I love Langston Hughes...and I love this book. If you want books that you can refer to again and again for a refreshing insight into an Everyman for black Americans, this is it. Set in Harlem in the 40's? I laughed, I was sorrowful, and thoroughly entertained. ALSO read Simple Speaks His Mind. These stories were first composed for a weekly column in the Chicago Defender and then collected in Simple Speaks His Mind. One of my all-time favorites.