Finn: A Novel

by Jon Clinch (Goodreads author!)

published	February 20th 2007 by Random House
first published	2008
binding	Hardcover
isbn	1400065917 (isbn13: 9781400065912)
ebook
pages	304
literary awards	Named an ALA Notable Book for 2008. Named a Best Book of 2007 by the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the Christian Science Monitor
description	In this masterful debut by a major new voice in fiction, Jon Clinch takes us on a journey into the history and heart of one of American literatureR...more [close] In this masterful debut by a major new voice in fiction, Jon Clinch takes us on a journey into the history and heart of one of American literature’s most brutal and mysterious figures: Huckleberry Finn’s father. The result is a deeply original tour de force that springs from Twain’s classic novel but takes on a fully realized life of its own. Finn sets a tragic figure loose in a landscape at once familiar and mythic. It begins and ends with a lifeless body–flayed and stripped of all identifying marks–drifting down the Mississippi. The circumstances of the murder, and the secret of the victim’s identity, shape Finn’s story as they will shape his life and his death. Along the way Clinch introduces a cast of unforgettable characters: Finn’s terrifying father, known only as the Judge; his sickly, sycophantic brother, Will; blind Bliss, a secretive moonshiner; the strong and quick-witted Mary, a stolen slave who becomes Finn’s mistress; and of course young Huck himself. In daring to re-create Huck for a new generation, Clinch gives us a living boy in all his human complexity–not an icon, not a myth, but a real child facing vast possibilities in a world alternately dangerous and bright. Finn is a novel about race; about paternity in its many guises; about the shame of a nation recapitulated by the shame of one absolutely unforgettable family. Above all, Finn reaches back into the darkest waters of America’s past to fashion something compelling, fearless, and new. Praise for Finn “A brave and ambitious debut novel… It stands on its own while giving new life and meaning to Twain’s novel, which has been stirring passions and debates since 1885… triumph of imagination and graceful writing…. Bookstores and libraries shelve novels alphabetically by authors’ names. That leaves Clinch a long way from Twain. But on my bookshelves, they'll lean against each other. I’d like to think that the cantankerous Twain would welcome the company.” –USA TODAY “Ravishing…In the saga of this tormented human being, Clinch brings us a radical (and endlessly debatable) new take on Twain’s classic, and a stand-alone marvel of a novel. Grade: A.” –ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY “A fascinating, original read.” –people “Haunting…Clinch reimagines Finn in a strikingly original way, replacing Huck’s voice with his own magisterial vision–one that’s nothing short of revelatory…Spellbinding.” –WASHINGTON POST “Meticulously crafted…Marvelous imagination…The Finn of Clinch’s novel is certainly a racist villain but also psychologically disturbed and disconcertingly compelling.” –SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE “From the barest of hints in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Clinch has created a fully believable world inhabited by fully realized characters. Clinch treads dangerous ground in making one of America’s greatest novels his jumping-off point, but he brings it off magnificently…The language of this book is one of its great beauties…Finn is far from one-dimensional, and that is another beauty of the book. Clinch has a knack for putting us squarely inside the heads of his characters….Clinch draws as compelling and realistic a picture as any we’re likely to find…Finn stands on its own. The richness of its language, the depth of its characters, the emotional and societal tangles through which they struggle to navigate add up to a portrait of life on the Mississippi as we’ve never before experienced it.” –dallas morning news “His models may include Cormac McCarthy, and Charles Frazier, whose Cold Mountain also has a voice that sounds like 19th-century American (both formal and colloquial) but has a contemporary terseness and spikiness. This voice couldn’t be better suited to a historical novel with a modernist sensibility: Clinch’s riverbank Missouri feels postapocalyptic, and his Pap Finn is a crazed yet wily survivor in a polluted landscape…Clinch’s Pap is a convincingly nightmarish extrapolation of Twain’s. He’s the mad, lost and dangerous center of a world we’d hate to live in–or do we still live there?