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Not Without Laughter
‘Not Without Laughter’ (1930) is drawn in part from the author’s own recollections of youth and early manhood. This stirring coming-of-age tale unfolds in 1930s rural Kansas. A poignant portrait of African-American family life in the early twentieth century, it follows the story of young Sandy Rogers as he grows from a boy to a man. We meet Sandy's mother, Annjee, who works as a housekeeper for a wealthy white family; his strong-willed grandmother, Hager; Jimboy, Sandy's father, who travels the country looking for work; Aunt Tempy, the social climber; and Aunt Harriet, the blues singer who has turned away from her faith.A fascinating chronicle of a family's joys and hardships, ‘Not Without Laughter’ is a vivid exploration of growing up and growing strong in a racially divided society. A rich and important work, it masterfully echoes the black American experience.
273 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1930
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About the author
Langston Hughes
605 books2,124 followersThrough poetry, prose, and drama, American writer James Langston Hughes made important contributions to the Harlem renaissance; his best-known works include
Weary Blues
(1926) and
The Ways of White Folks
(1934).
People best know this social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist James Mercer Langston Hughes, one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry, for his famous written work about the period, when "Harlem was in vogue."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langsto...
People best know this social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist James Mercer Langston Hughes, one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry, for his famous written work about the period, when "Harlem was in vogue."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langsto...
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November 6, 2020
"She earnestly believed that the world would really become safe for democracy, even in America, when the war ended, and that colored folks would no longer be snubbed in private and discriminated against in public."
I'm sorry, Mr. Hughes, but it's almost 100 years since you wrote those words and the world has not become safe for democracy. And people of colour are still snubbed and discriminated against in public. To say the least.
I began Not Without Laughter the day of the US election (Tuesday, November 3). It has taken me several days to finish, though it is a short and engaging novel.
It's been almost impossible to concentrate, as many of you can relate. And it's impossible for me to write this review without making it political.
White people, including those of us who are liberal, like to delude ourselves that we live in a post-racial America. Black children are no longer barred admittance to amusement parks or forced to sit in the back of the classroom, as they were in this book. We have some Black people in positions of power, including in the government. We even had a Black president and hopefully soon a Black female vice-president.
For all that, we have not changed very much in the last 100 years.
Many white liberals are reeling with shock at how close this election is. They were certain their neighbors and friends and family members would do the decent thing this time and vote against an uneducated, ignorant, evil, divisive authoritarian who most of the rest of the world can see is a danger and a threat to all.
I want to share something I wrote and shared on Facebook two days ago. I think it explains what's going on and I am grateful to all the authors I've been reading (see my Wake Up shelf ) who opened my eyes to this.
"This election shouldn't be so close. And while I'm dismayed that it is, heartbroken actually, I am not surprised.
The majority of white people show over and over that for them, whiteness reigns supreme.
White women vote against their own rights as women - in order to uphold white supremacy.
White parents vote against their children's future on a livable planet - in order to uphold white supremacy.
White grandparents vote against the safety and equality of their biracial grandchildren - in order to uphold white supremacy.
White people of all ages vote against their right to affordable health care and social security in their old age - in order to uphold white supremacy.
White people vote against the rights of their LGBQTIA children and people they claim were their friends - in order to uphold white supremacy.
White people vote against their right to make a living wage - in order to uphold white supremacy.
White people vote against common decency and compassion for immigrants - in order to uphold white supremacy.
White people vote to continue to allow Black Americans to be killed - in order to uphold white supremacy.
White people vote to harm millions of people - in order to try to hold on to the erroneous belief that their whiteness makes them special."
We will never move forward as a nation until we confront white supremacy. White liberals must stop resisting this. Yes, there are other factors at play; it's not only about white supremacy. But that is the biggest issue under which the rest fall.
White people created the evil system of white supremacy and it is up to us to dismantle it. White conservatives aren't going to do it and so we liberals must. We need to be honest with ourselves, we need to weed out our own racism, we need to listen to the voices of Black and Brown people and allow them to tell us what they need us to do to create a better and fairer country for all citizens.
There's a lot of work to be done and we can't afford to delude ourselves any longer.
.........................................
And as for this book, I mostly enjoyed it and appreciated Mr. Hughes' great insight. It's a heart-touching story of a young Black boy growing up with dreams, but uncertain how he will achieve them in a world made for whiteness.
I shall have to come back another time and write more about the book. For now, I must stick to the political.
I'm sorry, Mr. Hughes, but it's almost 100 years since you wrote those words and the world has not become safe for democracy. And people of colour are still snubbed and discriminated against in public. To say the least.
I began Not Without Laughter the day of the US election (Tuesday, November 3). It has taken me several days to finish, though it is a short and engaging novel.
It's been almost impossible to concentrate, as many of you can relate. And it's impossible for me to write this review without making it political.
White people, including those of us who are liberal, like to delude ourselves that we live in a post-racial America. Black children are no longer barred admittance to amusement parks or forced to sit in the back of the classroom, as they were in this book. We have some Black people in positions of power, including in the government. We even had a Black president and hopefully soon a Black female vice-president.
For all that, we have not changed very much in the last 100 years.
Many white liberals are reeling with shock at how close this election is. They were certain their neighbors and friends and family members would do the decent thing this time and vote against an uneducated, ignorant, evil, divisive authoritarian who most of the rest of the world can see is a danger and a threat to all.
I want to share something I wrote and shared on Facebook two days ago. I think it explains what's going on and I am grateful to all the authors I've been reading (see my Wake Up shelf ) who opened my eyes to this.
"This election shouldn't be so close. And while I'm dismayed that it is, heartbroken actually, I am not surprised.
The majority of white people show over and over that for them, whiteness reigns supreme.
White women vote against their own rights as women - in order to uphold white supremacy.
White parents vote against their children's future on a livable planet - in order to uphold white supremacy.
White grandparents vote against the safety and equality of their biracial grandchildren - in order to uphold white supremacy.
White people of all ages vote against their right to affordable health care and social security in their old age - in order to uphold white supremacy.
White people vote against the rights of their LGBQTIA children and people they claim were their friends - in order to uphold white supremacy.
White people vote against their right to make a living wage - in order to uphold white supremacy.
White people vote against common decency and compassion for immigrants - in order to uphold white supremacy.
White people vote to continue to allow Black Americans to be killed - in order to uphold white supremacy.
White people vote to harm millions of people - in order to try to hold on to the erroneous belief that their whiteness makes them special."
We will never move forward as a nation until we confront white supremacy. White liberals must stop resisting this. Yes, there are other factors at play; it's not only about white supremacy. But that is the biggest issue under which the rest fall.
White people created the evil system of white supremacy and it is up to us to dismantle it. White conservatives aren't going to do it and so we liberals must. We need to be honest with ourselves, we need to weed out our own racism, we need to listen to the voices of Black and Brown people and allow them to tell us what they need us to do to create a better and fairer country for all citizens.
There's a lot of work to be done and we can't afford to delude ourselves any longer.
.........................................
And as for this book, I mostly enjoyed it and appreciated Mr. Hughes' great insight. It's a heart-touching story of a young Black boy growing up with dreams, but uncertain how he will achieve them in a world made for whiteness.
I shall have to come back another time and write more about the book. For now, I must stick to the political.
