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Passing - Community Reviews back

by Nella Larsen, Thadious Davis
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Dem
Dem rated it 9 years ago
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 rekin...
Bloodorange
Bloodorange rated it 10 years ago
A short novel about a concept so alien today to the white, non-American community that it's absolutely worth reading for its subject matter. It is a tad poetic, but not too much so; abruptly ending, but providing, to my mind, a sufficient sense of closure; the dialogues are fine, the situations feel...
Merle
Merle rated it 10 years ago
This is a book about a blonde woman trying to hide the fact that she is Actually Black, while meanwhile trying to connect with her African-American heritage, and everyone around her (black and white) taking this situation completely seriously and trying to help her hide the fact that she is Totally ...
Merle
Merle rated it 10 years ago
This is a book about a blonde woman trying to hide the fact that she is Actually Black, while meanwhile trying to connect with her African-American heritage, and everyone around her (black and white) taking this situation completely seriously and trying to help her hide the fact that she is Totally ...
Overdue
Overdue rated it 11 years ago
This compact novel is as powerful, as unconventional and as good as Kate Chopin's best. Both Irene and Clare are Chicagoans light enough to pass. They grew up together, colored. It is the 20's and their worlds are changing, just not fast enough.Irene marries a successful, decidedly black, doctor. C...
Lagraziana's Kalliopeion
Lagraziana's Kalliopeion rated it 12 years ago
In her novel Passing Nella Larsen wrote down the story of two African-American women with a similar background who chose very different, even opposite strategies to play the game of life in Chicago during the 1920s. In the beginning Clare and Irene, who haven’t seen each other for years, meet by cha...
Austen to Zafón
Austen to Zafón rated it 12 years ago
A well-written, eye-opening novelette about a topic I've never given any thought to: passing. A by-product of Jim Crow laws, "passing" was where a person who was considered legally or socially black moved into a white social or legal identity. In other words, if your skin was light enough to look wh...
Uncertain, Fugitive, Half-fabulous
Uncertain, Fugitive, Half-fabulous rated it 13 years ago
[Cross-posted on my blog, and accompanied by pretty much the best author photo I've ever seen.]First of all, please, for God's sake, if you're thinking of reading [b:The Help|4667024|The Help|Kathryn Stockett|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1346100365s/4667024.jpg|4717423], just fucking stop yourself a...
Books by the Lake
Books by the Lake rated it 14 years ago
A short, suspenseful tale, centered on the stressed personage of Irene Redfield. She thinks she's made a perfect life for herself, completely centered on her doctor husband Brian and her two sons, but the cost she's paying for this becomes more clear throughout the book. She resolutely blocks out th...
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