–and crave to revisit as soon as we close the book.” –newsweek “I haven’t been swallowed whole by a work of fiction in some time. Jon Clinch’s first novel has done it: sucked me under like I was a rag doll thrown into the wake of a Mississippi steamboat…Jon Clinch has turned in a nearly perfect first book, a creative response that matches The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in intensity and tenacious soul-searching about racism. I wish I could write well enough to construct a dramatic, subtle and mysterious story out of careful, plodding and unromantic prose, but for now I’m just happy to have an alchemist like Jon Clinch do it for me.” –BOOKSLUT “Finn strikes its most original chords in its bold imagining of possibilities left unexplored by Huckleberry Finn.” –austin american-statesman “An inspired riff on one of literature’s all-time great villains…This tale of fathers and sons, slavery and freedom, better angels at war with dark demons, is filled with passages of brilliant description, violence that is close-up and terrifying…Everything in this novel could have happened, and we believe it… so the great river of stories is too, twisting and turning, inspiring such surprising and inspired riffs and tributes as Finn.” –new orleans times-picayune “A triumph of succesful plotting, convincing characterization and lyrical prose.” –ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS “Shocking and charming. Clinch creates a folk-art masterpiece that will delight, beguile and entertain as it does justice to its predecessor…In Finn, Clinch expands the bloodlines and scope of the original story and casts new light on the troubled legacy of our country’s infamous past.” –new york post “In Clinch’s retelling, Pap Finn comes vibrantly to life as a complex, mysterious, strangely likable figure…Clinch includes many sharply realized, sometimes harrowing, even gruesome scenes…Finn should appeal not only to scholars of 19th century literature but to anyone who cares to sample a forceful debut novel inspired by a now-mythic American story.” –atlanta journal-consitution “What makes bearable this river voyage that never ventures far beyond the banks is the compelling narrative Clinch has created. He writes exceedingly well, not with the immediacy Twain imbued to Huck's voice, but with an impersonal narrator’s voice that almost perversely refuses to take sides. And the plot is masterful.” –fredericksburg freelance-star “Disturbing and darkly compelling…Clinch displays impressive imagination and descriptiveness…anyone who encounters Finn will long be hautned by this dark and bloody tale.” –hartford courant “Jon Clinch pulls off the near impossible in his new novel, Finn, which brings Huck's dad to life in all his terrible humanness…Clinch vividly paints the origins of the amazing Huck...powerfully told.” –winston-salem journal “Gripping…he inventively remaps known literary territory…the descriptive riffs are lucent.” –chicago tribune “The best debut so far of 2007.” –men’s journal “Inventing Huckleberry Finn’s father using only the thin scraps of information that Mark Twain provided is a pretty admirable feat, and reading Jon Clinch’s first novel provides an almost tactile pleasure…Clinch clearly respects Twain, but he doesn’t feel especially cowed by his inspiration, and some of his inventions qualify as genuine improvements on the original text.” –washington city paper “In this darkly luminous debut…Clinch lyrically renders the Mississippi River’s ceaseless flow, while revealing Finn’s brutal contradictions, his violence, arrogance and self-reproach.” –Publishers Weekly, STARRED review “Bold and deeply disturbing. . . A few incidents duplicate those in Twain, but the novels could not be more different; instead of Huck’s unlettered child’s voice, we have an omniscient narrative, grave, erudite and rich in the secretions of adult knowledge; terse dialogue acts as an effective counterpoint. All along, Clinch’s intent is to probe the nature of evil . . . a memorable debut, likely to make waves.” –KIRKUS REVIEWS, STARRED review “Every fan of Twain’s masterpiece will want to read this inspired spin-off, which could become an unofficial companion volume.” –LIBRARY JOURNAL, STARRED review “This is a bold debut that takes a few tentative steps in tandem with the familiar Twain, but then veers off dexterously down a much more insidious, harrowing path.” –BOOKLIST “Jon Clinch’s first novel Finn…succeeds wonderfully because its gritty lyricism is at once authentic and original…reminiscent at times of Cormac McCarthy…the eloquence of the telling will never make the courageous reader wish for a gentler touch. Like any appealing novel, Finn achieves the force of a dream with fascinating actions, indelible characters and spellbinding language. Its ... [close]
date added	02-14-07 edit book

