Passing & Quicksand

A light-skinned African-American woman Clare an old childhood friend of Irene Redfields is now passing as a White woman. Clare is married to a bigoted White man who is unaware that she is of African descent. Despite the risk of being discovered by her husband and society at large she is compelled to enter Irenes world. ... On multiple levels Passing is a fascinating listening experience. Helga Crane aspires to be more than she is to experience the world more deeply. As a result she ignores her hometown of Chicago New Yorks Harlem and even Copenhagen. She also misses out on chances to be a part of a larger family to marry and to find true love. What is always lurking in this absolutely excellent work is how much Helgas malaise is defined by the background of 1920s American racial segregation and how much is - paradoxically - of her own doing... Living in a society with so many unsolved issues injustice hypocrisy and violence may very easily feel like wading in quicksand.