Not Without Laughter

"When you starts hatin' people, you gets uglier than they is - an I ain't never had no time for ugliness, 'cause that's where de devil comes in - in ugliness!"

"...I knows there ain't no room in de world fo' nothin' mo'n love. I knows, chile! Ever'thing there is but lovin' leaves a rust on yo' soul. An' to love sho 'nough, you got to have a spot in yo' heart fo' ever'body - great an' small, white an' black, an' them what's good an' them what's evil - 'cause love ain't got no crowded-out places where de good ones stays an' de bad ones can't come in. When it gets that way then it ain't love."

This well-written book is said to be Hughes bildungsroman, which of course made it sadder than it already was. It presented the lives of many working class Blacks living mostly in Kansas. Sandy begins as a child and at the end is possibly about to begin high school. He has always accepted much responsibility and cared about many people, especially his diverse family. He is often treated kindly, but he is also discriminated against due only to the fact that he is Black and that systemic racism is such a part of the United States. His personality is such that he is able to laugh at times when I expect he was really very hurt or disappointed. That is the derivation of the title. This book was originally published in 1930, and these show more problems are unfortunately still prevalent today. show less

Sandy is Anjee’s young son. They live in Stanton, Kansas with his grandmother, Aunt Hager, and Aunt Harriet. Aunt Hager washes, dries and irons her white neighbors’ laundry while trying to keep her family whole. Anjee works as a cook/housekeeper in an unappreciative white family’s home in town while missing her wandering, irresponsible husband, and Harriet attends high school and is growing up too fast.

Life is hard but folks keep their spirits up: the older blacks turn to church and acceptance, the younger vent by rebelliously dancing and drinking all night. Sandy learns the good, bad and the in-between in both whites and blacks. He sees the beauty of the black spirit in all its forms, and how education will bring change and show more equality.

Hughes’ first novel is a testament to his range of writing skill. Adept at capturing mood, conveying feelings; he plays language more brilliantly than Jimboy plays guitar.

Unassumingly beautiful and powerful! show less

Reason read: Sora book (free from AudioSync Summer Program). Published 1930 so is a classic. Story of a young black man growing up in Kansas. It covers issues of an African American family life growing up in the early 20th century. Issues touched on include the effects of class and religion on the community. The main storyline focuses on Sandy's "awakening to the sad and the beautiful realities of black life. James, known as Sandy, is a 10 years-old boy that lives with his grandmother, Aunt Hager, his mother, Annjee, and teenage aunt, Harriett. Sandy's father, Jimboy, is frequenty out of work and traveling about.

It seems that we're in Kansas, in an African American community, in 1912 and beyond.

Whenever I go on vacation, I try to read some books by
African American authors. I think I only managed this one this year. The issue for me, is that I can't possibly understand other people, unless I learn about them by reading about their lives (African Americans, Japanese, Chinese, etc.). This book, although written some 87 years ago, is still a fresh lens to help us privileged, comfortably well-off white folks see ourselves as others see us; others in this case, being African Americans.

An additional interesting thing about this book is that it follows the life of a young, African American boy who lived in Kansas, from about 1912 to 1918 or so. The show more boy was something like 7 to 14 over this period (fuzzy math). My mother was a young girl growing up in Kansas at the same time, although she was a bit younger. So, it's interesting to read about young African American children in Kansas and to compare it with my mother's stories of growing up.

Langston Hughes was best known as a top notch poet. But this book shows that he's also a rather good novelist. The writing is wonderful. show less

interesting social study of a young black American boy, Sandy, brought up mainly by his hardworking grandmother Hager, a laundrywoman, his mother Anjee and two very different aunts, the rebel Harriett who becomes a jazz singer, and snobbish Tempy - written with a poetic, music-filled voice, ending on a note of hope. This is a very beautiful edition.

I had no idea that Langston Hughes had written a novel. I really enjoy his poetry, so I was very excited to find this book.

It is the coming-of-age story of an Africa American boy in Kansas during the early Twentieth Century. Since I'm not African American, I don't really know what that experience is like, but this felt very genuine. It felt as if Hughes perhaps drew on his own early experiences.

This novel has a lot of heart, and there also seems to be a certain rhythm to the writing which I loved.