Reviews

Passing by Nella Larsen

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baileydouglass's review against another edition

5.0

WOW.

This book will stay with me. I had an idea of what the premise was, but wasn’t prepared for it to pack such a punch in terms of the relationships, obsession, and interior turmoil of the narrator.

The end comes a bit out of nowhere and is somewhat ambiguous but is somehow perfect in the context of the story, although very grim.

Probably the best read of the year for me to this point.

alisarae's review against another edition

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I have a jumble of thoughts about this novella.

1. As Sarah Hannah Gomez noted, this would work quite well (better?) as a play. It is staged and written so well for that.

2. I originally thought this book was about gay people "passing", but then I actually read a bit and learned is about black people "passing." But you can still read it framed as a double meaning, and oh my does that complicate the plot. I want to read Deborah McDowell's writing on the lesbian subtext here. The notes in the Modern Library edition of this book say that the deliberate repeated use of "queer" (as adjective and verb) meaning "weird, suspicious, or spoiled" is very curious considering that queer was already a popular slang for gay. There are situations where someone was acting "queer" because of secrets regarding "passing" (race) but are equally meaningful if read as "passing" (sexuality). Verrryyyy interesting.

3. The final note in the Modern Library has finally given me a good definition of "literary." I use this term all the time but have had a great deal of trouble trying to uphold its meaning in arguments with my husband. "'Writerly' -- an open-ended text that requires the reader to collaborate in producing its meaning." By critic Roland Barthes.