A review by seeceeread
Quicksand and Passing by Nella Larsen
3.0
[Quicksand only; I had already read Passing]
💭 "She desired ardently to combat this wearing down of her satisfaction with her life, with herself. But she didn't know how."
The title is a shiny party bauble for discussion: Which setting or circumstance is 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 draining for Helga Crane? Larsen sinks her character into social service, poverty, wage labor, international spectacle, jealousy, and finally matrimony and motherhood. At every turn, she is initially eager to leverage change in circumstances, optimistic this will lead to a change in her emotions. But Helga cannot escape herself, ever a half step apart. Cannot crawl from her unsettled worldview, a refractory lens that magnifies annoyance and burns through power dynamics she's expected to pretend are invisible. Larsen tries to convert Helga, then tosses religion away with scornful reproach, as well. The book ends with a grim scene: a depleted mother wearily preparing for a fifth pregnancy.
Larsen also stirs up juicy intrigue around the ignominy of marriage. It's "a grievous necessity [...] Even foolish, despised women must have food and clothing." But hollow: "As if anybody couldn't get married. Anybody. That is, if mere marriage is all one wants." And a trap: "We's all gwine a be ti'ed till kingdom come."
💭 "She desired ardently to combat this wearing down of her satisfaction with her life, with herself. But she didn't know how."
The title is a shiny party bauble for discussion: Which setting or circumstance is 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 draining for Helga Crane? Larsen sinks her character into social service, poverty, wage labor, international spectacle, jealousy, and finally matrimony and motherhood. At every turn, she is initially eager to leverage change in circumstances, optimistic this will lead to a change in her emotions. But Helga cannot escape herself, ever a half step apart. Cannot crawl from her unsettled worldview, a refractory lens that magnifies annoyance and burns through power dynamics she's expected to pretend are invisible. Larsen tries to convert Helga, then tosses religion away with scornful reproach, as well. The book ends with a grim scene: a depleted mother wearily preparing for a fifth pregnancy.
Larsen also stirs up juicy intrigue around the ignominy of marriage. It's "a grievous necessity [...] Even foolish, despised women must have food and clothing." But hollow: "As if anybody couldn't get married. Anybody. That is, if mere marriage is all one wants." And a trap: "We's all gwine a be ti'ed till kingdom come."