false 2484130 133343 102077 1400065917 9781400065912 584 209 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171484398m/102077.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102077.Finn_A_Novel 58952 3.72 630 228 2 3 false Thu Jun 28 07:40:56 -0700 2007 Wed Dec 16 22:59:17 -0800 2009 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."

]]>