June 19, 2024
The special thing about this novel is seeing life from African-American perspective. It is a story (at least partially based on the author’s own upbringing) of a boy growing up in a town in Kansas in the period before World War I. Through Sandy’s eyes we see all kinds of social levels, black and white, and many geographic locations. Hughes is able to compare those from the Old South such as Sandy’s grandma, Aunt Hager, who remembers slavery, his contemporaries in the Mid-West as well as the new arrivals in the industrial North. His father, Jimboy, is from the South like Aunt Hager, but represents the new blues and jazz age. His aunts and mother display a full range of black people in their town. Grandma is the old fashioned type at one end of the spectrum, who leaves everything to God and forgives white people no matter how awful they can be. Her youngest daughter hates all whites and is at the other end of the spectrum as far as tolerance. Ironically, she is the one who lives in “the Bottoms” where races and economic status don’t matter, the only part of town lacking barriers for African-Americans. In between, Hughes uses characters to talk about blacks trying to succeed by imitating whites or throwing themselves into pleasures that get them into trouble.
Readers are used to seeing African-Americans through the eyes of white writers, so this is a very unique perspective. My only problem with the book is that characters tend to be obvious stereotypes and the story can be very predictable. Hughes occasionally tries new things such as an almost jazzy, musical style in dance hall scenes or dream sequences. The book is well worth reading if only for historical perspective.
February 6, 2022
When I see or hear a reference to the Harlem Renaissance, I automatically think of Langston Hughes. Conversely, when I see or hear a reference to Langston Hughes, I automatically think of the Harlem Renaissance. I know there were other writers, as well as artists and musicians, who were involved, but to me the man and the movement are synonymous.
That connection is more than fitting since Hughes was a renaissance man. He is known first and foremost as a poet, but he also wrote short stories, plays, movie screenplays, essays, an operetta, children’s books, a newspaper column, and in his spare time, he wrote novels.
James Mercer Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri in 1901. Shortly after Hughes birth, his father left his mother and Hughes spent most of his childhood living with his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas. He began writing poetry in high school and published his first poem shortly after graduation. His first book of poetry appeared in 1926, and in 1930, not yet thirty years old, he published his first novel, Not Without Laughter.
Hughes considered himself to be a “people’s poet” meaning that he concentrated on the lives of poor and working-class black Americans. His novel was written in the same vein.
It is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story of his life living with his family in Lawrence (Stanton in the novel), a family headed by his grandmother, a family that struggles against poverty and prejudice, and that, despite a great deal of love and affection, also struggles within itself.
Some critics consider it to be the first novel to depict the lives of ordinary African Americans, a story about a black everyman, as opposed to a novel written about middle or upper class black lives and experiences.
Novelist Angela Flournoy wrote in her 2018 New York Times essay about the book that “[t]his focus on rendering realistically how black folks behave among themselves, whether or not such behavior would be considered proper in other contexts, is one of the novel’s greatest achievements.”
She goes on to say that:
Despite the groundbreaking nature of his debut novel and its critical acceptance, Hughes waited twenty-eight years to write a second novel. I guess he never found the spare time before then.
That connection is more than fitting since Hughes was a renaissance man. He is known first and foremost as a poet, but he also wrote short stories, plays, movie screenplays, essays, an operetta, children’s books, a newspaper column, and in his spare time, he wrote novels.
James Mercer Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri in 1901. Shortly after Hughes birth, his father left his mother and Hughes spent most of his childhood living with his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas. He began writing poetry in high school and published his first poem shortly after graduation. His first book of poetry appeared in 1926, and in 1930, not yet thirty years old, he published his first novel, Not Without Laughter.
Hughes considered himself to be a “people’s poet” meaning that he concentrated on the lives of poor and working-class black Americans. His novel was written in the same vein.
It is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story of his life living with his family in Lawrence (Stanton in the novel), a family headed by his grandmother, a family that struggles against poverty and prejudice, and that, despite a great deal of love and affection, also struggles within itself.
Some critics consider it to be the first novel to depict the lives of ordinary African Americans, a story about a black everyman, as opposed to a novel written about middle or upper class black lives and experiences.
Novelist Angela Flournoy wrote in her 2018 New York Times essay about the book that “[t]his focus on rendering realistically how black folks behave among themselves, whether or not such behavior would be considered proper in other contexts, is one of the novel’s greatest achievements.”
She goes on to say that:
Not Without Laughter is a debut in the best of ways: It covers uncharted territory, it compels its readers to see part of the world anew, and it prizes exploration over pat conclusion. Hughes accesses the universal – how all of us love and dream and laugh and cry – by staying faithful to the particulars of his characters and their way of life. With this book the young poet from Joplin, Mo., manages to deliver something more valuable than simply an admirable debut – he gives his readers and contemporaries a guide for careful consideration of the lives of everyday black people. Such a guide is still useful to readers and writers today. Perhaps now more than ever.
Despite the groundbreaking nature of his debut novel and its critical acceptance, Hughes waited twenty-eight years to write a second novel. I guess he never found the spare time before then.
July 30, 2025
Nothing But Love
There ain't no room in this world fo' nothing' but love, Sandy chile. That's all they's room fo' -- nothin' but love."
In the above passage, Aunt Hager Williams gives her thoughts on the slavery she experienced in her youth to her young grandson, Sandy (James) Williams in the climactic chapter of Langston Hughes's remarkable coming-of age novel "Not Without Laughter" (1930). The novel offers a picture of African American life in a fictitious Kansas town, modeled on Lawrence, beginning in about 1911 and concluding with the end of WW I in 1918. "Nothing but Love" is a fitting summation of the book as a whole.
Hughes' partially autobiographical novel tells the story of young Sandy Williams between the ages of 9 -- 16, and Sandy and his family are the main characters. The boy's aging grandmother, Hager, is the titular head of the family and inspires the boy with her ambitions for him to make something of his life. She earns money for the family by washing clothes for white people. Hagar's daughter and Sandy's mother, Anjee, works as a domestic for a demanding white family. She is married to Jimboy, an itinerant guitarist and singer who spends little time at home but rather wanders throughout the country looking for work. Hager has two other daughters. Tempy Siles has made a successful marriage, moved into the black middle class, and tends to look down upon the rest of the family. The young daughter, Harriet, has a restless streak. She dislikes white people and religion and spends a great deal of time singing and dancing in disreputable parts of the town. After a time as a prostitute, she succeeds as a blues singer.
The novel tells the story of how Sandy learns from his family and from other largely African American people in the town and, in the final scenes of the book, in Chicago. The book and its plot begin slowly, but I soon was engaged with the lives of the characters. Hughes gives a rare realistic and enthusiastic look at African American life during the early 20th Century in its variety, difficulty, and hope. There is, of course, great emphasis on the pervasive discrimination African Americans suffered in the American midwest, as most of the institutions in Kansas enforced rigid segregation and discrimination and most of the whites had racist attitudes. But there was much hope and strength in the African American community as well. Sandy receives his greatest inspiration from the strong Aunt Hager who speaks in dialect, as do many of the characters, is deeply religious, and wants Sandy to make a contribution to uplift the race. Hager is an admirer of Booker Washington. Sandy is exposed to the world of learning from Tempy, who raises the boy after Anjee leaves the family to live with her wandering hustand and after Hager dies. Tempy is an admirer of DuBois, but she presses Sandy in the direction of rejecting the African American culture which the young boy, and Hughes, are unwilling to do.
Besides the emphasis on educational uplift, there is much in Sandy's world of guitar playing, music, the blues, and poetry, as songs such as "St. Louis Blues", "Easy Rider" "John Henry" and many more get a great deal of attention and quotation. The book is in the language of poetry and dialect. Scenes take place in dance halls, barber shops, carnivals, and pool halls, as well as in schools, churches and the home. The town "bottoms" -- the home of prostitutes and gamblers -- is described as the only location in the community that is free from race discrimination. The book describes the importance, and frequent repression of sexuality, in the budding awareness of Sandy, and in the experiences of the other characters. Hughes offers a complex and varied perspective on African American life. He emphasizes the importance of knowledge and empowerment. He also treasures the distinctive features of African American life in its poetry, dance, and music and emphasis on family. He suggests to me that African American life can develop its own culture without merely adopting that of white America. The overall tone is one of laughter, love, and forgiveness.
