Reddit Reddit reviews Quicksand and Passing (American Women Writers)

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American Literature
African American Literature
African American Historical Fiction
Quicksand and Passing (American Women Writers)
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1 Reddit comment about Quicksand and Passing (American Women Writers):

u/Byeuji ยท 6 pointsr/AdviceAnimals

If you're interested, there's a really great set of novellas called Quicksand and Passing by Nella Larsen (here's the audio books [1] [2] for free -- and legal).

They're both relatively short (a little over 100 pages apiece) about an American woman who was biracial (Larsen was biracial herself) and could pass for black or white.

Quicksand is about one such woman trying to find a community where she felt comfortable -- one community ashamed her, one community seemed too radical, another seemed to deify her. This one particularly reminded me of what you said here.

Passing is about two such women who knew each other growing up, but while one stayed with the black community and grew up there, the other hid her ancestry and married a white man (and quite a racist one). They meet up years and years later and discover that they are a bit jealous of aspects of each other's lives.

What makes these books great is they don't pass any judgments. They just examine an extremely complex issue from several very honest perspectives.

Of course, these might be a bit too old-hat for you, but I'd recommend them to anyone. They're quick reads and really interesting.