Maya Angelou wrote of Not Without Laughter: "This book was written when preachers had to be poets and poets were preachers, because they needed to be available to all the people all the time." The messages this novel gives are not subtle. But, through its varied perspectives and eloquently written prose, it envelops the issues it preaches with emotionally edifying ideas. It leaves the reader with a feeling of deep connection to all the characters, particularly the beautiful Sandy in whom we invest our hope and trust to fulfil his potential to become a good, intelligent and strong man who does not feel limited by his racial heritage despite any restrictions society may attempt to place for him. Although it may be a shame that Hughes never wrote another novel as he aptly demonstrated his skill in this one, Not Without Laughter stands as shining work be a skilled artist.

"Not Without Laughter" is the only novel by the author. Written in 1930 it tells the story of a young black child called Sandy born into poverty in a small Kansas town. Worlds collide, the older members of the close knit community represented in the first half of the book still remember the time of slavery, whilst the younger members struggle to find their place in a society free from slavery but shackled by poverty. Throughout the novel Sandy struggles to find a way of escaping poverty and dead end, repetative jobs, without turning his back on his race, and without losing his sense of identity.

It is capitalism that brought his race to America, and capitalism that kept his race in servitude long after the abolition of slavery. Yet it is capitalism that Sandy must embrace if he is to rise from poverty and gain the respect that his obvious intelligence deserves. How does Sandy do this without becoming cruel in the image of the economic system that he and his forebears have suffered at?

Omnipresent in this melee of big serious questions is Hughes' trademark empathy with people. It is a novel full of life, with music, religion, alcohol, sex, fighting and, of course, always in the background is laughter. There seems to be a suggestion that life is at its most colourful and vivacious when it is hard. The characters, although architypes, often used as pegs upon which to hang a particular point of view, are never the less made to seem alive by the author and they live fondly in the memory long after the book has been read.

As you would expect from a poet there is a real rhythm in the language of the book, and many powerful, sometimes beautiful, sometimes disturbing images. Each chapter seems closed off like a narrative poem in itself. The one critisism I would make of the novel is that it seems to speed up chronologically in the second half of the book in a way that is not in tune with the first. Sandy's world as a boy is lavishly created through a number of strong characters and brilliant set pieces that make up the early chapters, but then it is almost as if the author tires of the writing process, the density of incident becomes more sparse and the years seem to roll by too quickly. Indeed it is said that Hughes wrote the novel in two flurries of activity, the second it seems was with the express purpose of getting it finished.

What is most refreshing about this book is that whilst the subject matter would seem to justify it being a novel all about hate and recrimination, it is in fact love and and hope that is the prevalent feeling of the book. This shows a magnanimity of spirit, the willingness to give up what is rightfully yours in preference to a higher ideal. As Maya Angelou writes in the introduction of this edition, "Acutely timely and painfully urgent...this reprint has come on time."