Hughes' novel won the Harmon Gold Medal in 1930, a prize awarded between 1925 -- 1930 for high achievement in African American art and literature. The novel is not as well known today as it deserves to be. It is a precious story of African American life and of growing
Robin Friedman
There ain't no room in this world fo' nothing' but love, Sandy chile. That's all they's room fo' -- nothin' but love."
In the above passage, Aunt Hager Williams gives her thoughts on the slavery she experienced in her youth to her young grandson, Sandy (James) Williams in the climactic chapter of Langston Hughes's remarkable coming-of age novel "Not Without Laughter" (1930). The novel offers a picture of African American life in a fictitious Kansas town, modeled on Lawrence, beginning in about 1911 and concluding with the end of WW I in 1918. "Nothing but Love" is a fitting summation of the book as a whole.
Hughes' partially autobiographical novel tells the story of young Sandy Williams between the ages of 9 -- 16, and Sandy and his family are the main characters. The boy's aging grandmother, Hager, is the titular head of the family and inspires the boy with her ambitions for him to make something of his life. She earns money for the family by washing clothes for white people. Hagar's daughter and Sandy's mother, Anjee, works as a domestic for a demanding white family. She is married to Jimboy, an itinerant guitarist and singer who spends little time at home but rather wanders throughout the country looking for work. Hager has two other daughters. Tempy Siles has made a successful marriage, moved into the black middle class, and tends to look down upon the rest of the family. The young daughter, Harriet, has a restless streak. She dislikes white people and religion and spends a great deal of time singing and dancing in disreputable parts of the town. After a time as a prostitute, she succeeds as a blues singer.
The novel tells the story of how Sandy learns from his family and from other largely African American people in the town and, in the final scenes of the book, in Chicago. The book and its plot begin slowly, but I soon was engaged with the lives of the characters. Hughes gives a rare realistic and enthusiastic look at African American life during the early 20th Century in its variety, difficulty, and hope. There is, of course, great emphasis on the pervasive discrimination African Americans suffered in the American midwest, as most of the institutions in Kansas enforced rigid segregation and discrimination and most of the whites had racist attitudes. But there was much hope and strength in the African American community as well. Sandy receives his greatest inspiration from the strong Aunt Hager who speaks in dialect, as do many of the characters, is deeply religious, and wants Sandy to make a contribution to uplift the race. Hager is an admirer of Booker Washington. Sandy is exposed to the world of learning from Tempy, who raises the boy after Anjee leaves the family to live with her wandering hustand and after Hager dies. Tempy is an admirer of DuBois, but she presses Sandy in the direction of rejecting the African American culture which the young boy, and Hughes, are unwilling to do.
Besides the emphasis on educational uplift, there is much in Sandy's world of guitar playing, music, the blues, and poetry, as songs such as "St. Louis Blues", "Easy Rider" "John Henry" and many more get a great deal of attention and quotation. The book is in the language of poetry and dialect. Scenes take place in dance halls, barber shops, carnivals, and pool halls, as well as in schools, churches and the home. The town "bottoms" -- the home of prostitutes and gamblers -- is described as the only location in the community that is free from race discrimination. The book describes the importance, and frequent repression of sexuality, in the budding awareness of Sandy, and in the experiences of the other characters. Hughes offers a complex and varied perspective on African American life. He emphasizes the importance of knowledge and empowerment. He also treasures the distinctive features of African American life in its poetry, dance, and music and emphasis on family. He suggests to me that African American life can develop its own culture without merely adopting that of white America. The overall tone is one of laughter, love, and forgiveness.
Hughes' novel won the Harmon Gold Medal in 1930, a prize awarded between 1925 -- 1930 for high achievement in African American art and literature. The novel is not as well known today as it deserves to be. It is a precious story of African American life and of growing
Robin Friedman
September 13, 2017
This was my first Langston Hughes but it won't be my last. I think I shall check out his autobiographies next...
This is the story of Sandy and the people he loves. Sandy grows up in a poverty-stricken, African-America community in the post-slavery era.
These are the people whose lives we enter -
Sandy's grandmother works dawn to dusk washing clothes for rich white folks. She ministers to the sick in the poor, black community. She looks after Sandy.
His grandmother's friend was a 'freed girl' and remembers working on the plantation as a slave.
Sandy's mother works as a domestic for a rich white woman and spends her spare time pining after her absent husband, Jimboy (Sandy's father).
Jimboy is a labourer and goes where he can to get work and spends the rest of time fishing and playing guitar.
Sandy has two aunts- Tempy and Harriet. Harriet is head-strong and political. She doesn't want to be a white woman's domestic. She wants a life. She will struggle with poverty and try to find her way as a singer. This takes her to dangerous places...
Tempy has married an educated black man. They have moved away from the shacks and live in a respectable neighbourhood with up-coming black friends. This makes it hard for Tempy to visit Sandy in the poor neighbourhood.
Harriet and Tempy and his grandmother want Sandy to 'make something of himself'. Sandy does well at school, he is almost top of his class. He works as a shoe-shine and as a bell-hop and he has dreams of his own...
We get to know the characters and the detail of their toil and daily lives and sacrifices and struggles.
Sandy (based, apparently, on the young Hughes) is insightful and kind. He sees and understands a lot. He knows his Aunts' secrets and his grandmother's worries and he does his best to navigate them all.
Especially poignant was his desire for a sledge at Christmas when the family are barely able to put bread on the table. Then something surprising happens...
We learn what each person thinks of white folks (without bitterness).
We learn too, of the faith and strong spirit of the African-American community - who support and buoy each other up. This is particularly clear with Sandy - whom everyone wants to succeed.
A lovely book. Hughes gives us a gentle eye on the realities of that era.
This is the story of Sandy and the people he loves. Sandy grows up in a poverty-stricken, African-America community in the post-slavery era.
These are the people whose lives we enter -
Sandy's grandmother works dawn to dusk washing clothes for rich white folks. She ministers to the sick in the poor, black community. She looks after Sandy.
His grandmother's friend was a 'freed girl' and remembers working on the plantation as a slave.
Sandy's mother works as a domestic for a rich white woman and spends her spare time pining after her absent husband, Jimboy (Sandy's father).
Jimboy is a labourer and goes where he can to get work and spends the rest of time fishing and playing guitar.
Sandy has two aunts- Tempy and Harriet. Harriet is head-strong and political. She doesn't want to be a white woman's domestic. She wants a life. She will struggle with poverty and try to find her way as a singer. This takes her to dangerous places...
Tempy has married an educated black man. They have moved away from the shacks and live in a respectable neighbourhood with up-coming black friends. This makes it hard for Tempy to visit Sandy in the poor neighbourhood.
Harriet and Tempy and his grandmother want Sandy to 'make something of himself'. Sandy does well at school, he is almost top of his class. He works as a shoe-shine and as a bell-hop and he has dreams of his own...
We get to know the characters and the detail of their toil and daily lives and sacrifices and struggles.
Sandy (based, apparently, on the young Hughes) is insightful and kind. He sees and understands a lot. He knows his Aunts' secrets and his grandmother's worries and he does his best to navigate them all.
Especially poignant was his desire for a sledge at Christmas when the family are barely able to put bread on the table. Then something surprising happens...
We learn what each person thinks of white folks (without bitterness).
We learn too, of the faith and strong spirit of the African-American community - who support and buoy each other up. This is particularly clear with Sandy - whom everyone wants to succeed.
A lovely book. Hughes gives us a gentle eye on the realities of that era.
September 30, 2022
A coming of age story written in 1930, this novel illuminates the daily life of a Black boy in a small Kansas town. It feels more like a series of vignettes than a novel, but by the end it all came together. I loved the strong character studies - especially between Sandy and his grandmother and his mother and aunts. Racism and uncertainty are a part of daily life and Hughes brings it into high contrast.
