In this short novel, Larsen, an African-American writer, explores the lives of two black women who are light-skinned enough that they can “pass” for white. These two women knew each other in childhood, but a chance encounter, after years apart, at a posh hotel where neither woman would have been allowed had their blackness been known, kick starts a chain of events that leads inexorably to, well, nothing good. This book was, of course, highly racially charged at the time of its publication and it remains so almost a hundred years later. But Larsen’s gifts as a writer are so considerable that this book succeeds in every way, really. The two main characters are both incredibly well-written on their own and equally well written as a kind of dual perspective, two sides of the same coin. Irene Redfield is neurotic, unsettled, unstable; Clare Kendry is unflinching, arrogant, reckless. Clare Kendry, honestly, is one of the best literary antagonists I’ve encountered in a long time, though it is reductive to view her as only being an antagonist. In the first section of the book, she functions as a kind of malevolent mystery, threatening to upset Irene’s carefully curated life. Which perhaps then leads us to the other really compelling element of this book, which is the undercurrent of repressed longing that draws Irene to Clare, a longing both romantic and sexual. It’s coded, of course, but the queer element of this book is undeniable. All this adds up to a really fantastic novella that clocks in at not that much over a hundred pages. It’s a quick read, but you’ll be thinking about, unpacking the subtext, remembering details that you only noticed subconsciously and turning over what the book is really saying for days. I genuinely had a sudden epiphany about an ambiguous scene almost a week after I finished the book when I remembered a clever bit of foreshadowing Larsen had dropped in earlier in the book. So, it’s a thinker. And an absolute must-read, still compelling all these years later. 4 stars.
tl;dr – seminal novella on race and sexuality remains compelling and thought-provoking; the lead characters are magnificently written and the ideas behind the book will haunt you for days. 4 stars.