Sooo, we finished the book this week, and had a great surprise. Or at least I did. :P

IF YOU WANT TO READ THIS BOOK, DON’T READ THIS PARAGRAPH! IT’LL GIVE AWAY THE END!

Anyways, to sum up the end really quickly, I’ll just let you know that Irene kept having fears that her husband and Clare were having an affair, but we never really found out for sure if that was true or not. Nella Larsen, the author, just leaves that topic alone for us to think about. Then, Clare’s super racist husband, Brian, finds out that she is really a Negro and that she had been passing all along – he is furious. Then, at the very end, we are surprised to see that Clare “accidentally falls out of a window” and dies. We never find out if that was really an accident and if Clare was committing suicide or if Irene pushed her out of the window, that’s also left up in the air by Larsen for us to think about.

Now that I’ve summed that up, I did a little bit of research about Nella Larsen and her writing. I found out that Passing is only one out of her two books she ever wrote. I was quite surprised at that, just because she was very young at that time, lived a long life, and was such a noted author. During the Harlem Renaissance, Nella Larsen was one of the most influential authors ever! In her other book, Quicksand, she also bases her plot around issues with race. I know I’m interested in reading that one myself, I really enjoyed this book and her style of writing.

Another thing I learned about her was that she was accused of plagiarizing her short story she wrote after these two novels called Sanctuary. She was eventually cleared of this scandal, but regardless she lost a lot of fame and respect of others. She was the first African-American women author to win the Guggenheim Fellowship award or something, yet people still didn’t like her. I found that very surprising.

One last thing I think I should mention is just the fact that throughout this whole book, Nella Larsen tries to recognize the African culture and expose American readers to that. I think that along with the time – the Harlem Renaissance and everything else going on in the 1920’s – that this was very important in literature. Many other noted African-American authors also tried to do the same in their writing. By opening the white Americans’ eyes to this new culture they didn’t really know about, they were able to accomplish some progression.

Overall, I just want to recommend this book to all you guys, it really was a good book. Also, the other one that Nella Larsen wrote, Quicksand, could be good too! Go buy it! Or borrow mine. :P