Unsung Voices

Join us at Downtown Huntsville Library this year as we explore writers from the 20th through the 21st century that you may or may not be very familiar with. This month we are reading Passing by Nella Larsen.

Nella Larsen, born Nellie Walker, (1891-1964) was an American novelist, nurse, and librarian. She published two novels, Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929)—and a few short stories. A revival of interest in her writing has occurred since the late 20th century. Her works have been the subjects of numerous academic studies involving issues of racial and sexual identity, and she has been lauded as not only the premier novelist of the Harlem Renaissance, but also an important figure in American modernism, according to scholars.

Passing is a fascinating exploration of race and identity set amidst the blossoming Harlem Renaissance. Irene Redfield is a Black woman living an affluent, comfortable life with her husband and children in the thriving neighborhood of Harlem in the 1920s. When she reconnects with her childhood friend Clare Kendry, who is similarly light-skinned, Irene discovers that Clare has been passing for a white woman after severing ties to her past - even hiding the truth from her racist husband. Nearly a century later, Larsen's brilliant examination of the various ways in which we all seek to "pass" is as timely as ever."

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