When Dorothy West's first novel,
The Living Is Easy, was published in 1948, the United States was emerging from the war years and was still haunted by the collapse of its economy in the 1930s. During these decades, black writers were encouraged by publishers to move away from questions of social justice, even though the period saw persistent racialized social unrest. Prevailing social policies in the United States and its publishing industry during the 1940s emphasized an ideology which Philip Butcher, in a 1948 review of West's novel in
Opportunitymagazine, referred to as “raceless writers”. Dorothy West's title for her novel,
The Living Is Easy, suggests that she was aware of this optimistic mood, even as in her novel she ironically undercuts such winsomeness. The race and…
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Citation: Jimoh, A Yemisi. "The Living is Easy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 January 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=310, accessed 24 November 2024.]