find at: Amazon | Half.com | Barnes & Noble | Abebooks | more...

discuss this book

topics	replies	views	last activity
evil in the world	1	13	10/30/2007 10:48AM

new topic

groups with this book

friend reviews (0)

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

lists with this book

Jacky's (private please) Favorite Books

58 books | 3 voters

More...

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 739)

Izetta Autumn rated it:

07/02/08

bookshelves: general-fiction, washingtonpostbookworld

Read in April, 2008

I am not even sure where to begin in rating Finn by Jon Clinch. First you should probably ignore my star rating, because this isn't a book whose rating, will give any true indication of the love/hate relationship you may have with the book.

You'll love it, because without a doubt, Clinch has a talent as a writer. He feels like a modern-day Faulkner. His language is fluid, poetic, evocative, and then in an instant, sparse and nearly mechanical it its accuracy and sharpness.

You will hate i...more

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

add a comment

Grace rated it:

12/05/07

bookshelves: 2007

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: strong stomached fiction lovers

I usually have a pretty strong stomach when it comes to fiction. In television and movies, I can handle most anything and am not really bothered by violence, gore, or abuse. Because I don't see pictures when I read, this is even more the case with books than with visual media--give me the nasty stuff, I can take it.

Jon Cinch's Finn, however, bothered me. The book is not supremely graphic in its gore, but it does contain multiple murders, one of which includes body dismemberment, and the sexu...more I usually have a pretty strong stomach when it comes to fiction. In television and movies, I can handle most anything and am not really bothered by violence, gore, or abuse. Because I don't see pictures when I read, this is even more the case with books than with visual media--give me the nasty stuff, I can take it.

Jon Cinch's Finn, however, bothered me. The book is not supremely graphic in its gore, but it does contain multiple murders, one of which includes body dismemberment, and the sexual abuse of both an adult and a child, and something about how these scenes were written stayed with me. So before I say anything else, take that to heart--it's violent, and the violence, for whatever reason, stuck with even my hardened heart.

That being said, it's a hell of a book. The task Cinch sets for himself is not an easy one. While remaining true to events and characters portrayed in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Cinch tells the story of Huck's ne'er do well alcoholic father, "Pap" Finn (who even in Cinch's book is never given a first name). Moving back and forth in time, Cinch weaves the threads of Finn's strange and horrific childhood, his early relationship with Mary, Huck's escaped/stolen slave mother, his loss of Huck to the Widow Douglas, Mary's murder, and eventually Finn's own untimely death.

It has been a long time (two decades, perhaps) since I've read Twain's books, so I don't remember all of the details surrounding Pap Finn, but it seems that Cinch works into his narrative explanations for things that go unexplained in Twain's own work, such as the discovery of Pap Finn's body in a whitewashed room with walls covered in bizarre charcoal drawings (these drawings are done by Finn himself as he descends into madness after murdering Mary). What he does not try to do, however, is take on Twain's tone (as Alexandria Ripley did--poorly--in her less successful Gone With the Wind sequel, Scarlett). Perhaps because he doesn't spend much time trying to write the same characters on which Twain focused (Huck in particular), Cinch has no need to imitate Twain's style of writing, and I think the book is better for it.

Cinch writes Pap Finn to be as bigoted, mean, and drunk as Twain's supporting character, but fleshes him out in his own voice, making him a real character with a past and reasons for his horrible actions, rather than just a foil for Huck. This (albeit limited) sympathy for Finn, as well as Cinch's original characters, is the strength of the novel. The places where Cinch overlaps with Twain (Judge Thatcher, Widow Douglas, etc.) are a bit weaker. It seems almost as if Cinch is too careful with these characters, perhaps afraid to upset Twain purists. Tellingly, Tom Sawyer doesn't appear at all, and most of Huck's appearances are at a younger age than when we first meet him in Twain.

Please do not think you'll love Finn if you loved Twain's books. Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are children's characters, and though their adventures did get a little wild, and even a little political, their stories are nothing like Finn. Cinch's book is almost gothic, the cornerstones of its story are violence, alcoholism, and madness. There are no frolicking adventures here, and what humor there is has a very dark underbelly. Finn is every inch a contemporary adult novel, even if its basis is in children's literature from a previous century. However, it's a very good contemporary novel, and if read as such will likely stay with you in a way most contemporary novels don't. Cinch balances the horrific aspects of his story with just enough hope to keep your turning the pages, and at the end you are left feeling as if it was good that you read that, even if reading it was harder than you'd expected it to be. If you think you have the stomach for it, this is a book I would definitely recommend....less

Like this review? yes (5 people liked it)

add a comment

Jim rated it:

06/28/07

Read in January, 2007

When I was in the seventh grade, St. James’s drama department put on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and I was cast as Alfred Temple, Tom’s competitor for the attention of Becky Thatcher. Tom and Alfred come to blows over her affections and on opening night, Tom tackled me and pinned me to the stage. The violence of Tom’s rough attack caught me off-guard. Needless to say, it hadn’t gone quite like that during rehearsals.

