From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

Passing

Nella Larsen

Start date: August 1, 2017

Finish date: August 15, 2017

Discussion: Classics Corner

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What Members Thought

Mar 21, 2017 Dree rated it really liked it

Shelves: the-midwest, the-northeast, 1001-read, african-am-can-diaspora-lit, 500-great-books-by-women-read, 2017-reads

A short novel about a woman who crossed the color line in 1920s New York/Chicago. After her parents' deaths, teen Clare was sent to love with her elderly white aunts in New York. And with that, she successfully crossed the color line, marrying a wealthy white businessman.

But that meant she could not go back to Chicago, and had to let those friends go. And her husband teases her for how dark she gets in the sun. They have a daughter, Clare is beautiful, but when she runs into her childhood friend ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Aug 11, 2017 Mary Ellen rated it really liked it

This novella-length gem really captured my attention and surprised me. I thought it would focus on the inner turmoil of someone "passing" as white, dealing with fear, guilt, etc. There is such a character - Clare, the luminous, selfish, fascinating thorn in the side of the novel's central character, Irene. Unlike the daring, dramatic Clare, Irene is tightly controlled and, perhaps, self-delusional. Their encounter after years apart sets the novel in motion. This is a great, compelling, thought-p ...more

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Mar 07, 2021 William rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2021

This book packs a lot into 120 pages. It concerns the renewed relationship between two women after 12 years apart. Both are light skinned mixed race. Clare has lived as white and risks much if the secret of her ancestry were revealed. Irene uses her ability to pass as white as a matter of convenience.
The book looks at issues of race but just as importantly, sexuality, marriage and motherhood, security, freedom, and beauty.
Written in the 1920’s, a time of great social upheaval, it s a small nov ...more

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Feb 18, 2021 Linda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, ill-chcpl, book-discussion-read, historical-fiction, cultural, 2021

What a hypnotizing journey into the lives of a couple of women who had known each other as school girls. After marriages and children, the two meet again on the roof-top restaurant of an upscale hotel. One of the women is absolutely passing and is married to a man who hates people of color (my words). He even jokingly has a derogatory pet name for his wife who doesn't think he'll ever find out who she really is.
Short read but packs a powerful punch. ...more

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