Robin Miles

Nella Larsen

Passing

Clare Kendry has severed all ties to her past. Elegant, fair-skinned and ambitious, she is married to a white man who is unaware of her African-American heritage. When she renews her acquaintance with her childhood friend Irene, who has not hidden her origins, both women are forced to reassess their marriages, the lies they have told - and to confront the secret fears they have buried within themselves. Nella Larsen's intense, taut and psychologically nuanced portrayal of lives and identities dangerously colliding established her as a leading writer of America's Harlem Renaissance. The Penguin English Library - collectable general readers' editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century to the end of the Second World War.

Penguin Classics

Atli 💗🧚🏽‍♀️

"Tm beginning to believe," she murmured, "that no one is ever completely happy, or free, or safe." 

A really important shirt story, including conversations about race and sexuality. For an assignment I read this while looking through a queer theoretical lens, which provides a unique perspective to the story. Larsen's storytelling is unique, lots of interesting dialogue and structure to the story. I think the most interesting aspect is the idea of Irene being an unreliable narrator, leaving details out and leading the reader down her path of delusion and confusion.

Paige Leitner

felt underdeveloped, unfinished, lazy. unrealized potential.

frankie

Ryan 

2.5 stars

This novel serves a good purpose to bring a discussion about racial passing that's common back in it times and looking at the exploration of race, identity, and relationships. However, I just have a thing with classics and say that it hasn't grabbed my attention a lot.

Morgan Thomas

A bit more dramatic at the end than I may have wanted. But the book discussed some great ideas on race, class and gender.

Nella Larsen's fascinating exploration of race and identity--the inspiration for the upcoming Netflix film directed by Rebecca Hall, starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga. This Signet Classics edition of Passing includes an Introduction by Brit Bennett, the bestselling author of The Vanishing Half. Irene Redfield is a Black woman living an affluent, comfortable life with her husband and children in the thriving neighborhood of Harlem in the 1920s. When she reconnects with her childhood friend Clare Kendry, who is similarly light-skinned, Irene discovers that Clare has been passing for a white woman after severing ties to her past--even hiding the truth from her racist husband. Clare finds herself drawn to Irene's sense of ease and security with her Black identity and longs for the community (and, increasingly, the woman) she lost. Irene is both riveted and repulsed by Clare and her dangerous secret, as Clare begins to insert herself--and her deception--into every part of Irene's stable existence. First published in 1929, Larsen's brilliant examination of the various ways in which we all seek to "pass," is as timely as ever.

Gia Palamos

Lynn

“To see Clare is to experience her” - this quote is a tribute to the beautiful way with words this author has. This story starts out with so much potential, tackling race, social status and sacrifices one makes to uphold the lives they’ve built. However I was disappointed by the turn this book made in the last 30 pages to a (for me) let-down by turning this story into one of jealousy, betrayal and insecurity. There is many incredible places this book could have gone but instead it ends with the unoriginality of fear and insecurity turned murder. Have to say I expected more for this ending.

megan kelley

here’s my rhetorical analysis: the title “passing” eludes to the idea of passing, which really makes for a pretty decent book.

Jamieson

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 subject matter was hard to read, it was also extremely compelling and thought-provoking. Part two was definitely my favourite but parts one and three were great also. 

Written during the Harlem-Renaissance, Passing follows Irene Radfield and Clare Kendry, childhood friends who have a chance encounter as adults in a Chiacago tea shop. Although these two black women grew up together they're now living completely different lives - Irene lives with her dark-skinned husband and two sons in Harlem where she is enmeshed in the Harlem cultural scene. Clare has been passing as white for 12 years, has become estranged from black culture and now lives with her white supremacist husband and their daughter. This chance encounter forces the two women to examine their lives, and how they could have been living had they not made the choices they did. 

This was a truly interesting introspection of life in Harlem, New York during the 1920's and the issues - whether they be race, gender or sexuality, that were facing communities. I was also living for the queer subtext. The ending, while abrupt, left me with lots to ponder, which I kind of like. This really was such a great read, I enjoyed it so much and it left me with so many interesting thoughts. I'm really glad it got assigned!