On the second night, I punched Tom Sawyer in the face, and it was...more When I was in the seventh grade, St. James’s drama department put on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and I was cast as Alfred Temple, Tom’s competitor for the attention of Becky Thatcher. Tom and Alfred come to blows over her affections and on opening night, Tom tackled me and pinned me to the stage. The violence of Tom’s rough attack caught me off-guard. Needless to say, it hadn’t gone quite like that during rehearsals.

On the second night, I punched Tom Sawyer in the face, and it was on. Alfred Temple, it should be noted, was a teacher’s pet and I was costumed as a cross between Alfalfa and Little Lord Fauntleroy. Alfred is not supposed to know how to throw an uppercut and Tom was pretty irate. On the third and final night of the run, Tom Sawyer and I stole the show with a full-on Jerry Springer-style battle royal. Technically, Tom won, but only because I let him, and only because I had to.

The show, after all, must go on, and on it goes in Jon Clinch’s debut novel Finn, a compelling retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point-of-view of Pap, Huck’s alcoholic father. At the heart of the novel is the unsolved mystery that Twain left behind for his readers to mull over: How did Pap come to be shot in a room filled with weird paraphernalia? (Clue: Alfred Temple didn’t do it.)

Although Finn’s fate is known from the onset (he dead) and the plot is defined by the parameters established in Twain’s novels, there is a score of delicious twists and turns that a clumsy summary would risk ruining. Suffice to say, the biggest revelation in Clinch’s novel is the writing, which is as muscular and deliberate as the act of poling a skiff upriver.

With prose that is reminiscent of Faulkner’s early Yoknapatawpha novels, Cormac McCarthy's Tennessee novels (particularly Child of God), and of course, Twain, Finn gives us an honest-to-God yarn that’s as pleasing to puzzle over as it is to read. Finn lives in a falling down house by the river and with Clinch’s lush descriptions one can almost smell the gutted cat fish and river rot. There's something magnificently voyeuristic about Finn's crimes happening in plain sight of anyone who happens to be taking the air on an upper deck of a riverboat as it chugs up the Mississippi.

From Twain’s novels we know that Finn is a violent, bigoted drunk and Clinch endeavors to explain how he got that way. There’s no question that Finn is as vile a villain that ever skulked on two legs, but once we meet his father we can’t help but look at him with a glimmering—however faint—of sympathy.

One of the paradoxical aspects of Finn’s personality is that early on he manages to escape the yoke of his father's seething hatred and sets out on a path that is, in its own way, wiser and more compassionate than the road taken by his father. Ultimately, however, Finn repudiates this way of knowing the world and is revealed to be very much his father's son – to the peril of everyone he comes into contact with, and none more so than Huckleberry, the most cherished outsider in American letters.

(Excerpted from a review published in February 2007 at The Elegant Variation:
marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/2...)
...less

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

add a comment

FuzzyKoala rated it:

01/29/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in January, 2008

I had this book recommended to me by a friend when I told them that I was reading "The Adventures of Huck Finn" by Mark Twain for the first time. I'm kind of into these books that give an alternative view of a popular world if done well, and having just finished Mark Twain's story it seemed like as good of a time to give it a shot as any, so I picked up the book.

At first it reminded me a lot of The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. Gone is the first-person speaking style of Huck Finn, repl...more I had this book recommended to me by a friend when I told them that I was reading "The Adventures of Huck Finn" by Mark Twain for the first time. I'm kind of into these books that give an alternative view of a popular world if done well, and having just finished Mark Twain's story it seemed like as good of a time to give it a shot as any, so I picked up the book.

