Quicksand
I really did not enjoy this book.
For one, Larsen’s writing is very unclear and awkward. Sentences like, “She carried herself as queens are reputed to bear themselves, and probabbly do not,” show nothing about the characters. Larsen repeatedly tells and explains, rather than shows with well-crafted imagery. It just doesn’t work. I mean, what does, “These things irked her with great irksomeness,” really tell us about how Helga felt? Not a lot.
On another note, Helga is a completely unsympathetic character. She longs for human contact and bonds, but consistantly separates herself from blacks because she is of mixed race. At times, she even seems to think she is better than them because of this. The scene in the jazz club makes her a very unattractive main character, and the reader, or at least I, wanted nothing to do with her. She calls her friends and the other black people at the club “jungle creatures” and adamently tells herself that she is not one of them and watches in disgust.
Helga just comes off as greedy and wishy-washy and unpleasant. With the exception of her difficult upbringing, there is little to sympathize with her about.
The combination of Larsen’s writing style and Helga’s attitude towards herself and others just made this book painful to read, and I really don’t know why Larsen is so exalted as a writer.
