James (Pulitzer Prize Winner): A Novel Hardcover – March 19, 2024

I loved this book. A retelling of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through the eyes of Jim, the runaway slave. JAMES was at turns funny, poignant, tragic, and turning (later in the novel) VERY dark. Themes relating to language and identity are presented almost immediately and carried throughout the novel, both in terms of dialect, “secret language”, and depth of communication. The book starts out with scenes right out of Mark Twain’s classic, of Huck and Tom playing games on Jim, and Jim putting up with it, and soon Huck and Jim are fleeing down the Mississippi River. But quickly, Huck becomes a smaller and smaller background role, and Jim the guiding force, and for much of the story we learn what happened to Jim while they were separated. The author does not stay true to canon, and there were a couple plot twists I was not thrilled with, although I can understand the rational for them, relating to family engagements and redemption. What starts off sweet and silly turns violent and vengeful. But this was an engaging, rich story overall, and I enjoyed the journey—this latest chapter—in these characters’ lives! Five out of Five stars

Percival Everett reimagines—no, inverts-- the classic saga of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that resides in every American’s consciousness. Huck Finn and enslaved Jim’s adventures have been in print for 140 years. If you didn’t read it in American schools, you’ve likely still been affected by its content. Everett reappropriates that story, turns it upside down and inside out, and leans formidably forward by making this a story and POV of Jim, with Huck at his side.I am in awe and in thorough admiration of Percival Everett’s skills and fierce talent. My personal favorites, The Trees (shortlisted for Booker in 2022), and Telephone (a finalist for the Pulitzer in 2021) combine laconic protagonists, subversive wit, and tragic events. In James, he has made Twain’s classic his own historical fiction, and I applaud it as the contemporary bookend of Twain’s classic. He improves upon it by giving Jim agency. I predict that they will be teaching both books side by side in the coming years.“White folks expect us to sound a certain way and it can only help if we don’t disappoint them…The only ones who suffer when they are made to feel inferior is us.” This is Jim, teaching his daughter and other enslaved children a lesson in coded speech. Although they speak eloquently amongst themselves, they communicate submissively to the white folks, which enhances their survival in a world where they are nothing but chattel. It also illuminates their intelligence as they hide (linguistically) in broad daylight from their ignorant “massas.”Additionally, the enslaved people pretend that God and Jesus are primary in their lives, when in actuality, as Jim states, regarding white folks, “religion is just a controlling tool they employ and adhere to when convenient.” If there really was a God and a Jesus, why would they allow white people to enslave Black people? Is this the kind of world that any God intended?As in Twain’s original, Jim and Huck run off together from Hannibal, Missouri and ride the Mississippi River, beginning in a raft. The main plotline of the original text is captured, but comically and dramatically turned on its head. Jim leads a double life—one that he owns, and one that meets white people’s expectations. In fact, there are those that are more threatened by a Black man with eloquence than they are by a Black man with a pistol.Intelligence is Jim’s stunning subterfuge. He has a rich interior life, and in dreams, he debates slavery and philosophy with the likes of Voltaire, Rousseau, and John Locke. As an autodidact who enriched himself in Judge Thatcher’s library, Jim spends stealth nights in there poring over the judge’s books. His quick wit, thoughtful compassion, and deep humanity also become his ammunition in a hostile world.As the plot progresses, Jim and Huck grow closer, and more revelations are gradually disclosed. The major twist is foreshadowed early on, so it doesn’t come out of nowhere, and it changes the complexion of the story. As others have already noted, this is the novel that Everett was born to write. In his hands, his heart.

I'm unsure if there is anything I can say about this book that hasn't been said before. James has been touted as " a brilliant, action-packed re-imagining of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn..." but I believe it is more than that. James may start as a retelling of Huck's story. However, it soon becomes Jim's story. Through Jim's perspective, the reader sees the inhumane acts that slavery subjects him to. Through prose, Percival Everett expressed some deep thoughts about racism in the South.Some scenes were extremely graphic and made me cringe. Others made me ashamed to be white! Yet, I could not put this book down. I was captivated by Jim's determination to read e-unite his family. It was action-packed and emotionally intense.James is a novel that deserves the hype. It may require you to step out of your everyday genre. James may challenge your way of thinking. But you will be glad you experienced this.

"Looks like you’re my slave for a little while.” This offended him. “I’m no slave.” “Do you want to be rowing?” I asked. “No,” I supplied his answer. “Are you getting paid for rowing? No. Are you rowing because you’re afraid of me and what I might do to you? Yes, Judge Thatcher.” “I’m no slave.” I pointed the barrel of the pistol at his face. “Row faster,” I said. He did.----What a mighty piece of work. The familiar story told in an unfamiliar tone. In a current American environment in which we are being told not to think or to reason or to consider others, this story is so clear and so obvious and yet so totally unexpected. Thank you for this brilliant vision.