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The Fifth Child (Dec. 2020 Novella Tournament)
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Passing (Nov. 2020 Novella Tournament)
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By Christopher · 30 posts · 21 views
last updated Mar 03, 2021 08:06AM
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What Members Thought
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
"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
A vivid fly-on-the-wall look at black upper middle class life in 1920's Chicago and Harlem, filtered through the mind of the fascinating Irene Redfield. My Restless Books edition (with a great Forward by Darryl Pinckney) has a note saying that they have preserved the original spelling and punctuation, with minimal typographical and grammatical edits for readability and consistency. The edits must be (thankfully) minimal, since my text had occasional long sentences with odd syntax that I sometime
...more
This short novel is set in 1927 at the height of the Harlem Renaissance. A well-to-do “colored” woman runs into a childhood friend and learns that she has been “passing” as white. Even her bigoted husband does not know that she is actually “colored”. Despite the advantages accorded to whites, the woman is longing to reconnect with the colored community. Hiding her racial background has taken its toll. But her entrance into the world of the novel’s protagonist upends her sense of security. This w
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Reading Passing by Nella Larsen is a short but intense experience.
Irene and Clare, two black women and childhood friends, made different choices about their racial identities. Told from Irene's point of view, the story is filled with the character's inner analysis and rumination, painfully honest if not entirely reliable.
She [Irene] said: “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 ...more
Irene and Clare, two black women and childhood friends, made different choices about their racial identities. Told from Irene's point of view, the story is filled with the character's inner analysis and rumination, painfully honest if not entirely reliable.
She [Irene] said: “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 ...more
Apr 08, 2016
Wendy
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
1001-books,
500-women
This was a tight, efficient little novel. Everything felt balanced: the emotional drama, the action, the pacing. The occasional descriptions, like the rooftop view of Chicago, or Clare in her fancy dress, punched up the prose but never dragged. The story itself concerns the fraught racial politics of urban '20s Chicago and Harlem, where a "drop of colored blood" renders one "colored", and where "passing" as white could be seen as convenient, ambitious, or a betrayal to one's own kith and kin. No
...more
This book presents an interesting look into the Harlem Renaissance and what it means to be black in 1920s NYC. The story is about two friends, one who is married to a successful black man (Irene) and the other who passes herself off as white (Clare) and marries a wealthy white man, who is also an extreme racist. Although the reader may get caught up in whether the passing woman is found out by her husband, the story is really about the relationship of the two women in the book. Clare is lonely i
...more
Interesting look at the phenomenon of passing in 1920s America, the ease which some characters do it, the judgment from others, and the consequences of trying to move between race and social classes. My only criticism is that the end feels disconnected from the main themes of the book, though this may be because I didn't do a very good job of reading it. For me, the ending (while dramatic) cheapened the rest of the book.
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Nella Larsen has told a tightly woven story of Self and Race. Who are we? What are we? How do we identify ourselves? How and where do we fit into Society?
Clare and Irene are two light skinned AfroAmericans in 1927. One has "passed", left her roots behind, married a white man who doesn't realize her heritage, passes and lives as a white woman. The other lives as a privileged AfroAmerican but can conveniently "pass" as white if and when she likes. But she lives and is known in her circle as colour ...more
Clare and Irene are two light skinned AfroAmericans in 1927. One has "passed", left her roots behind, married a white man who doesn't realize her heritage, passes and lives as a white woman. The other lives as a privileged AfroAmerican but can conveniently "pass" as white if and when she likes. But she lives and is known in her circle as colour ...more
A character study about control whose cleverness doesn't reveal itself fully until the very end. Clare wants both the freedom of her white lifestyle and the comfort of black community, but disregards the danger from her racist husband and from Irene's jealousy, both of which Irene wields to in an attempt to keep Clare confined to one world. Irene's paranoid desperation to keep her own marriage undisrupted blinds her to her patriarchal complicity. No matter what advantages passing gives you, it s
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Because I love Zora Neale Hurston, Kaion recommends this. I already had it on my tbr list, but don't remember where I saw it mentioned before.
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I'm giving this five stars because this short book surprised and delighted me. I didn't have expectations beyond the social issues promised by the title, which I had given very little thought to previously and hadn't read about in fiction or otherwise to any extent. The matter of fact way the context and reality were framed made it all more troubling to process the racism being endured and its impacts. The scene with John (Clare's husband) where he boldly demonstrates his stark racism to the tab
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Nov 04, 2020
Lori
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction,
literature,
z-reviewed,
america,
roundtable,
little-literary-novel,
pre-1950,
z-read-2020,
zy-text
Fascinating insight into what wealthy, professional black society was like in the North in the 1920s. Compelling story.
Jan 09, 2015
Alice Cuprill
marked it as to-read
Nov 07, 2015
Jennifer
marked it as to-read
Jan 18, 2017
Susan
marked it as to-read
Mar 05, 2017
Zadignose
marked it as not-now
Nov 17, 2018
Jenny
marked it as to-read
May 12, 2019
Gerard
marked it as to-read
May 04, 2021
Pamela
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
guardian-1000-read,
boxall-1001-read
May 15, 2025
Heather(Gibby)
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
1001-to-read,
100-200-pages