February 16, 2025
Reading Langston Hughes' debut novel, Not Without Laughter, in the midst of Black History Month was a pleasant surprise. It represents a coming of age tale of a young African-American boy in Kansas that offers sustained relevance a century after it was written.
A boy called "Sandy" due to the color of his hair, whose first name is really James, lives among a houseful of women, including his mother, an aunt & a grandmother who has great aspirations for the young, sensitive lad. While the women stray in search of work, as does his largely absentee father, the boy's grandmother, "Aunt Hager" is a constant presence, an abiding light for Sandy. She comments:
Sandy's mother, Annjee, has a menial job & Aunt Hager takes in laundry to earn money, before eventually fleeing to live with her husband in Detroit, leaving Sandy with Aunt Hager. Another character, Harriet, has a great voice, heads off with a traveling minstrel show & even becomes a prostitute for a time, before eventually finding success as a Jazz singer.
Meanwhile, another aunt, "Tempy", has chosen a different path, affecting a superior attitude, projecting that one can be lifted up by aiming high, becoming an Episcopalian rather than a Baptist, marrying a man with a steady job & as some might phrase it, "acting white".
Each of the characters in this first novel by Langston Hughes seem well-drawn, full of depth & act as foils one against another, though Aunt Hager remains the only sustaining force in young Sandy's life. Hughes portrays her with considerable sensitivity, employing quietly rendered but powerful prose + some verse as well.
Sandy is a thoughtful, self-conscious boy, a good student, eager to enhance himself while helping Aunt Hager financially, by taking lowly, humbling part-time jobs as a bellhop in a sleazy hotel, cleaning & polishing spittoons and by sweeping up & shining shoes in a black barber shop, with these roles offering him glimpses of a male world that enriches his imagination if not his wallet. He laments:
It is said that "the old Negroes went to the Christian revival while the young Negroes went to the World's Greatest Midway Carnival". And in spite of this apparent division of the townsfolk, the "mourning songs of the Christians could be heard intermingling notes of praise & joy with the profound syncopation of the minstrel band."
The novel's title is emblematic, as even in the midst of sorrow, racial animosity & considerable deprivation, there is laughter aplenty, at least partially salving the pain & suffering. The ending of Not Without Laughter seemed a bit abrupt but the Langston Hughes novel remains a very well-told tale.
*Within my review are two images of author Langston Hughes + one of early post Civil War homesteaders at the town of Nicodemus, Kansas.
A boy called "Sandy" due to the color of his hair, whose first name is really James, lives among a houseful of women, including his mother, an aunt & a grandmother who has great aspirations for the young, sensitive lad. While the women stray in search of work, as does his largely absentee father, the boy's grandmother, "Aunt Hager" is a constant presence, an abiding light for Sandy. She comments:
White folks is white folks, an' colored folks is colored, an' neither of 'em is as bad as t'other make out. For mighty nigh 70 years I been knowing both of them, an' I ain't never had room in my heart to hate neither white nor colored. 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 the devil comes in--in ugliness!And within the black community of Stanton, a small Kansas town, often living side by side with white folks, Aunt Hager always seems to put this congenial spirit well ahead of any residual animosity about slavery or her own lack of prospects, even coming to the aid of white neighbors she has had a long relationship with when they are in need of her care.
Sandy's mother, Annjee, has a menial job & Aunt Hager takes in laundry to earn money, before eventually fleeing to live with her husband in Detroit, leaving Sandy with Aunt Hager. Another character, Harriet, has a great voice, heads off with a traveling minstrel show & even becomes a prostitute for a time, before eventually finding success as a Jazz singer.
Meanwhile, another aunt, "Tempy", has chosen a different path, affecting a superior attitude, projecting that one can be lifted up by aiming high, becoming an Episcopalian rather than a Baptist, marrying a man with a steady job & as some might phrase it, "acting white".
Each of the characters in this first novel by Langston Hughes seem well-drawn, full of depth & act as foils one against another, though Aunt Hager remains the only sustaining force in young Sandy's life. Hughes portrays her with considerable sensitivity, employing quietly rendered but powerful prose + some verse as well.
Sandy is a thoughtful, self-conscious boy, a good student, eager to enhance himself while helping Aunt Hager financially, by taking lowly, humbling part-time jobs as a bellhop in a sleazy hotel, cleaning & polishing spittoons and by sweeping up & shining shoes in a black barber shop, with these roles offering him glimpses of a male world that enriches his imagination if not his wallet. He laments:
Sometimes I hate white people. Still some of them are pretty decent. But there's no advancement for colored fellows. If we begin as porters, we end as porters. Being colored is like being born in the basement of life, with the door to the light locked & barred--and the white folks live upstairs. They don't want us up there with them, even when we are respectable like Dr. Mitchell or smart like Dr. Du Bois. Maybe it's best not to care and to stay poor & meek waiting for heaven like Aunt Hager. But I don't want heaven! I want to live first! I want to live!Always in African-American life, music & church, often paired together, lift community spirits, if only for a time. One of my favorite scenes is the manner in which a visiting minstrel show divides this black Kansas community. Half turn out for a visiting tent preacher's revival, "the tent of Christ", even while the "tents of sin stretch into the distance."
It is said that "the old Negroes went to the Christian revival while the young Negroes went to the World's Greatest Midway Carnival". And in spite of this apparent division of the townsfolk, the "mourning songs of the Christians could be heard intermingling notes of praise & joy with the profound syncopation of the minstrel band."
The novel's title is emblematic, as even in the midst of sorrow, racial animosity & considerable deprivation, there is laughter aplenty, at least partially salving the pain & suffering. The ending of Not Without Laughter seemed a bit abrupt but the Langston Hughes novel remains a very well-told tale.
*Within my review are two images of author Langston Hughes + one of early post Civil War homesteaders at the town of Nicodemus, Kansas.
December 26, 2007
Langston Hughes is one of my all-time favorite writers, mostly for his poetry, but I love his autobiographies (The Big Sea and I Wonder as I Wander) and this autobiographical novel.
There is so much heartbreak in the story, but the two recurring themes -- that there ain't no room in this world for nothing but love, and that whatever else life is, it is not without laughter -- are so incredibly uplifting. A great story of keeping one's chin up when there seems no reason to do so.
As an aside, this book's vivid descriptions of the trash-talking and banter in a Kansas pool hall were the inspiration for my jazz tune, Pool Hall Chatter.
There is so much heartbreak in the story, but the two recurring themes -- that there ain't no room in this world for nothing but love, and that whatever else life is, it is not without laughter -- are so incredibly uplifting. A great story of keeping one's chin up when there seems no reason to do so.
As an aside, this book's vivid descriptions of the trash-talking and banter in a Kansas pool hall were the inspiration for my jazz tune, Pool Hall Chatter.
August 1, 2025
" Being colored is like being born in the basement of life, with the door to the light locked and barred---and the white folks live upstairs."
The best recommendation I can give to this novel is to say that if book banners actually read the books they ban, this one would give them heart palpitations. Set in the early years of last century but published in 1930, white people do not come across in a good light. This is set in Kansas, not the American south, but racism does not recognize state borders, it exists everywhere. It's the story of Sandy, being raised by his grandmother, a washerwoman who's is barely able to keep a roof over their heads. She has 3 daughters, the oldest trying to rise above her station who is ashamed of her mother, the youngest who wants fun and excitement in her life, and the middle daughter, Sandy's mother, who waits daily for a letter from her good-for-nothing husband who shows up sporadically, always without a job. Sandy is smart and watches everything going on around him, taking notice of what works and what doesn't, listening to his grandmother tell him his education is the most important thing.
