Paperback Edition
ISBN: 9781936932979
Publication Date: 11-10-2020

Foreword by Morgan Jerkins
Afterword by Adelaide Cromwell

The first novel by Dorothy West—author of The Wedding and the youngest writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance—was one of only a handful to be published by black women during the 1940s. The Living Is Easy tells the story of Cleo Judson, daughter of Southern sharecroppers, determined to integrate into Boston's black elite. Married to the "Black Banana King" Bart Judson, Cleo maneuvers her three sisters and their children—but not their husbands—into living with her, attempting to recreate her original family in a Bostonian mansion.

Written in elegant and piercing prose, The Living Is Easy is a classic of American literature by a groundbreaking African American woman writer whose work deserves widespread and enduring recognition.

"[A] powerful work." —Essence

"Skillful prose and unmitigated societal critique will keep readers engaged to the end. West’s essential classic continues to endure." —Publishers Weekly

"Concerned with the magical qualities of black girlhood . . .The Living Is Easy focuses on the special role of the mother in childhood fantasies. . . . Cleo Jericho Judson is a grown woman when we first meet her . . . but it is the incomplete relationship with her long-dead mother that still drives her." —Village Voice

"The important thing about the book is its abundance and special woman's energy and beat. The beat is a deep one, and it often makes a man's seem puny." —The New York Times

“The living here—for West's characters, the Black community, herself—is hardly easy, but their ‘wildness’ continues to provoke, embolden and inspire.” —Shelf Awareness

"[Dorothy West] is a brisk storyteller with an eye for ironical detail . . . [and] a deft stylist and writer of social satire." —Ms. magazine

“This novel, while originally published in 1948, is a relevant piece for some of our current dialogue. Cleo is a product of a racist society, and her story is a challenge for us to understand our own shortcomings, privileges, and interactions with the world. Dorothy West paints a vivid portrait of an unforgettable antihero.”—Independent Book Review