At first it reminded me a lot of The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. Gone is the first-person speaking style of Huck Finn, replaced by a third-person narrator with an eloquent vocabulary, which is occasionally interrupted by very minimalistic dialogue. Events and phrases tend to repeat themselves over and over, until they almost become variations on a theme. This might become tiresome to some readers, and about halfway through I started feeling like the story was kind of a low-rent version of something Cormac McCarthy would write. But at some point in-between that thought and my finishing the book, the whole thing just kind of clicked for me. He's playing in someone else's universe, but Jon Clinch has crafted a very solid story that he can call his own, about America's history of violence, about the conflict of Nature and Law that dwells within us, the ideas of "good" and "evil" that we inherit from our parents, and about just how hard it is for anyone in this world to find peace within ourselves. An early passage about "The Judge," Pap Finn's father, is the book in a nutshell; if you like that, you'll like the book. If not, well, keep reading anyway. It took a while for me to change my opinion.

Although I would recommend the book to anyone who likes reading, I can't guarantee you'll like it if you liked Huck Finn, maybe especially if you liked Huck Finn. The book is studiously faithful to the events of Mark Twain's novel, and in fact seeing how the plot works toward several of those events was part of the fun of reading it for me, but it also puts its own interpretation on several characters that's a little controversial. For one, "Pap" Finn (who remains nameless even in Clinch's novel) is the prodigal son of a wealthy judge, and the brother of a wealthy lawyer. Secondly, Huck Finn is revealed to be a quarter black. Both of these have thematic significance in Clinch's story, and I ultimately think that the author honors the spirit of Mark Twain's characters, but if you're a big fan of his classic and what you see is what you get, you might understandably be upset. Other characters from Huck Finn make appearances here (one of which, I was happy to see, was one of the carpetbaggers, who turned up in a brief cameo; whether it was the duke or the king I can't remember now), though none of them are significantly altered.

Also be prepared for some pretty unflinching depictions of violence. Although I found some (very) black humor in Finn's trying to dig a bullet out of a man's shoulder and killing him by mistake, most of the violent acts in the book, detailed thoroughly and pitilessly, can make the story seem troubling or bleak....less

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

1 comments

Susanne rated it:

(review of isbn 0812977149)

06/03/08

Read in May, 2007

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

The writing is just superb!....It's hard to fathom that this is Jon's debut novel!

After traveling on 'THE ROAD' with McCarthy, parched, hungry, frightened, horrified and finally awestruck, I now find I've just been wrung out and churned up under some mysterious steamboat on the Mississippi in 'FINN' with Clinch! And feeling a wee bit like one of those ' gasping fish' used metaphorically in the novel.

I found many such metaphors tied to fish, fishing lines, and the mighty river. It seeme...more The writing is just superb!....It's hard to fathom that this is Jon's debut novel!

After traveling on 'THE ROAD' with McCarthy, parched, hungry, frightened, horrified and finally awestruck, I now find I've just been wrung out and churned up under some mysterious steamboat on the Mississippi in 'FINN' with Clinch! And feeling a wee bit like one of those ' gasping fish' used metaphorically in the novel.

I found many such metaphors tied to fish, fishing lines, and the mighty river. It seemed to me that they were shining a light on the characters, as everyone seemed to be bound up to someone else in crippling and restraining circumstances. Each one (except Huck) caught in some confined connection, unable to allow the others' their autonomy either physically or emotionally.

Damaged souls passed down from the generations before them, unable to show affection, unable to emote feelings and taught to hate and to have no respect for individual lives.

Surprisingly, I found the dialogue between Finn and Huck to be very similar in it's brevity and economy to McCarty's style with the man and the son. When they worked together, there was an ease about the dialogue that echoed the man and the son in The Road, minus the warmth and care certainly, but lacking in tension or animosity. They talked simply and directly to each other without effort.

It is no surprise to see that the lack of care and love, even abuse as a child, rendered Finn incapable of expressing feelings himself?

Fueling Finn's insecure bundle of misfiring neurons with forty-rod and forbidden fruit, I was able to find some sympathy for the highly damaged man that was Finn; his guilt was so constant, tortuous and staining.

