Passing & Quicksand: With linked Table of Contents

Both are wonderful reads that give you insight to a past that revolved around racially ambiguous women who chose to pass as another race for purposes of survival and security. In the end their motivations proved to be futile. Both stories while similar in themes were also very different in their outcomes but still gave the reader an insight to a point and time in history when this was common for some mixed race black people who had the ability to pass for white in order to gain the things that are allotted most people in our modern day and time. The conflicts that these characters deal with are foreign and unfamiliar today. However both stories are still relevant in understand the psychology of the proud but torn African American that just wanted the freedom to navigate society without the scrutiny that came against them due to their race. The only issue that I had with Nella Larsen's writing style was the language which was probably appropriate for the time. I personally found it a bit harder to follow at times and sometimes had to revisit passages to really understand what was being said. I felt that sometimes Larsen was a bit over the top with the descriptions and wordiness in an attempt to add an air of sophistication.

Great book it had my full attention.

Haunting story about the stresses and pressures of life, but of the choices forced by race. Read in a day.

I found these two books to be interestingly similar but supposedly very different.

A nice peep into how Harlem and Chicago people lived in the twenties.

The two books in this slim volume are apparently quite important as representatives of a very limited literature on racial and sexual identity among women of mixed race in the late 1920s. The books are far removed from my experience and, for that matter, the experience and/or understanding of anyone who does not make a study of late 20s America. In addition, I am not able to understand and appreciate important issues I am sure. What I do find interesting is how mixed race women faced the challenge of "coming out" as to color in the sense that sexual orientation has been a more recent subject. Quicksand also touches on race and society in Denmark as opposed to America. while I doubt my appreciation of these books, I did find it worthwhile reading them

Interesting book - autobiographical about the dilemma of being mulatto in the world. Heart- breaking at times.

Larsen is a very talented writer. I was engrossed in the stories of these mulatto women. I had no idea the real struggle of someone of mixed race. I am now very much more understanding of what struggle can be like when you have an identity crisis.

I had high expectations for this book as so many people speak so highly of the author. Disappointingly, this was one of the dullest reads in a long time and I'm not going to waste my time trying to finish reading this.The author's writing style is amateurish and sounds like something straight out of a melodramatic novella by Harriet Beecher Stowe. So many adverbs, so many "deep" thoughts that just seem very forced, and a very lecturing tone that was just annoying. The writing style is so distracting that the story drowns in it. I expected this to be as progressive as Hemingway or Fitzgerald, but it's not at all. Cannot recommend this.

I disagree totally with the person who wrote the blurb at the back of my copy of this book, as I didn't find Quicksand to be about a woman 'trapped in the conflict between an active and passive sexual behaviour, between sexual fulfilment and middle-class respectability.'The story, to me is broadly about a young woman, Helga Crane's, search for happiness, contentment and a sense of belonging.Passing is about two old friends, Irene and Claire, who are mixed parentage, but light skinned enough to 'pass' as white. Claire has taken this option, whilst Irene has not. On a hot summer’s day, the two women run into each other and Claire manoeuvres her way into Irene’s black middle-class life, bringing disastrous consequences.Quicksand & Passing are both set in racially segregated America in the 1920's. They have complex and emotionally loaded plots with deep psychological and political undertones. The vocabulary and writing style reflect the period in which they were written, making them even more interesting and intriguing reads. Both novels are short, but pacy and allow the reader get a taste of some of the injustices, pain and destruction suffered by people of colour living under America’s Jim Crow laws.

We read it for our Book Club. Very different writing style. Passing was preferred by the group as we were disappointed that Helga Crane didn't make the best of her opportunities in Quicksand. Both books gave an insight into the issues around mixed race in the 1920s. Has much changed, we wonder?

Great. Fast delivery

Premetto che le mie due stelle non sono per il libro in sé ma per questa edizione in inglese della Profile Books che comprende i romanzi Quicksand e Passing in un unico volume. Ciò che in apparenza dovrebbe essere un vantaggio si rivela una fregatura in quanto il libro è in caratteri piccolissimi e faticoso da leggere per chi è miope come me. Un risparmio solo in apparenza quindi! Inoltre quest'edizione non ha nè un'introduzione né note.My review is not for the book itself but for this particular edition by Profile Books that includes both Larsen novels in a single volume. On the face of it it should be deemed an advantage while in reality the book is written in such small print that you need a pair of glasses to read it if you do not have perfect eyesight as in my case. I wouldn't buy this edition again which is also very basic: no introduction and notes.