fresh insight and fresh rage, maybe fresh confusion. I remember seeing a young journalist concerned with social justice issues giving a paper and noting among her privileges 'I pass for straight': most of the time I am read as straight, whether I am straight or not. The same seems to be true for me. I am also aware that I 'pass' as middle class, and that I sometimes take advantage of this quite unthinkingly - I adjust my accent before I am aware of doing it. There is a parallel here with Irene's 'passing' in the whites-only hotel where she meets Clare. It is clear that she thinks nothing of this, and is able to un-self-critically disapprove of Clare's more consistent 'passing' which has to be maintained in private due to her deliberate deception-by-omission of her extremely racist white husband. Irene's disapproval is rooted in her uneven racial solidarity, but it also grows out of her fearful need for security.

This need is corrosive. The tense, trammelled atmosphere of the book, reflecting the limitations imposed on black lives by segregation and white supremacy, is, for me, created largely through the uncommunicative relationship between Irene and her (visibly and attractively black) husband Brian. The narration never strays from Irene's consciousness (Mae Henderson argues that Clare is a double of Irene, a possible 'passing' self), and the distance between her desperate, passionate thoughts and her words is a chasm. She thinks of Clare as an actor, as artificial, exaggerated and provocative, but her own performance, one of calm and middle-class convention, is dramatic and unbroken. She thinks that Clare expresses more than she feels, but she herself expresses less. Her erotic attraction to Clare is one object of this repression. Brian is relatively taciturn, but nonetheless an attractive character, whom I found more sympathetic than Irene. Wanting to know what he felt and thought drew me closer to her, longing for openness and togetherness between them against the hostility of whiteness 'outside'.

To come back to Mock, the weirdness of 'passing' for what you are (a woman) underlines precisely what Larsen succeeds in conveying here, that race, despite its currency (hard and soft) is nonsense, a delusion in the mind of the racist. What makes it stick for Larsen's extraordinarily compelling characters is that the delusion is inscribed in law. Clare Kendry, ivory skinned, blond, read as white by everyone who sees her, is legally a 'Negro' because of the 'one drop rule'. The legal frameworks of segregation have since been ostensibly dismantled, yet, since Euro-USian settler colonial capitalism still requires white supremacy to sustain itself, race retains its deadly currency, and Passing as a text of race continues to speak with the pressing voices of living histories. Clare's longing to participate in blackness - in the vibrant middle-class black circles of Harlem that Irene and Brian move in - also speaks, I think, especially as the changing conditions of capitalism have worked so vigorously and insidiously to dismantle community and mutuality, especially among black people, at all levels of society.

Stylistically, as Mae Henderson points out, the text is fragmentary, full of lacunae that require the reader to supply meaning and synthesis. This necessity is underlined by Irene's positioning as the reader of the texts of Clare and of her husband. She does not read well, and Clare in particular makes herself difficult to read, as her tricky handwriting emphasises, and so we are adrift in ambiguities, like Clare, with everything at stake. ...more

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Sep 02, 2018 ✨ jamieson ✨ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 2018-reads, owned-books, modernism, read-for-school, 1001-btrbyd-read

I read this for university and I ... really, really liked it. It's nice when your school texts suck you in so much it's like you're not even doing schoolwork. This was incredibly thought-provoking and such easy reading compared to some other modernist texts. The amount of ground Larsen was able to cover in such a short book was truly a feat. I really enjoyed the themes Larsen chose to explore and following her characters as they struggled with their identities and situations. While at times the ...more

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Aug 03, 2017 Sue rated it really liked it

Shelves: african-american, historical-fiction, library-book, 1920s, classics

Written during and as a part of the Harlem Renaissance, Nella Larsen's Passing is a very interesting look at a time and place and people. The emotions and experiences of the primary characters, these women and their approaches to their lives, their race, their marriages, their potential futures, are so complex in ways that defy any easy resolution.

Clare Kendry is the one who is "Passing." She grew up on the South Side of Chicago but resolved to live her adult life as a white woman and did so, fa ...more

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Jul 17, 2014 Aubrey rated it really liked it

Shelves: reality-check, r-2014, reviewed, antidote-think-twice-all, person-of-everything, 500-wm, 4-star, person-of-reality, r-goodreads, antidote-think-twice-read

4.5/5

My rating of this book has been compromised by my extremely recent previous reading of Larsen's magnificent Quicksand, it's true. Take it as one of those times where the scale depends solely on the capabilities of the sole author herself, rather than being one carefully calibrated across all of whom I've read. If the latter were the case, I would have to downgrade a great deal of other works read previously to this; as I have neither the time nor inclination for such things, simply take my 4.5/5

My rating of this book has been compromised by my extremely recent previous reading of Larsen's magnificent Quicksand, it's true. Take it as one of those times where the scale depends solely on the capabilities of the sole author herself, rather than being one carefully calibrated across all of whom I've read. If the latter were the case, I would have to downgrade a great deal of other works read previously to this; as I have neither the time nor inclination for such things, simply take my word for it that Larsen is, regardless of how the relative merits of her works compare to one another, in a class of her own.

