Something in Common, and Other Stories

by Langston Hughes

Softcover.

236 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Through 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...

Reviews

[Surly Gliffs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many of the stories in this collection are brief psychological sketches, not more than a few pages: tiny intricate woodcuts, not vast oil paintings. They're populated by strivers, hustlers, and crooks. Hughes doesn't try to sugarcoat their sins, yet brings remarkable warmth and compassion to their stories, inviting us to find "something in common." (Too bad Goodreads doesn't capture the cover of my edition, a scrawl of black and white circles overlapping like so many sloppy Venn diagrams.)

There's drama (the courage in "Father and Son"); satire (the cowardice, played for wry humor, in "Trouble with the Angels"); high romance (the rollicking adventures in "Mysterious Madame Shanghai"); and even humor ("Tain't So"). But everything's compulsively readable and, dare I say it, entertaining.

Taken together, the stories provide a landscape of black American life and race relations from the Depression through the post-war era. So little of mainstream American history seems to notice the currents of Jim Crow and the Great Migration, and I fear that without stories from Hughes (or his spiritual successor James Baldwin) this history will be forgotten. An essential historical document; highly recommended.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't know Langston Hughes wrote short stories until I found this collection in a used bookstore. I am so glad I picked it up. I know it's a book of fiction, but I found it informative in sort of a historical/emotional way. In the past few years, I've been thinking a lot about racism in America, and these stories gave me a new perspective on the depth and variety of racism Hughes and his contemporaries encountered.

[Cait]

Haven't read the entire collection. Just wanted somewhere to store my thoughts on the delightful and wryly funny "Blessed Assurance," told from the perspective of a father who can’t stomach the idea of his son as "a queer." If anyone is interested in reading it and is struggling to find it, please do let me know.

[Lavinia Curletta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting snapshots of life from the black perspective during the Depression years. Through our empathy, Hughes is encouraging readers to see our commonalities in the strengths and weaknesses of the characters. I've loved Hughes poetry for years, and I didn't know he wrote short stories. Glad to find these.

[Abby Rosenbaum · Rating 5 out of 5]

First time reading Langston Hughes since high school…loved it then, love it now.

[Tessa in Mid-Michigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short stories, some so short they barely start before they're over! And I loved almost all of them. The last one I read was one of my favorites--Big Meeting. It brings back memories of revivals and meetings of my childhood. Glad, so glad, to belong to a church that still sings some of these songs, along with the brand new ones. Love to see people "getting happy." Not to mention blessed. Here's my library website review:

Tessa’s Famous Author Recommendation: Langston Hughes

Short stories and poetry are both pretty alien to me, outside of my college years, since it is rare for me to like them. Knowing that there are exceptions to any generality, I occasionally take a quick look at something passing across my desk. Last month I withdrew a worn-out collection of Langston Hughes’ short stories, but I kept the book back to peruse for a while. When we studied poetry in class, I remember his were ones that I actually understood and enjoyed--same with his stories.

Some of his stories are only a page or two, just a quick glimpse of someone’s life or a quick joke at a poor jealous creature’s expense. Others are longer and much more painful. But each one is warm with the love, the spite, the foolishness, and the liveliness which is the human experience.

We have several different editions and collections of Hughes’ works, but here are a few stories I recommend you try, to get you started. Heaven to Hell is a super-short comment on the agony buried in stormy relationships. Who’s passing for Who is a hilarious commentary on race and skin color, timeless, though set during the Harlem Renaissance. Mysterious Madame Shanghai is for the dreamers among us—Mrs. Dyer, the landlady, is a recurring character in several stories, this one included. Her inquisitive, gossipy nature reminds me of so many people I’ve known (even myself sometimes, I confess). Hughes’ portrayal of her unpredictable flashes of kindness is spot on.

Hughes’ insight into human nature and the awful problems of our society (during his years as well as now) is phenomenal. He is able not only to see clearly, but to describe them so that we understand and empathize. I loved almost every story and I wholeheartedly recommend his stories. ~ Tessa Eger November 2014


“There ain’t no back to a merry-go-round.”