But whereas Passing centered on the complex dynamic-which ranges from enmity to a kinship of sorts-between two light-skinned Black women in 1920s New York, Quicksand follows the experiences of one woman, Helga Crane, whose restlessness sees her moving from Chicago to Harlems before venturing out to Copenhagen.

Similarly to Passing, Quicksand is a study of ambivalence. Larsen’s genius for psychology aside, I once again felt frustrated by the overall pacing and the ending. If anything Larsen allows us to see the circumstances that contributed to Helga’s alienation. Helga’s internalized racism and her vehement opposition against interracial couples and her disconnection from the people and the communities around is not necessarily portrayed in a sympathetic light but neither villainized or condemned for it. Because Helga has experienced and continues to experience such Othering, almost by default, she comes to do the same to the people in her life, with very self-sabotage-y results. The narrative is always thrumming with the possibility of violence (psychological, physical), of conflict, of something worse to come. There is something volatile and deeply ambivalent about but Helga and her narrative. But there are also moments were Helga’s inner workings are inaccessible to us. Helga’s mind is more often than not an unpleasant and or depressing place, as she views the world around her with the kind vitriol and misanthropy you can expect from the likes of Esther Greenwood. There are instances were Larsen is lethally precise in capturing Helga’s perspective and in articulating her thought pattern. Larsen’s presents her readers with an unstinting character study of a deeply alienated woman whose estrangement from herself and others lead her to become increasingly detached. Although this novel was published after 1923, the copyright was never renewed and is therefore in the public domain.“As the days multiplied, her need of something, something vaguely familiar, but which she could not put a name to and hold for definite examination, became almost intolerable.” Helga's restless search for identity is semi-autobiographical, inspired by Larsen's own struggles to reconcile her mixed heritage with the racism of 1920s America.

As the novel opens, she suddenly decides to give up her teaching position and go north, back to her roots in Chicago. It focuses on Helga Crane, a mixed-race woman who is a schoolteacher in the American south. Quicksand is a 1928 novel by Nella Larsen, a writer of the Harlem Renaissance. Download cover art Download CD case insert Quicksand

Quicksand by Nella Larsen