IMO, Finn endeavors to save Huck from the wrath of the Judge and from racial stigmatization and possible slavery, thus his egregious crime is done to 'save' Huck' from a life of servitude and hardship.
Finn at the most horrific and unthinkable level acts to protect Huck's future, as Huck grows up at a time that the south was attempting it's own liberation.

Ultimately, I think, in the story of Finn, we see a defective, impaired father, consciously or unconsciously, trying to offer up another 'road' on which his son might travel......... in the midst of much violence and extremely cruel times.
Although Finn is not a likable character, I think he is better viewed and 'judged' from a distance in the light of the country as it existed back then, coupled with his own vitiated, hellish life.

A stand alone book....Jon Clinch is a veritable 'wizard' with his lyrical metaphors and literary allusions! ...less

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Silvercharmer rated it:

08/03/07

bookshelves: mainstreamlit

Read in April, 2007

recommends it for: Huck Finn fans

Okay, so I had pretty high hopes for this book. And while it didn't quite meet those lofty expectations, I'm still glad I read it. The most interesting and possibly debatable part is the odd suggestion (okay, not really suggestion, but claim I suppose) of Huck's parentage. I spent a lot of the book wondering about that, and I'm still not sure how much I buy it, though props to the author for creativity. I did appreciate the notes from the author at the end on the subject, because seeing how this...more Okay, so I had pretty high hopes for this book. And while it didn't quite meet those lofty expectations, I'm still glad I read it. The most interesting and possibly debatable part is the odd suggestion (okay, not really suggestion, but claim I suppose) of Huck's parentage. I spent a lot of the book wondering about that, and I'm still not sure how much I buy it, though props to the author for creativity. I did appreciate the notes from the author at the end on the subject, because seeing how this little twist evolved in his head made it a little easier for me to go along with.

But despite the fact the story was interesting, there were problems, namely the writing style. The dialog in this book is very staccato, with short, terse sentences that make it nearly impossible to determine who is speaking without a tag, because everyone sounds the same. While I appreciate the attempt to write dialect, everything these people say seems stunted and abrupt, and it's hard on the reader. I got really sick of the phrase, "I know it," which probably appears at least 3-4 times a page. Clinch also had a habit of writing in incomplete sentences, which can be done effectively, when used sparingly, but in this case it was constant and sounded jarring and discordant, and I got the impression Clinch was trying too hard to be artsy and pretentious. I'm really big on rhythm when I write, so I prefer a writing style that is much more fluid. This guy's style was extremely hard for me to handle, though perhaps it wouldn't be to others. I also had a problem with tense and pronouns. Clinch constantly preferred to use pronouns in place of names. Huck is almost always referred to as "the boy," Finn often as "the man," etc. In one way I like that it provides distance from the characters that belong to Mark Twain. It seems respectful in a lot of ways, but runs into structural problems, as there are a lot of flashbacks. The flashbacks are also in present tense, and often times it's hard to tell whether "the boy" refers to the young Finn or Huck himself. I had a lot of trouble figuring out where I was in time and who I was with as a result.

So anyhow, it lacks the flavor and color and life of Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer, but I never got the feeling he was trying to compete with Mark Twain, or make any comparisons of Twain's work to his own. He was respectful of the characters, and really did just put his own spin on a part of the story that was not in Twain's books. I have a lot of criticism of this book, but I did enjoy reading it, and if you can look past the stylistic and structural flaws it's not a bad choice.
...less

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Josh rated it:

05/06/08

Read in May, 2008

What an interesting and thought provoking book. That said, it really doesn't work for me. It raises terrific questions about the nature of fiction and the trustworthiness of Huck as a narrator in Twain's book, but for me there are a few things in this book that feel a little bit cop-out-ish. I wouldn't bear a grudge on the author for it; he has magnificent intent and huge ambition here. Bravo for that. Serious bravery and he most certainly has a serious will to experiment.

I also don't want t...more What an interesting and thought provoking book. That said, it really doesn't work for me. It raises terrific questions about the nature of fiction and the trustworthiness of Huck as a narrator in Twain's book, but for me there are a few things in this book that feel a little bit cop-out-ish. I wouldn't bear a grudge on the author for it; he has magnificent intent and huge ambition here. Bravo for that. Serious bravery and he most certainly has a serious will to experiment.