There are some heartbreaking scenes in this novel, most notably the crude homemade sled he got one Christmas instead of the Flexible Flier he dreamed of, and the colored kids who were turned away from a free amusement park kids day because it was only for white kids.
I am not insulted or shamed by reading about these things because I know that whites have a long history of cruelly treating blacks. Books like this need to be read to show us all how bad it once was, and in some cases still is.
The best recommendation I can give to this novel is to say that if book banners actually read the books they ban, this one would give them heart palpitations. Set in the early years of last century but published in 1930, white people do not come across in a good light. This is set in Kansas, not the American south, but racism does not recognize state borders, it exists everywhere. It's the story of Sandy, being raised by his grandmother, a washerwoman who's is barely able to keep a roof over their heads. She has 3 daughters, the oldest trying to rise above her station who is ashamed of her mother, the youngest who wants fun and excitement in her life, and the middle daughter, Sandy's mother, who waits daily for a letter from her good-for-nothing husband who shows up sporadically, always without a job. Sandy is smart and watches everything going on around him, taking notice of what works and what doesn't, listening to his grandmother tell him his education is the most important thing.
There are some heartbreaking scenes in this novel, most notably the crude homemade sled he got one Christmas instead of the Flexible Flier he dreamed of, and the colored kids who were turned away from a free amusement park kids day because it was only for white kids.
I am not insulted or shamed by reading about these things because I know that whites have a long history of cruelly treating blacks. Books like this need to be read to show us all how bad it once was, and in some cases still is.
April 3, 2025
A voice in my head told me to read more of the work by Langston Hughes, reminding me that I'd read his autobiographical 'I Wonder as I Wander', was deeply impressed by it... that that was over 6 years ago (!)... and that I'd best step things up.
Having now read this debut novel, I won't need further reminding to make headway.
Upon its release in 1930, The New York Times critic referred to it as "very slow, even tedious reading in its early chapters...". Although the review would go on to relent ("... once it gains its momentum it moves as swiftly as a jazz rhythm, its characters emerging ever more clearly and challenging as the novel proceeds."), the reviewer seemed to ignore the fact that readers can be wary of the word 'tedious'; they tend to want reassurance that what they take on will engage quickly-enough.
With that in mind, might I interject that 'Not Without Laughter' - on Page One - opens with... a cyclone! What part of a cyclone rings of 'slow' or 'tedious'? The meteorological monster rips through the small town of Stanton, Kansas, bringing death to some, and absconding with the entire front porch of the home of the central family members we're introduced to.
That disaster sets the novel's tone, serving to symbolize the precariousness that defines the locale and the lives of the locals. Though nothing that follows the opening is ever as tempestuous, what's related is an unending picture of struggle.
We see through the eyes of young Sandy (born James) Rodgers, a boy who is not only uniquely sensitive but also preternaturally wise. Yes, there are times when he's very much an average boy - esp. when he's pushed to the limit by what he feels is unfair - but, more often, he seems to avoid confrontation by the path of least resistance:
He's an observant young man, reliant on his keen eyes and ears. As is Hughes - who is at his poetic best when depicting places where any type of crowd gathers, whether it be at a yard party, a local dance club, a splendid carnival ground, or the equivalent of a vaudeville house. He doesn't seem to miss a surveyed trick.
It might be a mistake to think of this novel as being episodic in nature. 'NWL' is the story of an era that has not entirely left. The narrative heeds to the Fitzgerald notion that "Character is plot, plot is character." The incidents that link together (and interweave) propel the story forward with an edgy inevitability.
And then there's the author's way with words - economic, seamless, rich and elegant.
Having now read this debut novel, I won't need further reminding to make headway.
Upon its release in 1930, The New York Times critic referred to it as "very slow, even tedious reading in its early chapters...". Although the review would go on to relent ("... once it gains its momentum it moves as swiftly as a jazz rhythm, its characters emerging ever more clearly and challenging as the novel proceeds."), the reviewer seemed to ignore the fact that readers can be wary of the word 'tedious'; they tend to want reassurance that what they take on will engage quickly-enough.
With that in mind, might I interject that 'Not Without Laughter' - on Page One - opens with... a cyclone! What part of a cyclone rings of 'slow' or 'tedious'? The meteorological monster rips through the small town of Stanton, Kansas, bringing death to some, and absconding with the entire front porch of the home of the central family members we're introduced to.
That disaster sets the novel's tone, serving to symbolize the precariousness that defines the locale and the lives of the locals. Though nothing that follows the opening is ever as tempestuous, what's related is an unending picture of struggle.
We see through the eyes of young Sandy (born James) Rodgers, a boy who is not only uniquely sensitive but also preternaturally wise. Yes, there are times when he's very much an average boy - esp. when he's pushed to the limit by what he feels is unfair - but, more often, he seems to avoid confrontation by the path of least resistance:
Sandy had lived too long with three women not to have learned to hold his tongue about the private doings of each of them. When Annjee paid two dollars a week on a blue silk shirt for his father at Cohn's cut-rate credit store, and Sandy saw her make the payments, he knew without being told that the matter was never to be mentioned to Aunt Hager. And if his grandmother sometimes threw Harriett's rouge out in the alley, Sandy saw it with his eyes, but not with his mouth. Because he loved all three of them--Harriett, Annjee and Hager--he didn't carry tales on any one of them to the others. Nobody would know he had watched his Aunt Harrie dancing on the carnival lot today in front of a big fat white man in a checkered vest while a Negro in a red suit played the piano.Starting in the 1910s, the story follows the boy for what seems about a ten-year period, from early years through to the near-end of high school, from a life in Kansas to a move to Chicago. The major events - such as they are - are more like the gradual steps of fate made by those closest to him. But, throughout, Sandy acts as the novel's conscience, fielding internal questions about the things that disturb him: mainly racism, class, organized religion, love, morality, the mechanics of family, and his perpetually unsettled existence.
He's an observant young man, reliant on his keen eyes and ears. As is Hughes - who is at his poetic best when depicting places where any type of crowd gathers, whether it be at a yard party, a local dance club, a splendid carnival ground, or the equivalent of a vaudeville house. He doesn't seem to miss a surveyed trick.
It might be a mistake to think of this novel as being episodic in nature. 'NWL' is the story of an era that has not entirely left. The narrative heeds to the Fitzgerald notion that "Character is plot, plot is character." The incidents that link together (and interweave) propel the story forward with an edgy inevitability.
And then there's the author's way with words - economic, seamless, rich and elegant.
February 23, 2020
Langston Hughes was well known for his poetry by the time he published this first novel in 1930. I haven't read any of his poetry yet, but I have read the two volumes of his autobiography, and I have a book of plays and another of short stories.
This book tells the story of James 'Sandy' Rodgers and his family. He lives in Kansas with his mother Annjee, his aunt Harriet, and his grandmother Aunt Hager. Father Jimboy drifts in and out of the story the way he drifted in and out of Sandy's life, but usually he was out, traveling in search of work or just because he wanted to.
In these pages Sandy grows from a little boy to high school student, and on the way he and his family face many issues from sickness to storms (the book begins with a rip-snorter of a tornado tearing the porch off their little home) to the social attitudes of the day. Will Sandy become the man his grandmother wants him to be? Will he ever figure Life out?
This can be a painful book to read, especially for a white person. There are sorry scenes of mistreatment that will make any decent person flinch, and language which will jar the modern ear, no matter how many times you tell yourself that the n-word must have been used this way by black people in real life just the way it is used here, I for one was still disturbed at having to read it over and over again throughout the book.
I feel the strongest character in the book was Sandy's grandmother Aunt Hager. She had been brought up in slavery and washed clothes for white people from the time she became free. She had three daughters (Tempy did not live with her) but had never raised a boy and she was determined to have him become a good man and a good example for others.