It is authors as qualified as Larsen who take fiction for what it's worth with little heed for what they are expected to do. They choose the same old themes of centuries past and shape the bones of their own life accordingly, bringing to life a story as old as humanity whose power rests in the quickening insight unlike anything literature had been able to offer before. Someone as skilled and brave as Larsen is not only good for but necessary to the written world, pioneer as she was for black woman writers in an age where the few that flourished were later on buried with accusation and contempt. Lucky for us that her words were far too powerful to consign to oblivion.

I think what they feel is—well, a kind of emotional excitement. You know, the sort of thing you feel in the presence of something strange, and even, perhaps, a bit repugnant to you; something so different that it's really at the opposite end of the pole from all your accustomed notions of beauty.

Security is a gamble for stakes that rise for every additional set of rules inflicted on the gambler. Rules for the rich, rules for the married, rules for the woman with no options of financial upkeep beyond the accepted husband, rules for the black woman who must choose and choose and choose again to keep a life she has been raised for from the get go. Rules for the one who will be blamed if the children turn out wrong. Rules for the one who will be ruined if the social strata is not flattered and abetted just so. Rules for the one whose range of expression will not be fixed by a simple elimination of racism, for the one who cannot explicate her sexual needs even to herself, for the one who has far too much knowledge of lynching and rape and the implicit hate the world has for ones such as her to ever be able to afford to be weak. These various stories have been told in various ways, but not all together. Not like this.

For the first time she suffered and rebelled because she was unable to disregard the burden of race. It was, she cried silently, enough to suffer as a woman, an individual, on one's own account, without having to suffer for the race as well. It was a brutality, and undeserved. Surely, no other people so cursed as Ham's dark children.

Power of the one who has played their straightened game with such enduring finesse, now able to take an instant of self suppressed for year after year after year and finally, finally, act. We may know the story, but to know both that and deep, deep down, we would all, every single one of us, in that body, in that life, in those circumstances, we would have acted the same? That's the best of literature for you. ...more

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Sep 16, 2020 Jennifer (Insert Lit Pun) added it · review of another edition

What a bracing and twisty little book. Thoughts to come soon (in conversation with The Vanishing Half!).

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Feb 09, 2021 Kevin Shepherd rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, fiction, race-social-justice, reviewed, feminist-studies

Passing: [racial identity], when a person classified as a member of one racial group is accepted ("passes") as a member of another. Historically, the term has been used primarily in the U.S. to describe a person of color who assimilated into the white majority in order to escape the segregated social conventions of racism. (Wikipedia)

Nell Larsen gifts us with two extraordinary characters - Irene and Clare. Both women, black by birth, are light skinned enough to “pass” as white. Whereas Irene pa ...more

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Jun 23, 2015 Josh rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015

(4.0) I've had to cogitate on this for a while to see if I could come up with something to encompass my feelings on this book. Comparatively speaking, coming from a man of Caucasian descent in America, could I truly know what it felt like to be someone of color at this time? At any time? With that said, I must say…

Passing. Now that’s a term, in its current context, I wasn't familiar with. The fact that people literally had to pass as another race to be accepted is beyond me, but the color of one ...more

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Jan 31, 2011 Chrissie rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2015-read, fiction, usa, audible, classics, race

This was very good! It grabs your attention. It keeps you guessing from the first page to the last. It gives interesting perspectives on the concept of "passing" as a White. Great dialogs. No, more than great, exceptional! It moves quickly, and when it ends it leaves you thinking. This is a classic that is worth reading. It says a lot in a few words. It packs a punch.

Excellent audiobook narration by Robin Miles.

There is an exception to every rule. This was short and I liked it a lot. ...more

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Jun 14, 2019 Raul Bimenyimana rated it really liked it

Shelves: african-african-diaspora, women-writers

This book was published 90 years ago, during the Harlem Renaissance that brought with it great works of art, this novel being one of them. Given the title and main theme of the book, I had some reservations before reading this, but what a pleasure and wealth of knowledge I would have missed had I bypassed it.

