Not Without Laughter

Not Without Laughter is a novel by American writer Langston Hughes, first published in 1930.

Set in a small town in Kansas during the early twentieth century, the novel follows the childhood and adolescence of Sandy Rogers, a young African American boy growing up in a working-class family. Through his experiences, Hughes portrays the everyday joys, hardships, and tensions that shape Sandy's understanding of the world around him.

Sandy is raised largely by his grandmother while his mother works away from home and his father struggles to find stability. As he grows older, he encounters poverty, racial discrimination, religion, music, and conflicting ideas about respectability and freedom. The different members of his family offer him contrasting examples of how to survive and find dignity in a society marked by inequality.

Drawing on elements of Hughes's own childhood, Not Without Laughter presents a vivid portrait of African American family and community life while exploring identity, race, class, and the search for a better future. Despite the difficulties faced by its characters, the novel also emphasizes humor, affection, music, and resilience.

"Aunt Hager Williams stood in her doorway and looked out at the sun. The western sky was a sulphurous yellow and the sun a red ball dropping slowly behind the trees and housetops. Its setting left the rest of the heavens grey with clouds."