Helga Crane, the daughter of a Danish mother and a Black father, teaches at a Southern school for Black students and grows dissatisfied with its conformity. She moves to Chicago, then Harlem, then Copenhagen, each time hoping to find a place where she can belong, but is repeatedly disappointed. Nella Larsen writes a short, spare novel about race, class, and gender, and about the limits for a woman in 1920s America.
Readers of the Harlem Renaissance and of novels about racial identity will find a sharp psychological portrait. It is brief and suited to a single afternoon.
Deep, inward-looking and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Wisdom Collector. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1928
- Language
- EN