The story begins when Irene, the protagonist, remembers meeting her childhood friend Clare in her hometown of Chicago while passing in a restaurant meant for white people only. Both charact This book was published 90 years ago, during the Harlem Renaissance that brought with it great works of art, this novel being one of them. Given the title and main theme of the book, I had some reservations before reading this, but what a pleasure and wealth of knowledge I would have missed had I bypassed it.

The story begins when Irene, the protagonist, remembers meeting her childhood friend Clare in her hometown of Chicago while passing in a restaurant meant for white people only. Both characters are biracial but their physical features allow them to venture into white society unsuspected, perceived and even received as white. But whereas Irene only passes for access to places like the theater and restaurants, Clare has totally immersed herself into white society going as far as marrying a racist white husband and having a child with him, and after meeting Irene, uses her as a contact to the blooming vibrant Black community of Harlem, trying to escape the stifling hateful environment she’s trapped in, and in the meanwhile they have to be careful that her true racial identity is not known to Clare’s husband.

In engaging descriptive prose, Larsen writes of the environment that creates such precarious and demeaning conditions. Taking us to the vibrant Harlem parties of the 1920s and describing the social structure that defined status, security, desirability, and at most times, survival. There’s a particular passage in this book where Clare explains that she won’t have another child for fear of the child being born dark and she would be found out to which Gertrude, a biracial childhood friend of Clare’s and Irene’s, remarks that no one really wants a dark child. There were times in the story I thought: “She won’t go there! She won’t…. She will…. She did!” There’s even a more disturbing passage after this where the three friends have to listen to demeaning racist vitriol coming from Clare’s husband and remain silent for Clare’s security.

I now understand why there’s so much study on this work, it even gave me one of the best descriptions of fetishism I’ve ever read:
“I think that what they feel is—well, a kind of emotional excitement. You know, the sort of thing you feel in the presence of something strange, and even, perhaps, a bit repugnant to you; something so different that it’s really the opposite end of the pole from all your accustomed notions of beauty.”
A fantastic book and I can’t wait to read the rest of the writer’s work. ...more

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Nov 03, 2015 Alex rated it it was amazing

Shelves: harlem-renaissance, new-york-literary-biography, 2015, novel-a-biography, rth-lifetime

I've been fooled twice now into thinking Nella Larsen isn't a great writer. She is. She controls her story perfectly; she gives you exactly the information you need at exactly the right time. Her stories are carefully constructed, each one building steadily towards a wallop. They make a huge impact. There's no fat, nothing that doesn't exactly need to be there.

There's a six-floor walkup in one scene of Passing; the characters complain about it, and one makes a racial comment about it. It's ther ...more

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Feb 08, 2017 Viv JM rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, read-harder-challenge-2017, z-2017-author-female, read-in-2017, author-female, fiction-classic, 1001-books-project

This is a short novel that packs a lot of punch. I expected the themes of race and racism, but was surprised by the intensity of its portrayal of the protagonist's feelings of ferocious jealousy. The ending was quite a shock, so I'm glad in this instance that I approached the book not knowing how it would conclude (and I won't spoil it here!)

"Passing" was my pick for the Read Harder Challenge task to "read a classic by an author of color".

I listened to the audiobook version narrated by Robin Mi ...more

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Jul 15, 2018 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read2018

I kept seeing this classic of the Harlem Renaissance everywhere, and took it as a sign to read it. A story of passing for white, but between the lines there is so much more - nonheteronormative attraction, marriage, roles of women, sexuality, desire, parenthood... it's a lot deeper than it looks! ...more

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Jun 18, 2020 AnnaLuce rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-reviews, 5-good-reads, ebooks-overdrive, poignant-reads, own, physical-copies-i-own

“It’s funny about ‘passing.’ We disapprove of it and at the same time condone it. It excites our contempt and yet we rather admire it. We shy away from it with an odd kind of revulsion, but we protect it.”

At once alluring and disquieting Nella Larsen's Passing presents its readers with a piercing examination of the interplay of race, gender, and class in 1920s New York.
Clare and Irene, the women at the centre of this novel, are childhood friends who grew up in the same black neighborhood. Bot ...more

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About Nella Larsen

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Nellallitea 'Nella' Larsen (first called Nellie Walker) was an American novelist of the Harlem Renaissance who wrote two novels and a few short stories. Though her literary output was scant, what she wrote earned her recognition by her contemporaries and by present-day critics. ...more

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“The trouble with Clare was, not only that she wanted to have her cake and eat it too, but that she wanted to nibble at the cakes of other folk as well.” — 31 likes

“It hurt. It hurt like hell. But it didn’t matter, if no one knew.” — 18 likes

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