Not Without Laughter Book

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.