James

I can see why this is earning so many accolades. I recommend this action-packed book highly, but of course, be aware that some of the content is grim — as you would expect. I'm looking forward to my book club discussion ... with a few chapters of Huckleberry Finn to our study. I both listened to and read this novel. That was helpful because I felt vulnerable just listening. To be honest, I looked ahead for some of the storylines in the physical book.

Summary: A retelling of Huck Finn from Jim's viewpoint.

While I have read some of Mark Twain's books, I have never read Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer. Almost all of my background for the story of Huck Finn is from the 1968-69 live action and animation series, "The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." The show used three live action characters who played Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher, but was otherwise entirely animated. You can see an example here. My memory is pretty vague, but I remember it being almost entirely fantasy. The children found magical creatures as they took a raft down the Mississippi. That was poor preparation for reading James, a retelling of Huck Finn through the perspective of Jim.

My perception prior to reading was that Jim was a slave about the same age as Huck Finn, but once I was a little way into the book I check and the original book had Jim/James in his late 20s. The story keeps to the outline of Huck Finn. Jim runs away to keep from being sold away from his wife and daughter. While at the same time and unrelated, Huck Finn fakes his death to get away from his abusive and alcoholic father.

Jim and Huck Finn find one another while they are both hiding out on an island in the Mississippi River. Jim realizes that he will be blamed for Huck's death, and at the same time knows that Huck is too young to care for himself and so takes Huck under his care as they try to get away. The book starts out in Hannibal, IL. I had previously assumed Hannibal, MO was further south, but it is 100 miles due west of Springfield IL. Missouri was a slave state and while it would have taken longer to get to than today, Springfield was where Abraham Lincoln was based prior to his election as president. The vague initial plan was to take the Mississippi River south to the Ohio River (about 200 miles) and escape to freedom.

Huck Finn was written as a satire but also a children's book. It seems it was mostly told as a series of adventures and Percival Everett in writing this retelling has to fit this new story within the constraints of the old. Huck and Jim spend a lot of time apart in the original which allows for a variety of new elements.

I did spend a little time reading through Huck Finn summaries to make sure I wasn't missing anything too important, but I do not think that you need to read Huck Finn First. The ending of James seems to deviate from Huck Finn pretty significantly.

Huck Finn was at least partially satire, but the overt racism that was part of the satire means that I many people no longer read Huck Finn. And it is why I haven't read it. I am not sure I would have read James if so many people I know had not recommended it. Telling the story from the perspective of a slave, who was continually afraid for himself and his family and who had experienced the beatings and abuse of slavery makes this very different in tone from what I think Twain was doing.

But there is still humor. When alone, the enslaved characters talk without dialect and reveal how much they keep themselves hidden from white people. Jim can read and write and his attempt to get the materials to write his story is a significant part of the plot development. There is a tension between remaining enslaved and alive and the risk of seeking freedom while risking death. That tension also carries throughout the book and shifts over time. Jim's hand is forced. He wouldn't run away if he had not found out that he was supposed to be sold down the river to New Orleans. And he wouldn't have run as he did, if he hadn't known that he would be lynched for killing Huck. And throughout the story, one event after another continue to force Jim's hand to take greater and greater risks because he knows he really has no choice.

I understand why James has become such a popular book. There are aspects that I didn't love, but I think many of them are about the constraints of the retelling method. I generally really like books that are retold from a different perspective. James was well written and realistic. At the same time, part of why this has mattered is the contemporary culture it is being written to.

This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/james-a-novel-by-percival-everett/

The adventures of huckleberry fin is an interesting book because it displays a grim, dystopian society through the bubblegum-shaded glasses of boyish fun. In that way, it’s a very important insight into the collective American psyche.

This book is so much better than that. I would say that the first third or so follows the huckleberry fin plot told through Jim’s perspective, and where it branches off is much more interesting, sad, real. The story holds a mirror up to the ugliest, most vile realities of American slavery. Everett consistently created devices for reflection on the nature of identity, language, double consciousness, and many other philosophical concepts throughout the book. When he does so, it is usually through the incredibly insightful titular character’s musings as he tumbles through his odyssey. I particularly loved Jim/Jame’s (towards the end we see him lean into James more intentionally) dream conversations with different Enlightenment philosophers.

There was a lot of violence, racism, sexual violence, slurs, and terrible things said and done throughout the book, which can be really difficult to hear/read (audiobook version was still a really good way to experience this story, but it’s very visceral and a little nauseating at times for its portrayal of deeply brutal historical realities).

Beautifully written re-imagination of the Huck Finn story. The character arc of Jim becoming James is intriguing and empowering. The interplay between "wrong" and "right" and justice is captivating. A very quick read, which was good because I didn't want to put it down anyways.

Mooi verhaal, hoewel erg pc.

