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A review by thewhimsicalowl
Quicksand and Passing by Nella Larsen
4.0
"'I'm beginning to believe,' she murmured, 'that no one is ever completely happy, or free, or safe.'"
—Quicksand—
Interestingly, I expected to like Passing more but vastly preferred this novel. It hits a little too close to home: lonely bookish girl grows up in the South, moves to Chicago which she likes better, and then moves abroad which she likes best. However, she feels a strange inevitable pull back to America—she knows she can't live there happily yet also can't quite stay away. She teaches and loves her students but feels empty and craves fine things. Everyone urges her to get married, but she's not in a hurry and falls in love with the wrong people. Spooky. Nella Larsen has a masterful way of crafting and expressing emotion, and I think that's the element of her work that will remain with me.
"'You don't mean that you're going to live over there? Do you really like it so much better?' 'Yes and no, to both questions. I was awfully glad to get back, but I wouldn't live here always. I couldn't. I don't think any of us who've lived abroad for any length of time would ever live here altogether again if they could help it... Oh, I don't mean tourists who rush over to Europe and rush all over the continent and rush back to America thinking they know Europe. I mean people who've actually lived there, actually lived among the people" (101).
—Passing—
I was surprised at the closeness of the 2021 film's script to the true dialogue of the book! Definitely The Great Gatsby vibes (which is always a yes from me) yet without a similar sense of endearment or intrigue towards the flawed characters. However, I would love to read/write an essay on Daisy Buchanan and Clare Kendry and this sort of 1920s "voice like money" manic pixie dream girl trope. How does this subtle or not-so-subtle equivocation with wealth relate to seeing women as possessions as well as ideas of whiteness? So fascinating. Also, the fact that both characters have a daughter (perpetuating a cycle?) yet wrestle with motherhood: Clare's "I think that being a mother is the cruellest thing in the world." and Daisy's "That's the best thing a girl can be in this world—a beautiful little fool." Now I'm thinking about Sylvia Plath's "Perfection is terrible, it cannot have children." Can you tell that I miss being an English major?
"Sitting alone in the quiet living-room in the pleasant fire-light, Irene Redfield wished, for the first time in her life, that she had not been born a Negro. For the first time she suffered and rebelled because she was unable to disregard the burden of race. It was, she cried silently, enough to suffer as a woman, an individual, on one's own account, without having to suffer for the race as well. It was a brutality, and undeserved. Surely, no other people so cursed as Ham's dark children" (225).
—Quicksand—
Interestingly, I expected to like Passing more but vastly preferred this novel. It hits a little too close to home: lonely bookish girl grows up in the South, moves to Chicago which she likes better, and then moves abroad which she likes best. However, she feels a strange inevitable pull back to America—she knows she can't live there happily yet also can't quite stay away. She teaches and loves her students but feels empty and craves fine things. Everyone urges her to get married, but she's not in a hurry and falls in love with the wrong people. Spooky. Nella Larsen has a masterful way of crafting and expressing emotion, and I think that's the element of her work that will remain with me.
"'You don't mean that you're going to live over there? Do you really like it so much better?' 'Yes and no, to both questions. I was awfully glad to get back, but I wouldn't live here always. I couldn't. I don't think any of us who've lived abroad for any length of time would ever live here altogether again if they could help it... Oh, I don't mean tourists who rush over to Europe and rush all over the continent and rush back to America thinking they know Europe. I mean people who've actually lived there, actually lived among the people" (101).
—Passing—
I was surprised at the closeness of the 2021 film's script to the true dialogue of the book! Definitely The Great Gatsby vibes (which is always a yes from me) yet without a similar sense of endearment or intrigue towards the flawed characters. However, I would love to read/write an essay on Daisy Buchanan and Clare Kendry and this sort of 1920s "voice like money" manic pixie dream girl trope. How does this subtle or not-so-subtle equivocation with wealth relate to seeing women as possessions as well as ideas of whiteness? So fascinating. Also, the fact that both characters have a daughter (perpetuating a cycle?) yet wrestle with motherhood: Clare's "I think that being a mother is the cruellest thing in the world." and Daisy's "That's the best thing a girl can be in this world—a beautiful little fool." Now I'm thinking about Sylvia Plath's "Perfection is terrible, it cannot have children." Can you tell that I miss being an English major?
"Sitting alone in the quiet living-room in the pleasant fire-light, Irene Redfield wished, for the first time in her life, that she had not been born a Negro. For the first time she suffered and rebelled because she was unable to disregard the burden of race. It was, she cried silently, enough to suffer as a woman, an individual, on one's own account, without having to suffer for the race as well. It was a brutality, and undeserved. Surely, no other people so cursed as Ham's dark children" (225).