Scan barcode
psalmcat's review against another edition
5.0
I don't think I even realized Hughes wrote anything besides poetry. I had no idea how itinerant he was, either. This was a revelation to me on many levels.
The main reason I picked it up was Ian mentioning that Hughes traveled around Tashkent/Samarkand in the 1930s (what was then, and when I was there in the 1980s, Soviet Central Asia). He didn't only travel around there: he lived in Moscow for awhile, also Mexico--he spoke fluent Spanish!--France, Carmel-by-the-Sea (California), and visited Spain for several months during the war there.
Staying with Central Asia for a moment, I really had to stop and think about all the changes that came about in the 50 years between his visit and mine. Those years forcibly brought a very 'backward' area of the world up to the 20th century in a very quick manner. I suspect the last 15 has perhaps meant quite a lot of backward movement, but the descriptions of the people, the mores, the practical problems of the area struck home.
His time in Spain was similarly poignant. Even at the time, he seemed to see that the war in Spain was just a tryout for the Big War coming up next. The machinery of war, that financed by Germany anyway, changed regularly, where the defense had to make do with the same options. It's no surprise that Franco won, really. One incisive comment I remember clearly is how people fighting against Franco were primarily NOT communists. In fact, he says, he saw almost no Russians during the entire time he was there.
There is a longish bit about traveling in the South reciting poetry to black audiences, bringing them face-to-face with the possibility of change. This was during the Scottsboro Trial, where everyone in the South--blacks and whites--knew the men on trial were innocent. Most people elsewhere knew so too. And yet... Yes, and yet. Hughes' observations on racial issues are primarily dry asides in the face of outrageous unfairness. Perhaps this is why he travelled so much; he had fewer problems and was treated more like a human everywhere he went outside the United States.
This is also, of course, a first-rate travelogue complete with fleas, starvation, fine food, political tightrope-walking, weird sexual practices, and lots of long, boring train trips. Some things haven't changed at all.
The main reason I picked it up was Ian mentioning that Hughes traveled around Tashkent/Samarkand in the 1930s (what was then, and when I was there in the 1980s, Soviet Central Asia). He didn't only travel around there: he lived in Moscow for awhile, also Mexico--he spoke fluent Spanish!--France, Carmel-by-the-Sea (California), and visited Spain for several months during the war there.
Staying with Central Asia for a moment, I really had to stop and think about all the changes that came about in the 50 years between his visit and mine. Those years forcibly brought a very 'backward' area of the world up to the 20th century in a very quick manner. I suspect the last 15 has perhaps meant quite a lot of backward movement, but the descriptions of the people, the mores, the practical problems of the area struck home.
His time in Spain was similarly poignant. Even at the time, he seemed to see that the war in Spain was just a tryout for the Big War coming up next. The machinery of war, that financed by Germany anyway, changed regularly, where the defense had to make do with the same options. It's no surprise that Franco won, really. One incisive comment I remember clearly is how people fighting against Franco were primarily NOT communists. In fact, he says, he saw almost no Russians during the entire time he was there.
There is a longish bit about traveling in the South reciting poetry to black audiences, bringing them face-to-face with the possibility of change. This was during the Scottsboro Trial, where everyone in the South--blacks and whites--knew the men on trial were innocent. Most people elsewhere knew so too. And yet... Yes, and yet. Hughes' observations on racial issues are primarily dry asides in the face of outrageous unfairness. Perhaps this is why he travelled so much; he had fewer problems and was treated more like a human everywhere he went outside the United States.
This is also, of course, a first-rate travelogue complete with fleas, starvation, fine food, political tightrope-walking, weird sexual practices, and lots of long, boring train trips. Some things haven't changed at all.
I, too, sing America.Many things haven't changed. Hughes' writing stands the test of time. The man simply knew how to put a picture on paper with words, whether poetic or prose.
I am the darker brother.
They send me
To eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
and eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow
I'll sit at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see
How beautiful I am
And be ashamed.
I, too, am America.
anothergreatetc's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
3.75
meganzc's review against another edition
5.0
Wonderful.
I probably picked this book up because of my own wandering and wondering tendencies. I'd never heard of it or considered reading it until I found it on the "new arrivals" shelf in the audio book section of the library. I'd never read more than a few poems by Langston Hughes. I had no idea what to expect.
Since then, I have fallen in love. Langston Hughes is thoughtful and observant, endlessly good-humored and kind. He describes his life as he lives and travels in the Jim Crow south, to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, to Stalinist Russia including central Asia and Siberia, to China and Japan (just as Japan was invading China), to Mexico, and to revolutionary Spain. In the process, he meets and befriends dozens of recognizable names including Alfred Koestler, Ernest Hemingway, Diego Rivera, and so on and so forth.
The stories are sometimes funny, sometimes shocking, sometimes heart-wrenching, but always thought-provoking. I feel so lucky to have picked up this gem on a lark. I can't wait to read more of Hughes work.
I probably picked this book up because of my own wandering and wondering tendencies. I'd never heard of it or considered reading it until I found it on the "new arrivals" shelf in the audio book section of the library. I'd never read more than a few poems by Langston Hughes. I had no idea what to expect.
Since then, I have fallen in love. Langston Hughes is thoughtful and observant, endlessly good-humored and kind. He describes his life as he lives and travels in the Jim Crow south, to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, to Stalinist Russia including central Asia and Siberia, to China and Japan (just as Japan was invading China), to Mexico, and to revolutionary Spain. In the process, he meets and befriends dozens of recognizable names including Alfred Koestler, Ernest Hemingway, Diego Rivera, and so on and so forth.
The stories are sometimes funny, sometimes shocking, sometimes heart-wrenching, but always thought-provoking. I feel so lucky to have picked up this gem on a lark. I can't wait to read more of Hughes work.
chaoticmissadventures's review against another edition
4.0
So incredibly interesting. Hughes had some major adventures, and thoughtful take aways about race, politics, and people. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of this book.
He writing is much more matter of fact then I had thought it would be (this is my first Hughes book). It is not floral, or filled with prose, but it is funny, and straightforward. The story was paced well, and never dull.
He writing is much more matter of fact then I had thought it would be (this is my first Hughes book). It is not floral, or filled with prose, but it is funny, and straightforward. The story was paced well, and never dull.
sujata's review against another edition
5.0
I read this as an audio book soon after listening to his first autobiography The Big Sea and found it just as engaging. Hughes has a curiosity about the wider world that I share and I like hearing his thoughts and experiences as a black man around the world. I'm not a poetry fan in general but reading his two autobiographies has I think given me an insight into him that I hope will allow me to enjoy his poetry and other works as well. I highly recommend this as well as the first one too.
blkmymorris's review
5.0
I read this in high school and it inspired me. The beauty of the words and people have always encouraged me.
More...