Nella Larsen’s fascinating exploration of race and identity—the inspiration for the upcoming Netflix film directed by Rebecca Hall, starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga. This Signet Classics edition of Passing includes an Introduction by Brit Bennett, the bestselling author of The Vanishing Half. Irene Redfield is a Black woman living an affluent, comfortable life with her husband and children in the thriving neighborhood of Harlem in the 1920s. When she reconnects with her childhood friend Clare Kendry, who is similarly light-skinned, Irene discovers that Clare has been passing for a white woman after severing ties to her past—even hiding the truth from her racist husband. Clare finds herself drawn to Irene’s sense of ease and security with her Black identity and longs for the community (and, increasingly, the woman) she lost. Irene is both riveted and repulsed by Clare and her dangerous secret, as Clare begins to insert herself—and her deception—into every part of Irene’s stable existence. First published in 1929, Larsen’s brilliant examination of the various ways in which we all seek to “pass,” is as timely as ever.

Trish

I read this for a class this semester, Social Deviance & the Law, and it was so thought provoking that I wanted to share on here. 

All my people of color: if you could flip a switch and be white, and people would see and treat you like a white person, starting tomorrow, would you do it? Even if it means leaving your prior cultural and racial identity behind? Would you give it all up to be part of the racial majority in America?

Passing by Nella Larsen is a small but powerful book that breaches the ever-relevant topics of identity, public perception, race, racial privilege, breaking social norms, and the harmful rigidity of social classes and caste-ism. Besides all the important underlying themes, it’s a quick little thriller with a shocking turn of events in the end. Spend an afternoon or lazy morning with this book and I promise it’ll have you thinking about race and American society for a while. It felt especially poignant and powerful in this era of wrongful discrimination and persecution of black people by the police and Asians and Pacific Islanders by violent and hateful citizens.

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aisha

rebecca hall’s take on this stunning stunning work by nella larsen is now on netflix! go see it, because i thought it was near perfect.

Megan Snodgrass

3.75

Short but impactful. I listened to this one on audio. I think I might have enjoyed it a smidge more if I read it, just to be able to sit in the language a bit more, especially since it gave a bit of gothic romance vibes. Interesting to read this after Vanishing Half to see the difference in how those that are passing, Clare (in this book) and Stella (Vanishing Half), treat other African Americans. Liked that this book gave a lot of air to breathe and interpret, like what really is going on with Irene, Brian, and Clare? What really happened with Clare? What is reality and what is simply fear manifesting in paranoia for Irene?

A NETFLIX BOOK CLUB PICK Now a major motion picture starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, Nella Larsen's powerful, thrilling, and tragic tale about the fluidity of racial identity that continues to resonate today. Clare Kendry is living on the edge. Light-skinned, elegant, and ambitious, she is married to a racist white man unaware of her African American heritage, and has severed all ties to her past after deciding to "pass" as a white woman. Clare's childhood friend, Irene Redfield, just as light-skinned, has chosen to remain within the African American community, and is simultaneously allured and repelled by Clare's risky decision to engage in racial masquerade for personal and societal gain. After frequenting African American-centric gatherings together in Harlem, Clare's interest in Irene turns into a homoerotic longing for Irene's black identity that she abandoned and can never embrace again, and she is forced to grapple with her decision to pass for white in a way that is both tragic and telling. First published in 1929, Passing feels just as timely as ever today.

Passing (Movie Tie-In)

Marion

C'était intéressant mais j'aurai préfèré avoir le point de vue de Claire. Je nai pas spécialement apprécié le personnage de Irène et j'aurai aimé avoir le ressenti et les motivations profondes de Claire sur son choix de vie.

Delaney Woods 

read this for my class “black identities” and actually enjoyed it

Claudia

LOVE larsen's writing - how it just flows, how she describes things, her vocabulary, plot development (although the ending was a little sudden!) ... literally couldn't stop turning the pages. its hard to believe this was a book written for 1920s america (+a book i definitely wouldn't have picked up on my own volition); truly a timeless piece that has many lessons even today's america needs to take heed. larsen gives us two rather unlikeable female protagonists, irene and clare, to explore notions of race, self-deception, and self-rejection; how much of you is your race, and can they even be evaluated independently of each other? i wonder how the story might have been different had we gotten more of clare's part of the story, but otherwise, a lot packed in 200 pages and a great read!

Mikayla Nickell

Deeply uncomfortable, with flawed characters, this book is a brief glimpse into the experience of passing in the 1920’s. Thought provoking and memorable a book I am glad I stumbled across. 

Jeff Brown 

"Passing" is a fascinating first-hand view into the Harlem Renaissance that has stood the test of time nearly 100 years later. Irene is a light-skinned Black woman who lives the best of lives in Harlem among the elite of the area, working for Black charity balls and events. Clare re-enters her life from childhood, but as equally light-skinned, passes for a White woman married to a devout racist. 

