Passing (Penguin Classics)

Rating:
Summary: A Stroll in Another's Skin
Review: You now have the opportunity to experience the lives of those who choose to live as another race and to forget about their past and culture. Take this opportunity and become enveloped in a world full of lies, sorrow, agony, hatred, fear, and death. In Passing, one of two literary acclaimed works by Nella Larsen, the reader walks the thin line between black and white while struggling to keep out of the gray which we all eventually fall into. Narrated by Irene Redfield, a light-skinned African American woman, Passing describes a series of encounters between Irene and Clare Kendry, a woman who has chosen to use her fair skin to "pass" from the black community into the white's. The anguish that Irene suffers while Clare is present in her life is not resolved until an unexpected ending highlights the author's masterful plot. Drawing on her own experiences during the Harlem Renaissance which she weaves into her novels, Nella Larsen is able to place us directly into this setting of budding American culture. Born to a Danish mother and a West Indian father, Larsen puts her knowledge of passing and the black middle class directly onto the pages of the book. Though not an actual depiction of her life, one cannot help bu notice the similarities between Larsen and Irene, as well as the possibility that such an event could have occured in the author's life. The act of passing is described by Larsen as the "breaking away from all that was familiar and friendly to take one's chance in another environment, not entirely strange,perhaps, but certainly not entirely friendly." Throughout the novel she tackles questions circling the idea of passingand uses Clare Kendry as her pawn in an attempt to answer them. Clare's actions are viewed from a variety of perspectives and the changes in these perceptions reflect the plot of the book. Once Passing gets going, it is impossible to put down. However, it takes a while to get to that point as the necessary setup is prolonged. Most of the beginning of the novel is spent recounting Irene's encounter with Clare and all the thoughts that accompanied this meeting. At the conclusion of the story, so much is left unknown that the reader wants another chapter just to clear everything up. Questions are left unanswered and only broad guesses can be made about the actual occurences and feelings in the end. The powerful choices that the characters in Passing make are those that we face ourselves. Nella Larsen does a remarkable job of making us believe that the people we are reading about have transcended the realm of being normal and are unlike us. One the contrary, we are just like them and are faced with choices concerning "passing" just like those in the novel. Reading the book only enhances our awareness of such occurences and gives us a better understanding of who we really are by letting us take a stroll in another's skin. Through this mask, we witness someone else who is is living in a different skin and realize that passing has serious repercussions. Larsen presents us with this story using an untapped race and class in literature and makes the stroll a truly eye opening experience.