Passing

Irene Redfield lives in Harlem, married to a doctor, busy with committees and careful with appearances. On a hot afternoon in Chicago she takes refuge on a hotel rooftop, where she can be taken for white without trying. There she is recognized by Clare Kendry, a girl she knew as a child, who has crossed over completely. Clare is married to a white man who does not know, and who says plainly, in front of both women, that he hates Black people.

Nella Larsen's short novel is about that meeting and everything that follows: Clare's hunger to come back into the world she left, and Irene's mix of disapproval, fascination and fear as Clare slips into her home life, her friendships and, perhaps, her marriage. Passing here is not only a story about race. It is about the price of being safe and how much of a life depends on other people not looking closely.

The ending is famously uncertain. At a party in Harlem, Clare's secret is found out and in the same moment she falls from an open window. Larsen never says exactly what happened, and a century of readers have argued about it.

Why it still matters

Larsen does not judge. Clare is reckless and magnetic. Irene is respectable and not entirely honest with herself. Their difference is a matter of degree: both perform for a watching world, and both are sometimes caught.