I also don't want to give away too much of the plot, which is maybe a little-too-carefully constructed for my taste (plot elements, not necessarily because of my on impressions from Twain's book, sometimes made me say, "welllllll, okay, i'll run with it...") Some things feel contrived or just unbelievable. But I guess that I feel that way and still enjoyed reading the book is a testament to something, right?

My major "this doesn't work" issue is something that a lot of folks apparently were talking about when the book came out... Clinch's little shocker that some will surely feel is gimmicky. Gimmicky or not, it felt like it didn't jive with the Huck some of us know and love. In the author's note after the book, he writes, "I have assumed... that the Huck of HUCKLEBERRY FINN may not be an entirely reliable narrator." That's fine. I think most of us assume that. Buuuuut. Much of Huck's charm is that he is at least EMOTIONALLY honest, and Clinch has taken that away. To believe Clinch's version of this story requires one to also believe that Twain (or Huck, as a narrator) omitted a MAJOR emotional chunk of Huck's dilemma of what to do about Jim. And Clinch sort of tries to cover his tracks with this construct (the "Pap lied" manuever) that, first of all, I feel was probably reluctantly added after an insistent note from an editor, and secondly, would not remove this extremely heavy emotional element that Huck would surely be talking about in HUCKLEBERRY FINN, had it existed as part of his being. Ie, the relationship Pap lied about would still be something that Huck would remember, would continue to be shaped by, no matter what label Pap or Huck or anybody else stuck on that relationship... no matter what you call a person in your life, the core of your relationship to them remains. Even if only in memory.

If you're a pal of mine and you've read this, I'd love to discuss it with you. Bring it up next time you see me. ...less

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Matthew rated it:

07/20/07

Using Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a blueprint, particularly the scene where Jim and Huck discover Pap Finn's body, Jon Clinch elaborates on the life of Huck's alcoholic and abusive father, giving him a whole novel to himself. While some scenes from Huckleberry Finn are touched upon again (as when Finn kidnaps - or frees, depending on your attitude - Huck from the Widow Douglas's house), and while Clinch populates this world with an interesting supporting cast...more Using Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a blueprint, particularly the scene where Jim and Huck discover Pap Finn's body, Jon Clinch elaborates on the life of Huck's alcoholic and abusive father, giving him a whole novel to himself. While some scenes from Huckleberry Finn are touched upon again (as when Finn kidnaps - or frees, depending on your attitude - Huck from the Widow Douglas's house), and while Clinch populates this world with an interesting supporting cast (notably: Finn's slave/wife Mary and his imposing father who is known simply as The Judge), this is Finn's book, and we are stuck with him in most every scene, for better or for worse.

Clinch nails the atmosphere - dark, muggy, violent - but his Biblical style gets tired and seems like an impersonation of such better writers as Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy (even Clinch's Judge shares a name and many traits with the domineering and timeless Judge of McCarthy's Blood Meridian). This derivative style could possibly be forgiven if the story or characters had enough weight to support it, but there is little narrative push, and the characters, though interesting, fail to come alive.

There's a "twist" involving Huck's parentage, which, in his self-congratulatory author's note at the end, Clinch believes even Twain himself would have admired, and the novel does provide a darker glimpse at life on the Mississippi back then than Huck's childhood perspective did. But reading it just made me want to re-read the original (and better) Huckleberry Finn. Yes, Finn is ambitious in its goals, but hopefully for his next book, Clinch won't reach so far past his abilities.

"His penmanship is poor and his spelling is worse and his grammar is the worst of all but these things matter not, because not long after he begins he gives off writing almost entirely and commences to draw in a manner befitting some primitive cave painter working by torchlight to document and dispel demons both real and imagined."

...less

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

add a comment

fleegan rated it:

09/09/07

Read in September, 2007

What a great idea for a book! It's about Huck Finn's dad, Pap. Remember him from Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? Remember how he was a bad guy who kidnaps Huck from the Widow Douglas because Huck and his buds found all that Indian gold in that cave that time? So pap kidnaps him to get the money? And he was going to kill him? Remember that?

Well, in this book? That was like, the least of this guy's crimes. The whole time I was reading this I was all, "Oh man, this guy is the ...more What a great idea for a book! It's about Huck Finn's dad, Pap. Remember him from Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? Remember how he was a bad guy who kidnaps Huck from the Widow Douglas because Huck and his buds found all that Indian gold in that cave that time? So pap kidnaps him to get the money? And he was going to kill him? Remember that?

