Couple Classic Books

Nella Larsen lived a complicated life. A biracial child, her cultural heyday was in the 1920s. After a plagiarism allegation (deemed unfounded) and a painful divorce, she went off the radar. 

After her husband died (she lived off alimony), Larsen went back to nursing. She tried to meet up with her half-sister near the end of her life, but the sister didn't want to acknowledge her.  

Passing is a novella (it's under 100 pages) about a light-skinned woman (she can "pass") with a darker-skinned husband. Irene by chance meets up with a childhood acquaintance, who is passing (her husband is a bigot). Irene was passing herself at the time. After finding out about her bigot white husband, Irene wants nothing to do with Claire. 

But, Claire misses interacting 'with her own kind" and pushes herself back into Irene's life. This causes complications. Irene has her own demons to address. The book ends on a tragic note when the husband finds out about Claire and Irene does not warn her. 

I read the book along with another book she wrote over ten years ago. I hold to my original statement that it is a good read overall.   

(ETA: The book is first person through Irene's eyes. So, it is a somewhat unreliable narrator.)

After writing this, I decided to take out a complete work volume. 

The three short stories were quick reading (one had a lot of dialect) and two particularly had some atmosphere. Her first novel, which I originally noted was semi-autobiographical [surely not all of it but she did things like go for a trip to her European relatives], was a trudge. 

A young educated interracial woman (20s) is unsatisfied with her life. Her [black] father abandoned her mother, who died young. She also had the same conflicted attraction to being "with her own kind" as the tragic figure in Passing. 

Helga (yes), however, went through more unsatisfying experiences. Her last attempt at happiness is to suddenly marry a black preacher (whom she just met) and go to his poor Southern parish. She then started to have a lot of children. This too turned out not to be a permanent road to happiness. 

However, it was harder to escape. In fact, the book ends with her pregnant for a fifth time (after her fourth baby died shortly after the birth, during her extended postpartum depression), and having lost faith in God. And, she basically hates her husband. Her own personal hell. 

The particularly tragic and depressing ending left me "I plowed tedious pages of her whining for this?"  Yes, that is harsh, but there was a "tragic poor little rich girl" feel to it, especially after her uncle gives her $5000 (this is the 1920s; what happened to it? Did she give it to her husband? She cannot have gone through it in a few years; the book surely doesn't say she did). 

Her unhappiness about her place in the world had dramatic charms. The book provides a social criticism of black colleges and a whole lot more. It did not hold back in its criticisms, which likely excited some readers in the 1920s. But, what a cruel ending. Quicksand indeed.

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I heard about God's Little Acre (from the early 1930s) in a few ways. It is one of the books subject to censorship as sexually explicit. One daughter has sex with multiple people in the book. A daughter-in-law is lusted after by multiple people (even one of the black sharecroppers).  

Ensign Pulver also enjoys the book in Mister Roberts:

He's been reading God's Little Acre for over a year now. He's underlined every erotic passage and added exclamation points. And after a certain pornographic climax, he's inserted the words "Well written."

The film version (I reserved it) has multiple familiar faces, including Michael Landon (as an albino!) and Jack Lord (not in Hawaii yet). Tina Louise (Ginger on Gilligan's Island) plays Griselda, the object of all that lust. In the book version, at least, she is not [as] slutty like her sister-in-law Darling Jill.

Erskine Caldwell has lots of writings throughout his long career. He wrote many works about poverty in the South. This book focuses on a father of five (three sons -- one left home and is a successful cotton broker) who has spent fifteen years digging holes in his land to try to find gold. One of his daughters is married to a cotton mill worker, currently on strike.  

The book is a mixture of the absurd, symbolism, raw passions, and a look at a time and place. The author provides perspectives from various characters, including the two black sharecroppers. My version of the book also has hand-drawn photos of the main characters by Milton Glaser. 

There are amusing aspects. One bit is that Ty Ty (the father) dedicated an acre of his land to God but keeps on moving it around to make sure he doesn't have to actually donate the proceeds to the local church.  

Ty Ty's gold fetish is absurd. Nonetheless, he comes off as a sympathetic character overall. The book is around two hundred pages and is a quick read. It rambles around some. Then, it builds up to multiple tragedies. It ends with Ty Ty back digging for gold, the one bit of steadiness left after multiple deaths in his family (with one more possible).  

I enjoyed the book as a whole. These days, I find it hard to read long books, especially fiction. 

(ETA: The universal narrator does provide a diverse mix of perspectives, white and black, men and women. Blacks have agency, including one able to admit to his lust for a white woman. Women have their own sexual desires, including a desire for a man who truly is passionate for them. 

The book remains generally seen through a masculine point of view, including women who are men-focused. There are many references to breasts. The mother is dead and the rich man's wife, who might provide a somewhat different perspective, is always out of the picture.)  

Both books were a more reasonable portion. Both also have been made into films. God's Little Acre is listed at around two hours. That seems a tad long but there are enough scenes in the book to fill the running time, I guess.