This seemed to be a point of much pressure in those days, at least it was with Sandy's grandmother. She wanted to show the white folks that black people were just as worthwhile as anyone else, and she expected Sandy to prove it. I can't imagine hoe many other youngsters had the same sort of
pressure put on them over the years.
And isn't it awful that anyone should feel compelled to prove themselves worthy of equal treatment and respect, two things that should be offered to each person by each other person no matter what. We should never think that anyone does not deserve to be considered a human being simply because of skin color or social standing or income. Makes me sick to think how much time on this earth has been wasted while humans try to sort this kind of thing out. We should have seen from the beginning that we are all HUMAN: that is our common bond, no matter what else differentiates us.
Well, anyway, back to the book. It is quite moving, and I felt for Sandy as he grew up and tried to come to terms with all the issues around him. He had a great deal of his grandmother's strength of character, and I finished the book with hope in my heart for Sandy and his dreams. And I am very much looking forward to reading more by Langston Hughes, I think he was amazing.
This book tells the story of James 'Sandy' Rodgers and his family. He lives in Kansas with his mother Annjee, his aunt Harriet, and his grandmother Aunt Hager. Father Jimboy drifts in and out of the story the way he drifted in and out of Sandy's life, but usually he was out, traveling in search of work or just because he wanted to.
In these pages Sandy grows from a little boy to high school student, and on the way he and his family face many issues from sickness to storms (the book begins with a rip-snorter of a tornado tearing the porch off their little home) to the social attitudes of the day. Will Sandy become the man his grandmother wants him to be? Will he ever figure Life out?
This can be a painful book to read, especially for a white person. There are sorry scenes of mistreatment that will make any decent person flinch, and language which will jar the modern ear, no matter how many times you tell yourself that the n-word must have been used this way by black people in real life just the way it is used here, I for one was still disturbed at having to read it over and over again throughout the book.
I feel the strongest character in the book was Sandy's grandmother Aunt Hager. She had been brought up in slavery and washed clothes for white people from the time she became free. She had three daughters (Tempy did not live with her) but had never raised a boy and she was determined to have him become a good man and a good example for others.
This seemed to be a point of much pressure in those days, at least it was with Sandy's grandmother. She wanted to show the white folks that black people were just as worthwhile as anyone else, and she expected Sandy to prove it. I can't imagine hoe many other youngsters had the same sort of
pressure put on them over the years.
And isn't it awful that anyone should feel compelled to prove themselves worthy of equal treatment and respect, two things that should be offered to each person by each other person no matter what. We should never think that anyone does not deserve to be considered a human being simply because of skin color or social standing or income. Makes me sick to think how much time on this earth has been wasted while humans try to sort this kind of thing out. We should have seen from the beginning that we are all HUMAN: that is our common bond, no matter what else differentiates us.
Well, anyway, back to the book. It is quite moving, and I felt for Sandy as he grew up and tried to come to terms with all the issues around him. He had a great deal of his grandmother's strength of character, and I finished the book with hope in my heart for Sandy and his dreams. And I am very much looking forward to reading more by Langston Hughes, I think he was amazing.
Want to read
January 7, 2018How am I still finding out about books? I seriously had no idea Langston Hughes wrote a novel.
February 7, 2024
Painful, beautiful, hopeful.
February 16, 2023
Originally published in 1930, Not Without Laughter is a coming of age novel following a Black boy from a working class family in middle-America. Apparently it's very unusual in choosing to depict the culture and lives of working class Black people rather than the typical middle or upper class characters depicted in literature of the time. Langston Hughes likely drew on his own childhood and the result is an engrossing, very human portrait of people. Religious people, poor people, sex workers, people trying to raise themselves in society, and there is even a little bit of queer subtext which was unusual for the time in relation to a boy coming of age.
This edition includes an excellent introduction to the novel that is helpful for reading and interpreting the text. I'm really glad I decided to pick this up and would recommend it. The prose is lyrical and the character work is impeccable. Note that there is quite a lot of use of the n-word, in both culturally neutral and negative ways.
This edition includes an excellent introduction to the novel that is helpful for reading and interpreting the text. I'm really glad I decided to pick this up and would recommend it. The prose is lyrical and the character work is impeccable. Note that there is quite a lot of use of the n-word, in both culturally neutral and negative ways.
April 11, 2015
"This party's for the white kids."It's been a few weeks since I finished Hughes' semi-autobiographical novella, but that scene has stayed with me. More than any other event in the novel, this scene typifies the "coming of age" experience of many minorities: being told that you're not good enough because of the tone of your skin. (And, yes, it's an experience that exists in the twenty-first century. I've been ignored at bakery counters while the people with lighter skin behind me are served. A saleswoman at Macy's refused bring a leather Coach bag for me because I "can't afford that." Men have spat at my feet as I walked by. Women at a beauty salon on Fifth Avenue have asked to move away from me as I had my hair washed.)
Willie-Mae did not understand. She stood holding out the coupons, waiting for the tall white man to take them.
"Stand back, you two," he said, looking at Sandy as well. "I told you little darkies this wasn't your party.... Come on -- next little girl."
Hughes is a poet, and, as a poet, he is adept at conveying complex thoughts with minimal words. Sandy is a young man, being raised by his grandmother, his mother (who is more concerned with chasing after his father), and his young aunt. All three women have different perspectives on the relations between African-Americans and white-Americans in the early part of the twentieth century. Hughes presents those perspectives without passing judgment on any of them, and the reader is left to form her own conclusions. Is his grandmother correct? She who accepts having fewer rights and tells her grandson that he just needs to work harder than his white classmates to succeed? Is his aunt correct? She who resents having to work harder to have the same rights that others are born with? Is his mother correct? She who accepts her lot in life and doesn't see the need to work harder, at all, just pay the rent and live? Or is it a combination of all these women's perspectives?
The story itself is beautifully told. He opens with a storm. (I love storms.) He writes of singing before and after dinner. He writes of the struggle to find a God who loves all, even as his countrymen tell him that he is less than they are. It's a lyrical work that, if we lived in a fair world, ought to be read more widely.
October 28, 2020
I read this for my Bookie Babes reading group. It was hard to believe that it was published in 1930! I will tell you why.
The story concerns Black lives centered around a family living in Lawrence, Kansas. Sandy is a growing boy living with his grandmother, his mother and two aunts. Grandma is a widowed washer woman, supporting three daughters and Sandy. Each daughter eventually goes her own way, but Sandy stays with his grandma until she dies, though he is influenced by the widely differing life styles of his mom and aunts.
The novel finally made me understand why so many Black women were deep into religion and church. They needed to believe in an afterlife that is not full of hardship, loss and suffering. It was also made clear why others look for good times and laughter or believe in education as a way to be able to compete with white people.
I always thought Langston Hughes was a poet, but he was also a wonderful novelist. His writing is lyrical, his characters are deep and rich with life, and the story kept me on the edge of my seat wondering what would become of everyone.
What struck all of us in the reading group was how much life is still the same for Blacks. Maybe a bit less harsh but still not really free, not really playing on a level field with the rest of society. It is now 90 years since the book was published. 156 years since emancipation. Etc, etc.
Yet, Langston Hughes brought major good things to his race. He came to recognition as a key player in the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s with his support of other Black writers, his poetry, plays, novels and a special kind of hope and lightness of heart.
The story concerns Black lives centered around a family living in Lawrence, Kansas. Sandy is a growing boy living with his grandmother, his mother and two aunts. Grandma is a widowed washer woman, supporting three daughters and Sandy. Each daughter eventually goes her own way, but Sandy stays with his grandma until she dies, though he is influenced by the widely differing life styles of his mom and aunts.
