One of only a handful of novels published by black women during the 1940s, The Living is Easy tells the story of Cleo Judson, daughter of southern sharecroppers, who wants to become a member of Boston's early twentieth-century elite. Married to the "black banana king," she manipulates her three sisters into living with her, along with their children--but not their husbands--in an attempt to recreate her original family.

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