From Powells.com
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Synopses & Reviews
"Absolutely absorbing, fascinating, and indispensable." and#8212; Alice Walker
"A work so fine, sensitive, and distinguished that it rises above race categories and becomes that rare object, a good novel." and#8212; The Saturday Review of Literature
Married to a successful physician and prominently ensconced in Harlem's vibrant society of the 1920s, Irene Redfield leads a charmed existence-until she is shaken out of it by a chance encounter with a childhood friend who has been "passing for white." An important figure in the Harlem Renaissance, Nella Larsen was the first African-American woman to be awarded a Guggenheim fellowship. Her fictional portraits of women seeking their identities through a fog of racial confusion were informed by her own Danish-West Indian parentage, and Passing offers fascinating psychological insights into issues of race and gender.
Synopsis
Married to a successful physician and prominently ensconced in society, Irene Redfield leads a charmed existence and#151; until a chance encounter with a childhood friend who has been "passing for white."
About the Author
One of the shining stars of the Harlem Renaissance, Nellallitea "Nella" Larsen (April 13, 1891-March 30, 1964) left behind only two novels and a handful of short stories and#151; but Larsen's remarkable voice and vision has ensured her place in literary history.