3 Review(s)

Nella Larsen was a major Harlem Reissance author. Despite her lack of output, her art was powerful and well-received. This collection contains both of her novels, "Passing" and "Quicksand," as well as all three of her published short stories, "Freedom," "The Wrong Man," and "Sanctuary." "Quicksand" was an autobiographical film about a woman's need for sexual fulfilment in the setting of respectability and acceptance in a religious society. The novel is bleak, and it ends with the protagonist being drawn into a life that is the polar opposite of all she desired. "Passing" confronts the issue of racial passing. Clare and Irene, two childhood friends who are both fair-skinned enough to pass for white, are the focus of the story.