Irene is frustrated, angry, and annoyed with Clare's presence -- as well as attracted to her as well. Irene envies Clare's freeness to live as a White woman, while Clare admires Irene's abilities to live true to herself. The book is a battle among all these emotions. A fantastic book.

Married to a successful physician and prominently ensconced in society, Irene Redfield leads a charmed existence — until a chance encounter with a childhood friend who has been "passing for white."

a ray

This was amazing omg! Really exciting the whole way through. The last 50 pages was just crazy. For a classic it was also very easy to read.

Aishah McTell

I know this is a great book with an important, but I just couldn't get into it at the moment. Maybe I can re-read it again at another time.

Jennifer Diz

**3.5 ***
This book was a hard one to rate, but it wasn’t a new favorite. This isn’t to mean I didn’t like it, there was just something missing i guess. Sometimes i feel like giving books star ratings is confining the book in a box that doesn’t quite fit but for the sake of stats, here it is. 

By the end of the book, i found the title to be quite ironic. Passing in the literal term and passing in the racial/social way.

Alexia Cambaling

Passing is a classic from the Harlem Renaissance which details the story of how two childhood friends met again after twelve years. Irene was married to a dark-skinned African-American doctor and became active in civil societies for African-Americans, while Clare married a white man with deep-seated prejudice for African-Americans. Clare, having been raised by her white aunts started “passing” as white. To most people, especially her husband, she’s viewed as white. Irene on the other hand, chooses not to pass unless she feels like she has to. This tension between the two of them, between the very different lives that they choose to lead forms the crux of the novel.

Clare is an interesting character. We mostly see her from Irene’s point of view and from there, our perception of her naturally becomes colored by how Irene sees her. Clare is a fascinating woman and as much as Irene likes to gripe about her, she’s also clearly fascinated by Clare. Selfish, alluring Clare who lives two lives, never fully committing to one.

There’s also a lot of subtext in this book about the attraction Irene feels for Clare. She constantly describes her appearance as beautiful and striking, and Irene herself cannot help but be drawn in by Clare to the point that she can’t refuse her even though she wants to. In the end however, she does feel like Clare is a threat to the kind of life she’s built for herself and later on, some of her actions are a reaction to that perceived threat. Mostly however, there is a certain passivity to Irene’s actions despite her anxieties.

As the title implies, the book is about “passing”, the act of being able to pass as white despite having African-American blood. In the novel, Clare does it because her husband is extremely racist and there’s no telling what he’d do once he finds out that Clare is African-American. It’s portrayed as dangerous, but maybe a little bit exciting. There are moments in the book where Irene contemplates telling Jack, Clare’s husband, but decides against it. She wonders if she did it out of a sense of loyalty to Clare and a sense of wanting to protect her own. There’s a sense of kinship, of camaraderie there, but mostly it’s Clare herself she wants to protect.

It’s also interesting how imperfect Irene’s own home life is. There is a tension between her and her husband because he wanted to go to South America, but she wanted to stay in New York, believing it to be better for her family. This tension and flaws in their life also serves to worsen Irene’s anxieties, especially with Clare back in her life.

It is very much a novel about racial identity and explores how characters fit within their racial identity and how they grapple with it. The contrast between Clare and Irene is very clearly shown in this regard, as well as Clare’s desire to be in both groups at once- or rather, to live two separate lives.

The ending was a little ambiguous and abrupt, but it works in the context of the story. Throughout the story, Irene wishes Clare out of her life and in a sense, she does get it. It was a bit surprising, but it works.

I’d say Passing isn’t a book you’d go for because of the plot, it’s very much a character-focused novel. It puts you in the head of Irene and you follow her as she meets Clare and you get to see how this meeting affects her. It is a great book and an underrated classic which I can highly recommend. It’s also pretty short at less than a hundred and fifty pages but the characters are very well-developed and fleshed out. Highly Recommended.

** spoiler alert **
           “To see Clare is to experience her” - this quote is a tribute to the beautiful way with words this author has. This story starts out with so much potential, tackling race, social status and sacrifices one makes to iphold the lives they’ve built. However I was disappointed by the turn this book made in the last 30 pages to a (for me) let down by turning this story into one of jealousy, betrayal and insecurity. There is many incredible places this book could have gone but instead it ends with the unoriginality of fear and insecurity turned murder. Have to say I expected more for this ending.

Passing

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