No Crystal Stair - Wikipedia No Crystal Stair For other uses, see Lewis H. Michaux. This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( December 2009 ) No Crystal Stair is a novel, published in 1997, by Canadian author Mairuth Sarsfield. No Crystal Stair was one of the selected novels in the 2005 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by Olympic fencer Sherraine MacKay. The title is a reference to the line `` Life for me ai n't been no crystal stair '' Langston Hughes 's poem `` Mother to Son. '' Contents 1 Plot introduction 2 Plot summary 3 Major themes 3.1 See also Plot introduction No Crystal Stair is a coming - of - age story set in the Little Burgundy district of Montreal during the 1940s. Plot summary Widow Marion Willow works at two jobs to raise her three daughters properly. Fighting racism and sexism, Marion schools her girls in manners, English poetry and the need for an education ; her elegant neighbour and rival ( both women are in love with railway porter Edmund Thompson ) teaches the children the ways of the street and their black cultural heritage. Major themes Two themes in the novel run through No Crystal Stair : passing as white and surviving as black. Sarsfield recounts a story about the desire to survive, all the while depicting the cosmopolitan Montreal of the 1940s, a city inhabited by jazz musicians, socialites, artists and gangsters. See also No Crystal Stair by Eva Rutland MIRA Publishing, 2000 No Crystal Stair, by Eva Rutland This article about a historical novel of the 1990s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. See guidelines for writing about novels. Further suggestions might be found on the article 's talk page. This article about a Canadian novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. See guidelines for writing about novels. Further suggestions might be found on the article 's talk page. Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=No_Crystal_Stair&oldid=799289620 '' Categories : 1997 Canadian novels Canadian historical novels Novels set in Montreal Black Canadian literature Novels set in the 1940s 1990s historical novel stubs Canadian novel stubs Hidden categories : Articles lacking sources from December 2009 All articles lacking sources All stub articles Talk Contents About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 6 September 2017, at 20 : 15. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: what is the meaning of no crystal stair
Answer: a reference to the line "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair" Langston Hughes's poem "Mother to Son."