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Quicksand

Nella Larsen,

Thadious M. Davis (Editor)

Start date: December 1, 2025

Finish date: December 31, 2025

Discussion: Lesser Know/Wilderness Classics

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Oct 15, 2021 Sara rated it really liked it

Shelves: american, american-classics, literary-fiction

Helga Crane is a mixed-race woman, who never feels she fits into either world that is offered her--that of the Southern blacks in the school at which she teaches in the beginning of the story, that of the progressive blacks who befriend her in Harlem, nor that of her Danish white relatives, who treat her as an oddity when she flees to Denmark. She is a person without a racial identity, and that, for Nella Larsen, is worse than perhaps any other fate she could be sentenced to.

It is sad to watch H Helga Crane is a mixed-race woman, who never feels she fits into either world that is offered her--that of the Southern blacks in the school at which she teaches in the beginning of the story, that of the progressive blacks who befriend her in Harlem, nor that of her Danish white relatives, who treat her as an oddity when she flees to Denmark. She is a person without a racial identity, and that, for Nella Larsen, is worse than perhaps any other fate she could be sentenced to.

It is sad to watch Helga’s descent from a respectable job and a possible good marriage to a life that could not be deemed acceptable for any of us. The novel is well-titled, for Helga steps into the quicksand of her life and is pulled under slowly, even as she struggles mentally with how to break the cycle and pull free.

In addition to tackling the complex world of race relations and racial identity, Larsen addresses religion as the great panacea that she sees as a method of keeping the black population contented with their unacceptable lives and focused on rewards that can only come in the hereafter. The Reverend Pleasant Green is as unpleasant as can be, but one cannot help thinking he is but another victim of the situation and of Helga’s innate dissatisfaction.

We are given an array of female characters with which to contrast Helga. Anne Grey, a black woman who hates white people and has a position of importance in the black community, and Miss Denny, a black woman who seems to accept people in terms of who they are individually and without consideration of their skin color, are two of the most interesting. The women are complete opposites, but both seem to have found what Helga cannot, a place of belonging.

So much of this novel feels like an autobiography. I could not help thinking Nella Larsen must have lived many of these feelings of alienation and being treated as an oddity herself, considering how her own life story parallels Helga’s fictional one in so many details.

Like Passing, this novel is a wonderful insight into the mind and attitudes of blacks in the 1920s, particularly those of mixed race. Nella Larsen is required reading in my view. Her books are short, but her stories have a between-the-eyes impact that is unforgettable. ...more

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Jan 12, 2024 GONZA rated it really liked it

Shelves: ebk, goodreadsgroups

As much as this may seem like a sad story, and it certainly is, more than anything else it makes me think and rethink about it, how trivial, in the end, the story of a life ruined for trivial reasons is.

Per quanto questa possa sembrare una storia triste, e lo é certamente, piú che altro mi ci fa pensare e ripensare, il fatto di come sia banale, alla fine, la storia di una vita rovinata per futili motivi.

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Jul 16, 2018 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-books

Earlier this year I read Larsen's book Passing which has really stuck with me. I mention it often as it was so unique and thought-provoking. That experience made me quite excited to read this one. Larsen's prose is quite beautiful making these books have so much ease and fluidity. The two books felt quite different one from the other though. Passing was for me a clearer exploration of what it meant to be biracial in America. It was more difficult for me to place myself in the shoes of her charac ...more

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Feb 13, 2022 Karen rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001

I read Passing back in December and I really liked it. I love Larsen's writing style, and although I think Passing is the better written book, with Quicksand one really gets a look into what a Biracial person goes through, especially if there is no one to guide them. I don't really want to discuss the plot, because I think the book should be approached with fresh eyes/ears.

...more

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