Quicksand by Nella Larsen

This book tells the story of Helga Crane, daughter of a Danish mother and an African American father. As I read the book this time, I particularly noticed how vivid colors are important to Helga, and how she embraces conspicuous consumption as a means of navigating the world around her. While she's not the easiest character in the world to sympathize with, I found the ending, in which she finds herself as disconnected from her children as her parents were from her and in which the Helga Crane we've been reading about throughout the novel dies (the character doesn't die, but she does stop trying), very moving.