Well, in this book? That was like, the least of this guy's crimes. The whole time I was reading this I was all, "Oh man, this guy is the devil. I wonder what he'll do next....OH DAMN! He's evil! HE couldn't possibly do anything else- YOU ARE KIDDING ME! How come no one has killed this guy yet?! ...OH NO WAY!" I couldn't stop reading this even though I wanted to because Pap Finn was so despicable. Plus some of the reviews I read mentioned a surprise ending. Now while I would say that the ending was a surprise, it wasn't however, a shock in anyway. The ending didn't come out of left field or anything. So while I liked the ending, I guess I was waiting for something bizarre and shocking to happen.

The first really annoying thing about this book was the dialogue. It was so annoying in fact, that if I had not been so curious about finding out what happens at the end, I would have stopped reading this book very early on because the dialogue was so ridiculous. First of all, when the people talk to each other they only say three or four words per sentence. It was so choppy that I hated all the "talking" parts. Secondly, the phrase, "I know it." was used approximately 900,000 times. So the dialogue was for shit.

The second really annoying thing was that the chapters were not in chronological order. Which would not have been so bad if there had been a way to actually tell that. But there wasn't. So half way through a bit I'd be all, "What the hell? Is this the past? Shit."

So really, the only good things about this book are:
A. the idea behind it (a book about Pap Finn and what made him so bad.)

B. all the bad things he did. man, was he bad.

I wish the dialogue and the chronology hadn't been so painful, because it would've been so awesome.

...less

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Gåry rated it:

08/11/08

bookshelves: general-fiction, southern-gothic

Finn is a beautiful work in an expanded universe (to steal a term more often used in certain other genres) originated by Mark Twain. I found Mr. Clinch's take on the Huckleberry Finn story to be rather inspired. His characterizations remind me of the best of Cormac McCarthy and this book sort of evoked Suttree for me.

The liberties Clinch takes with the character of Huckleberry are perfectly justified and he even takes time after the story to explain his intentions which I fou...more

Like this review? yes (5 people liked it)

8 comments

Sarah rated it:

06/08/08

Read in May, 2008

recommended to Sarah by: Brad
recommends it for: people who enjoy character studies

Have you ever wondered if there was more to Huck Finn's father than a drunk who beat Huck for going to school? Finn by Jon Clinch attmepts to develop Huck's father into a real character and see who he was and why he became the man that he became.

In Clinch's narrative, Finn is a man who spends his entire adult life running away from his authoritarian father. Both Finn and his father, the Judge, would liek to believe that he's a rebel and a black sheep but the truth is that he is too much li...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Zach rated it:

02/28/08

bookshelves: 2008-books, b--club--fiction

Read in March, 2008

The premise sounds like some sort of "fan fiction", however the book has received strong reviews--I expected it to be similar to Rozencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead--a retelling of a classic story from another perspective. It is not. Huckelberry Finn is almost a minor character, and other than a few characters from the original (Judge Thatcher, the widow) crossing paths with Pap Finn, there is very little direct connection with the two stories. Pap Finn does come nosey around ...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

Erin rated it:

06/28/07

Read in April, 2007

recommends it for: Fans of Huckleberry Finn

One of the most interesting discussions I have with my students about Huck is about his moral formation. In what ways has his abusive and alcoholic father "formed" his conscience? Perhaps Twain never expected us to look psychologically into his novel, but it's impossible not to reflect on Huck's formation, when we read about the racist, hog-like, monstrous Pap. So that's why I think this novel was an incredible idea!
I was skeptical, but I really liked this "prequel" to Huck...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

5 comments

Alex rated it:

07/27/07

This is an enjoyable read. It inspired me to go back and read Twain's Huck again - which was also fun. One of the pros of this book is the prose, which, although it goes too far once or twice, is excellent. One of the cons of this book might be that it subverts a theme in its source. In the original, Twain offers up an escape clause in the intro to avoid the fervor his liberal stance would otherwise stir up. Never-the-less one of the reasons it endures as a classic is because it has a very stron...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

sally rated it: