Quicksand by Nella Larsen

 

Hello my lovely readers!

Man, I've been pumping these reviews out lately! I'm in a reading mood, FINALLY, so I must post accordingly am I right?

Anyway, I first discovered author Nella Larsen in either 2018 or 2019. I'd visited a bus bookshop and the owner recommended I should read Passing.  I loved it. It blew me away. Naturally, when I saw that Quicksand was also written by the same author and it was her first novel, I had to buy it. The summary looked interesting...but it sadly....that was the only good part of this book. Let's get into it.

SUMMARY

Helga Crane was born to a white mother and an absent father and was despised for her dark skin. Helga teaches at an all-black school in the South, but even there she feels different. 

She moves to Harlem and then eventually Denmark, but everywhere she goes, she can't seem to find a comfortable life and place for herself.

This semi-autobiographical tale shows that choosing emotional freedom can translate into a narrow existence and invokes the international dimension of 1920s Black American  culture.

MY THOUGHTS

How was this the same author that wrote Passing!? How? I know I shouldn't compare the two, but this book was not as complete or beautiful as her second novel and left much to be desired. 

The writing seemed a bit disjointed and Helga was just so selfish and childish. I whole-heartedly believed you can write and fully fleshed out unlikeable character, but Helga was just whiny.

There was no real plot or character development either. I was left very disappointed.