A review by elthechameleon
Passing by Nella Larsen

challenging dark mysterious reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I feel uncomfortable rating classics that I think are important to read to understand historical issues. As such, I've left this blank. I highly recommend the audiobook on Spotify. Bahni Turpin is my favorite narrator.
If you take this book at its word, I can see several issues with the plot. Multiple times throughout the book, Irene Redfield calls Clare Kendry decorative and shallow, seeming to question the other's Blackness. This book does an excellent job in pointing out colorism and the idea of race as a social construct. I prefer to think of this book as a psychological interpretation, with Irene and Clare representing the same woman split into two identities through the traumatic experience of passing. In this interpretation, Irene's murder of Clare is not done out of envy but out of exhaustion, an unwillingness to keep passing when it takes so much out of her. It also is done out of envy, wondering if one is more attractive when perceived as white. As in The Personal Librarian (2021), this reading allows the reader to understand the cost of passing and the split identity that results.
This book stays with you after finishing it. I'm looking forward to seeing what the recent Netflix adaptation did with it. 
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