An intense and emotional journey, should probably be read by every high school student in the country if we had any sense. An examination of what it means to seek identity and also have that identity stripped from you at every opportunity. James is the kind of literary hero we need.

oof

Passionnant, jubilatoire et accessible.
J'ai adoré les personnages.
C'est une aventure haletante que j'ai dévorée !

Thought provoking and innovative! I think the twist at the end left me with some pause, but overall-- An incredible piece on resiliency and the power of code-switching.

Excellent!

The character of Jim in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has deserved a book of his own since the original was written, and I'm glad Percival Everett was the one to write it. This retelling sticks closely to the events of TAHF for the first half of the book, and then diverges for a different storyline that gives James a more active role in what happens to him. That's fine with me. I want a retelling to add something new to the story I already know, and the story Everett tells allows James to reveal more of himself than he would if he were sitting chained up in a cabin trying to keep his temper with Tom Sawyer.

The changed storyline also allows for some pointed conversations between Huck and James about fatherhood, friendship, slavery, and what it means to be a Black person in the US at the time the story takes place (and by extension, today). Having re-read TAHF in preparation for reading this book, I'm so glad this book was written. The relationship between James and Huck needed explication, as James needed character development, and this book provides it in a very moving way.

A retelling of Huckleberry Finn, but from the POV of Huck’s companion, a slave named Jim (or as he calls himself, James).

In the original book Jim is portrayed as a bit slow, and speaks a very grammatically incorrect dialect of English (whether it’s typical or stereotypical I’m not sure). But the twist is that James chooses to play up this slave stereotype in front of white people, while secretly knowing how to read and speaks “correct” English when with his family and fellow slaves.

I hadn’t actually read Huckleberry Finn, so I got the general plot overview from Wikipedia. The book seems to hit all the major plot points, diverging to tell James’s imagined story when the pair get separated. It’s still very readable even without that added context, although I wonder if it would be more impactful having been able to read how Huck sees Jim first, before the real James.

This was so good - gonna go read Huck Finn now.

Every once in a while, I only need to read a few pages of a novel to know that I am in the presence of narrative magic. “James” was one such book for me: full of heart without becoming maudlin, sly & ironic without seeming obvious, brutally perceptive about race, language, power, and complicity.

well dang!!!!

I started Erasure and Dr. No a few days after finishing James. Trees is waiting on my shelf. Believe that James struck me. It did. But James may as well be called Erasure 2 for all that Everett presents James like trussed up veal to be guiltily picked over.

The juxtaposition of old language, slave dialect AND present phraseology works really well to modernize a classic tale while still exploring the significance and magnitutde of slavery. Add in the alternate pespective and slightly different versions of, or story arcs for, historic characters and you get something that can be read on its own without any knowledge of the orginal tale that it is spun out of/off of. The heavy dialogue also gives the adventure a quick pace and the author's smooth, ever-flowing writing is as effective as it was in his last work - be it that this is an apple to Dr No's orange.

I listened to this one on the advice of my local independent bookseller and I'm so glad I did. The narration was superb! Don't be put off by the first chapter as I was... I started and thought I'd never go back to it. The story is not all poetry and song lyrics. It is beautifully crafted. Huck Finn from the voice of Jim is a great listen!

James is a wonderful new take on Huckleberry Finn. Jim is enslaved, and he learns that he is to be sold. He hides on a nearby island while he can formulate a plan, and his friend, Huck, joins him.

Jim and Huck have many adventures, including a flood, trying to con two con artists, and more. This book gives readers both a new look at Jim as well as a new look at the horrors of enslavement.

Wow.

My prediction: next year's National Book Award winner or the Pulitzer. Yes, it's that good.

Begins as an inverse of Huckleberry Finn. Funny at times yet endearing, Huck and Jim's friendship shines through. By Part 3, the story morphs into a revenge fever dream, horrific yet believable. James's vengeance feels true and just. A remarkable novel that is very readable, engaging, thought-provoking, and-most of all-fun to read.

What an instant iconic book. Everything from the deeper and complex character construction, to expanding the literary world in which its based. This may be based on our past but so eerily familiar of our present. This book itself defies itself from any perception.

Even as someone who hasn't read Huckleberry Finn in a long time - you don't need to - to understand that this book is the ultimate companion and must read.

“With my pencil, I wrote myself into being. I wrote myself to here.”

The first third alternated between annoying and compelling. Then something flipped inside me: the more farfetched the story became, the more immersed I got in it and the more I came to love it. I think it’s because my expectations weren’t well suited to the book: although the content is harsh and sobering, the presentation is more yarn than epic. Everett was channeling Twain. With the right expectations I think you, too, will love this.

100% deserving of all the buzz and the awards it will undoubtedly receive this year.