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This blog is the work of an educated civilian, not of an expert in the fields discussed.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Nella Larsen

[spoiler alert]

Nella Larsen (white mother/black father) had a literary career during the 1920s, writing a few short stories (three found in a "complete" collection of her works available, though she had other minor ones) and two short works (perhaps novellas -- together, they amount to the length of a novel) reflecting her own experiences and racial concerns. After a plagarism accusation, marriage problems and a failed attempt to write another novel, she went back to her original career as a nurse.

I never heard of her until happening to pass her book Passing in the classics section. As a kid, never a big fan of fiction, but over the years, did manage to read some classics. Anyway, Larsen's works impressed some over the years, including those naturally interested in works dealing with biracial matters. Passing concerns two childhood friends who meet again as an adult at a "white" establishment. The driving force in the book is a biracial woman who passes, marrying a bigoted white man who isn't aware of her background. The book however is in the voice of her friend, who also sometimes passes, but is married with kids to a black man. Her old friend's reappearance brings out various concerns she has with her marriage and unhappiness in her life that she tries to keep hidden.

The book has a tragic ending mixed with a bit of mystery. It provides a view of 1920s Chicago and New York, including the life of a well off black couple, something the author is familiar with given her marriage to a successful academic. Her first book, which appears to have some autobiographic elements (she was secretive of her own troubled childhood) was Quicksand, and provided some well drawn vignettes of various "lives" the character tries to (without permanent success) obtain satisfaction. A black academy, elite black life in New York City, Denmark and poverty in a small Southern town (married to a minister). This too ended on a tragic note, the character's well being and independence both lost.

Both books have a troubled opinion of the race question, biracial women in particular seen as a threatening force, each race having an uncontrollable urge for the other race in some fashion. Each biracial woman has a special connection to blacks, their relationship with whites at best somewhat unhealthy, but they are not totally comfortable with blacks either. The books are well written and are excellent examples of psychological fiction, in the sense that they provide very good case studies in fictional form. Quicksand is split by chapters though the story is basically divided by her travels. Passing is split into three encounters.

Recommended for a look into another era and as fiction overall.