Passing by Nella Larsen
I remember reading and liking
Quicksand in college, so I was interested enough in
Passing to pluck it off my wife's bookshelf. (At 122 pages, including notes, it was hardly going to slow down my reading!) This was very good too, a tale of a black woman who sometimes "passes" in public (to, say, go to a nice restaurant) interacting with another one who spends
all her time passing-- even with her white, racist husband! The latter wants to be friends, the former begins to build up a resentment. "Enjoy" seems like the wrong word for a book like this, but I really liked it; Larsen uses the techniques of modernist prose to her advantage, and the book builds up some interesting complexities and sharply observed moments before a highly effective ending.
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