Read and discuss these two gripping stories of race, identity and sexuality
Highlights
- Join this book club and gain extra motivation to read in English
- 7 hours of live classes to help you develop fluent speaking in English
- Read and discuss these important novels about race, identity and sexuality
- Be corrected by an expert English teacher to remove errors and mistakes
Practise and develop your English online in this advanced course featuring Passing (1928) and Giovanni's Room (1956). Each week you read some chapters, discuss them in class and improve specific areas of vocabulary or grammar while also examining literary aspects of the novel. Personalised feedback improves your grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.
The Book Club books
Passing by Nella Larsen: Clare Kendry "passes" as a white woman. She is married to a white man who is unaware of her African-American heritage. On meeting her childhood friend Irene, both women examine and reassess their marriages, confronting their past lies & fears for the future. Nella Larsen's intense, gripping story & insight into identity established her as a key author of America's Harlem Renaissance.
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin: David, a young American in 1950s Paris, plans to get married. However, while waiting for his fiancée to return from holiday, he meets Giovanni, a handsome Italian barman, starting a passionate affair. Tortured by his sexual identity, he has to decide who he is and who to spend his life with.
'Audacious... remarkable... elegant and courageous' Caryl Phillips
'Gorgeous, fearless, tempered by dark knowledge and pain ... the greatest American prose stylist of his generation' Colm Tóibín
Geoff says:
"These two short novels are both important contributions to literature by black writers. Passing (1929) established Nella Larson as one of the most important black female novelists in American history. Recently made into a Netflix film, Passing is the second and last of Larson's novels, and considered a classic work. She was a pioneer in writing about sexuality, race and the secret suffering of women. James Baldwin's powerful and controversial second novel is his most sustained treatment of sexuality, and a classic of gay literature."
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| Dates & time |
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| Age | 18+ |
| Class size | Maximum 8 participants |
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