First published in 1928, “Quicksand” is the first novel by American author Nella Larsen. It is the semi-autobiographical tale of a young, mixed race woman who struggles to find her place in the world. Like her main character, Helga Crane, Larsen was the daughter of a Danish white mother and a West Indian black father who disappeared from her life as a baby. Larsen and the fictional Crane never feel that they belong in either the white world or the black world and both travel around the United States and to Europe in search for a place that feels like home. “Quicksand” is an important novel of the Harlem Renaissance and one of the few novels of its time to explore the sexual feelings of women of color. Helga is a lovely and refined woman, a complicated and nuanced character, who is searching for meaning and purpose in her life. She is also far ahead of her time as she is self-reliant, adventurous, and intent on taking her fate into her own hands. This deeply personal story of a woman’s difficult search for acceptance and human connection while caught between two worlds remains to this day an insightful and thought-provoking novel.