The novel finally made me understand why so many Black women were deep into religion and church. They needed to believe in an afterlife that is not full of hardship, loss and suffering. It was also made clear why others look for good times and laughter or believe in education as a way to be able to compete with white people.
I always thought Langston Hughes was a poet, but he was also a wonderful novelist. His writing is lyrical, his characters are deep and rich with life, and the story kept me on the edge of my seat wondering what would become of everyone.
What struck all of us in the reading group was how much life is still the same for Blacks. Maybe a bit less harsh but still not really free, not really playing on a level field with the rest of society. It is now 90 years since the book was published. 156 years since emancipation. Etc, etc.
Yet, Langston Hughes brought major good things to his race. He came to recognition as a key player in the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s with his support of other Black writers, his poetry, plays, novels and a special kind of hope and lightness of heart.
August 5, 2018
This was a lovely coming of age story. It concerns a sensitive and observant boy named Sandy, growing up in Kansas around 1910 or so. Hughes covers themes of racism, poverty, African American history (through memories of older family members) and hardship. There was positivity and hope, though! One of the really positive aspects of the novel was the emphasis on education as a means of improving life. I was very impressed with “Not without laughter” and it was easily five stars for me.
January 31, 2016
Not Without Laughter
Exceptional
5 stars
A coming of age story of black life in rural Kansas, seen through the eyes of Sandy, a black youth. The dialect was awesome and the story, touching. I highly recommend this book.
Exceptional
5 stars
A coming of age story of black life in rural Kansas, seen through the eyes of Sandy, a black youth. The dialect was awesome and the story, touching. I highly recommend this book.
September 23, 2023
أعلم ألّا حيّز في العالم لشيء سوى الحب. كل شيء سوى الحبّ ينهك روحك، والحبّ وحده كافٍ، يجب أن يكون هناك حيّز للجميع في قلبك، كبارًا وصغارًا، بيضًا وسودًا، وللأخيار منهم والأشرار، لأن الحبّ لا يدخل الأماكن المحصورة على الطيّبين دون الأشرار، عدا ذلك لا يكون حبًا.
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ممتعة
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ممتعة
June 10, 2015
This is the first time I have read anything by Langston Hughes. His words are very visceral, I was able to feel, smell, hear and sense everything that was being described on the pages. There was some cathartic release in how the book ended. While it's a short book with 218 pages, you are able to grow up with the main character, Sandy. You meet him when he's a little boy and the book ends when he's about 15-16 years of age. Its basically his life as a boy living with his grandmother, mother, father (occasionally) and on of his aunts. Each of these women have such different personalities, which I really appreciate. Its almost hard to believe that they are all from the same family. From the very religious hard-working grandmother Hader, and stand-offish and uppity Tempy, to Sandy's mother Annjee who seems to always be waiting for Sandy's father Jimboy (who you subsequently never hear from ever again), and then to Harriet the "wild child" who ends up being a strong woman for the tight-knit family. While reading the book you really feel for Sandy and Harriet the most (at least I did), because there were so many potentials for these characters. I was pleased with how Hughes ended things for these two characters. Overall, this was a nice read and I do recommend this to others.
July 4, 2016
So much better than much of what I read in school
I know we have gotten pc to the point that we are afraid to say or even explore anything risky. That is too bad. This book by Langston Hughes is as well written and relevant as Huck Finn by Mark Twain or The Raven by Poe. Why do we not expose our children to great writings from the Harlem Renaissance? This literature is as important and a whole lot better written than The Scarlett Letter we all suffered through. Are we so scared of reexaming our views that we can't revise our antiquated curriculum? Remember when it was written. Review your history. Then read this book for a better understanding of how people viewed Hope and discrimination in the past. You may be surprised.
I felt like I saw a piece of History through new eyes.
I know we have gotten pc to the point that we are afraid to say or even explore anything risky. That is too bad. This book by Langston Hughes is as well written and relevant as Huck Finn by Mark Twain or The Raven by Poe. Why do we not expose our children to great writings from the Harlem Renaissance? This literature is as important and a whole lot better written than The Scarlett Letter we all suffered through. Are we so scared of reexaming our views that we can't revise our antiquated curriculum? Remember when it was written. Review your history. Then read this book for a better understanding of how people viewed Hope and discrimination in the past. You may be surprised.
I felt like I saw a piece of History through new eyes.
Read
February 16, 2019Such a fine book! I had no idea Langston Hughes wrote novels. More soon.
May 17, 2020
I didn't know of the great Langston Hughes until I read about him last year at the American Writers Museum in Chicago. Sad, really. He is primarily known as an American poet. I'm not a big fan of poetry so I decided to try out his prose, and began looking for his novels at bookstores. Not Without Laughter is his first novel, and the first novel of his I found and read. Wow. I was blown away. This novel is absolutely fantastic, a masterpiece of storytelling in my opinion. I want to read everything he's written.
Published in 1930, Not Without Laughter is the coming of age story of Sandy Rogers, an African-American boy growing up in the fictional town of Stanton, Kansas, and covers about a ten-year period from about 1905 to 1915, ending when Sandy is 16 years-old. Sandy lives in a small town in what is considered the North, but as he grows from an innocent boy to a high schooler he discovers the ugly side of America as he learns about segregation, Jim Crow laws, and experiences subtle and outright hostile racism. Through his grandmother and other former slaves in the community he learns what life was like before emancipation and their perspectives of white people.
Sandy's family are strong secondary characters. He lives in his grandmother's house along with his mother and one of his aunts. Both his mother and grandmother work for wealthy white people. His father is seldom home, as he is always traveling the US, looking for work and playing his guitar. Another aunt married a rich man and has little contact with her family. His grandmother has seen it all and is Sandy's strongest influence, and instills in him racial pride. The novel is only 230 pages long but by the end I felt like I knew his family intimately. After I finished the novel, I went back and read the spoiler-filled introduction which notes that this novel is semi-autobiographical. How interesting.
Not only are the characters fleshed out, so are the settings. The thirty short chapters go by fast. Hughes' telling of Sandy's poignant tale and his look in to African American life in the early 20th century are done to perfection. I can't recommend this highly enough. Adding to my list of favorites.
Published in 1930, Not Without Laughter is the coming of age story of Sandy Rogers, an African-American boy growing up in the fictional town of Stanton, Kansas, and covers about a ten-year period from about 1905 to 1915, ending when Sandy is 16 years-old. Sandy lives in a small town in what is considered the North, but as he grows from an innocent boy to a high schooler he discovers the ugly side of America as he learns about segregation, Jim Crow laws, and experiences subtle and outright hostile racism. Through his grandmother and other former slaves in the community he learns what life was like before emancipation and their perspectives of white people.
Sandy's family are strong secondary characters. He lives in his grandmother's house along with his mother and one of his aunts. Both his mother and grandmother work for wealthy white people. His father is seldom home, as he is always traveling the US, looking for work and playing his guitar. Another aunt married a rich man and has little contact with her family. His grandmother has seen it all and is Sandy's strongest influence, and instills in him racial pride. The novel is only 230 pages long but by the end I felt like I knew his family intimately. After I finished the novel, I went back and read the spoiler-filled introduction which notes that this novel is semi-autobiographical. How interesting.
Not only are the characters fleshed out, so are the settings. The thirty short chapters go by fast. Hughes' telling of Sandy's poignant tale and his look in to African American life in the early 20th century are done to perfection. I can't recommend this highly enough. Adding to my list of favorites.
June 8, 2017
Before August Wilson, before Lorraine Hansberry and Ralph Ellison, before Richard Wright and even before Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes detailed the realistic lives, dialect, hopes, fears, and emotional concerns of African Americans in the twentieth century. This beautiful novel, long hidden away in the shadows - mainly because of the shadows of those previous authors as well as Hughes's own poetry, is a coming-of-age novel with several autobiographical elements. It takes place in small town in Kansas, and what astonishes the reader is the emotional journey of the protagonist, Sandy. One feels the boy grow up and slowly become aware of the self-awareness of an African-American within a larger American society. We see racism early on that he does not understand. We feel the pull of reality on the members of his family that was not typical of white families, literally the desperation to survive. Hughes is one of the best authors ever to incorporate the feeling and rhythm of jazz and blues within his writing and some of the best examples are here. More importantly, he comes to the realization that African American culture in music and dance, while beautiful for sure, also serves the ominous purpose of alleviating white American anxiety and guilt over their role in subverting black America. The novel prefigures the ending of Ellison's Invisible Man, although with a less strident and more hopeful ending, hence the title. And where Ellison at times preaches anger, Hughes merely shows rather than explains. An important work in the American fictional world.
July 17, 2020
Reading this after a book about James Baldwin and trying to survive as a black American in a white America that is hostile to your existence, I felt there were more than a few parallels. At its heart, this is a novel about where black Americans have been, where they are, where they want to go. Of course the thread that ties all these things together is that each aspiration is inextricably linked to how much white people are willing to let you have.
For some characters in this story like the older black woman Hager, education is vital. Without it, one has no chance. Giving in to despair about limited possibilities because of white people or even hating white people for it are not options. Hate in the end only hurts the person who hates.
“When you gets old, you knows they ain’t no sense in gettin’ mad an’ sourin’ yo’ soul with hatin’ peoples. White folks is white folks, an’ colored folks is colored, an’ neither one of ‘em is bad as t’other make out. For mighty nigh seventy years I been knowin’ both of ‘em, an’ I ain’t never had no room in ma heart to hate neither white nor colored. 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!”
“White peoples maybe mistreats you an’ hates you, but when you hates ‘em back, you’s de one what’s hurted, ‘cause hate makes yo’ heart ugly, that’s all it does. It closes up de sweet door to life an’ makes ever’thing small an’ mean an’ dirty. Honey, there ain’t no room in de world fo’ hate, white folks hatin’ niggers, an’ niggers hatin’ white folks. There ain’t no room in this world fo’ nothin’ but love, Sandy chile. That’s all they’s room fo’, nothin’ but love.”
Hager’s 17 year old daughter Harriet however, sees the world differently. In contrast to her mom, she does hate white people. She works at the white country club and recoils at the level of servitude required of her. She goes to school but is openly doubtful that it serves any purpose if her ceiling is to be a seamstress for some rich white woman. Dropping out of school and quitting her unsatisfying job seem like the only logical things to do. In contrast to her mother who lives for Jesus and the next life, Harriet lives to enjoy this one by dancing, partying, and staying out late with friends.
Harriet’s sister Tempy in contrast, refuses to socialize with what she considers low class blacks. Working her way up from a maid to a wealthy white woman and left some money by her when she died, Tempy believes trying to be white is the only true way to advancement in America. There is a striking scene where she returns home after the death of her mother. Hughes describes the feelings of the family upon her departure:
“When she had gone, everybody felt relieved as though a white person had left the house.”
Watching all this unfold is Hager’s young grandson Sandy. Sandy’s dad disappears for months at a time and only comes back when he runs out of money. Sandy’s mom lives for his letters and his eventual return trips home while telling herself that he isn’t out gambling or chasing other women.
As we watch Sandy watching these characters choose two distinctly different life paths, we cannot help but wonder which one he will choose as he grows up. Will he emulate his father and aunt Harriet? His other aunt Tempy? Or will he follow the life of his grandmother Hager?
Looking at these characters, Hughes asks his readers to ponder what their options are as black men and women in America.
Is it to assimilate into white society as much as possible?
To reject white society and just live for the moment?
Work yourself to the bone and hope for a better life in heaven?
Perhaps rather than simply these stark choices, Hughes would like us to be able to see that one’s life is what one makes of it. Yes if you are black, you will find white people in the way of your dreams. Spiritually, economically, often physically and at the risk of your life.
Hughes never denies the oppression that exists for black people in America. However just as white people do not make up a monolithic block, neither do black people.
One subtle but beautiful way Hughes illustrates this I believe is in his numerous adjectives describing different characters skin tone. I lost count eventually but compiled a list of some of the more striking ones throughout the story. Among them are:
Tan, brown, coal black, clay colored, patent leather black, smooth black, sealskin brown, chocolate to the bone, creamy gold, lemon yellow, mahogany brown, dark brown, yellow high-brown, paste-colored, dry chocolate, damp chocolate, ebony black, black as ink, autumn leaf brown, old ivory, sulfurous yellow, Indian brown, maple sugar brown…..
Just as surely as skin color is diverse, so too our are aspirations.
While this book is heartbreaking at times, it is ultimately hopeful and a testament to not allowing obstacles, no matter how significant they may be, interfere with your ability to find joy in your life.
July 27, 2023
Most excellent classic! A must read for all!
May 29, 2024
It’s a hard read, but a good one. Langston Hughes deserves all the praises he has received and then some. He captures moments in time that are so real in its fiction I was captivated, devastated, and enthralled.
January 29, 2025
I audiobooked the second half, which made it much more enjoyable. The beginning of the book dragged a bit, but as sandy matured it became much more interesting, as we began to unravel the harsh truth of his reality, along with him
June 12, 2020
As I began reading this I was reminded of Bernice McFadden's The Book of Harlan, another story of a young man in part inspired by her grandfather, here it's semi autobiographical, as Hughes writes of a boy named Sandy, like himself and like Harlan, raised by a grad other who is more worldly and wise, women with ideas about raising grandsons to reach their better potential, while their daughters are off following their husband(s) who like the road and move from place to place.
Aunt Hager as they affectionately call her, is a great character and the one who truly formed Sandy into the quiet, highly observant child and teenager he becomes, a hardworking washerwoman who is always there for those who are ailing, and who worked every day of her life.
We follow Sandy through his opportunities and disappointments, his observations of how his people are treated and the strangeness of those who try to be what they aren't, moving up in a world that makes some of them ashamed of their humble beginnings and the humble trying to be good, but not allowing themselves to have fun in case it corrupts them.
It's a heartfelt story that leaves a sense of recreational as the last page is turned, when Sandy is deciding whether to leave school as suggested by his mother, to support her, or return to his studies as suggested by his Aunt, who like her mother wishes him to have that chance at bettering himself.
His observations of family dynamics, of the impact of race, of community connection, of the culture of music and the complications of young love are portrayed vividly, without judgement, leaving it to the reader to note the obvious.
Ultimately the title says it all, the way to cope, the example he admires, the man who finds something in his day to laugh about or someone to laugh with, finds joy right there.
Aunt Hager as they affectionately call her, is a great character and the one who truly formed Sandy into the quiet, highly observant child and teenager he becomes, a hardworking washerwoman who is always there for those who are ailing, and who worked every day of her life.
We follow Sandy through his opportunities and disappointments, his observations of how his people are treated and the strangeness of those who try to be what they aren't, moving up in a world that makes some of them ashamed of their humble beginnings and the humble trying to be good, but not allowing themselves to have fun in case it corrupts them.
It's a heartfelt story that leaves a sense of recreational as the last page is turned, when Sandy is deciding whether to leave school as suggested by his mother, to support her, or return to his studies as suggested by his Aunt, who like her mother wishes him to have that chance at bettering himself.
His observations of family dynamics, of the impact of race, of community connection, of the culture of music and the complications of young love are portrayed vividly, without judgement, leaving it to the reader to note the obvious.
Ultimately the title says it all, the way to cope, the example he admires, the man who finds something in his day to laugh about or someone to laugh with, finds joy right there.
August 6, 2016
Good story telling, I could hear the characters.
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