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James

Percival Everett

Start date: October 15, 2024

Finish date: November 15, 2024

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Sep 03, 2024 Roy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: african-american-fiction, slavery, literary-fiction, african-american-subject-matter, historical-fiction

James is a brilliant retelling and reimagining of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that is told from the point of view of Jim rather than Huck. Most people are familiar with the original novel, even those who haven't read it. They know that Huck's adventures take place during the days of slavery and that the setting is on or nearby the Mississippi River. The mischievous white boy of Twain's creation rebels against domesticity, often along with his best friend Tom Sawyer. As an Afr James is a brilliant retelling and reimagining of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that is told from the point of view of Jim rather than Huck. Most people are familiar with the original novel, even those who haven't read it. They know that Huck's adventures take place during the days of slavery and that the setting is on or nearby the Mississippi River. The mischievous white boy of Twain's creation rebels against domesticity, often along with his best friend Tom Sawyer. As an African American man in a state of bondage, Jim does not have the luxury of rebelling against anything. Not without paying the ultimate price. His only choice, which comes at great peril, is to escape and hope that he is able to evade capture. However, Jim is a family man devoted to his wife and child. Freedom is meaningless to him without them by his side. He does not seek adventure or fortune or amusement to distract himself from daily boredom. Stakes for him are much higher than they are for Tom or his good friend Huck, even though Huck is not without problems of his own such as an alcoholic father who is quick to anger and acts of violence. Since the plot of James is already set by Mark Twain's novel, Percival Everett starts his novel out on footing that is familiar to us. We're seeing the world through the eyes of an enslaved man rather than an All American boy, but the events of James stay true to what takes place in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. For starters anyway. Huck runs away from home to get away from a bullying father, Jim escapes to avoid being sold away from his family, planning to somehow be reunited with them down the road, perhaps by being able to purchase their freedom with money that he will need to figure out how to obtain. The two of them end up in the same hiding place and decide to team up. As in Mark Twain's novel, Jim learns that Huck's father has died but keeps this knowledge from the boy. As they alternate traveling on the Mississippi by raft or whatever else they're able to obtain that will float, and moving about by foot when necessary, they make the acquaintance of various characters who are known to us from the original version of this story. And as with Twain's version, there are times when Jim and Huck get separated from each other. This is where Percival Everett is given the most freedom to invent his own story, since rather than sticking with Huck at these times, here the narrative remains with Jim. Among the differences between Twain's and Everett's novels is code switching. Jim speaks the way he is expected to when white people are around, but his true language is proper English that is spoken when the coast is clear. Jim can also read and write. Language is a critical aspect of the story, which makes sense since in the days of slavery Black people had to find ways to communicate with each other that was undetectable to white people. In a way, that tradition carries on to this day. The person named Jim in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a slave. That defines who he is and what he does. It is his motivation and the limitation imposed on him by society and also by the author. As for Percival Everett's James, he is a man that happens to be enslaved, but "slave" does not define him. He is also a husband and a father and intelligent and curious and shrewd and caring and angry and optimistic and vengeful and cynical and a dreamer and sympathetic and wise and wary and a variety of other things. James is multifaceted as written by Everett because he is not merely a vehicle for Huck to learn how he feels about a society that permits and enforces slavery. James is not there primarily for a boy to realize what type of man he wants to become and avoid becoming. James is a fully realized fictional character who acts not how Twain's plot dictates he must, but rather, one who behaves how a man in his situation might when push comes to shove. There are plot elements that I won't reveal because I don't want to play spoiler. Instead I will urge you to immediately obtain a copy of this fantastic novel in order to find out for yourself what happens. The only clue I will give is that I could see a movie adaptation of James being directed by Quentin Tarantino. Or Spike Lee. I said it upon review of his novel Erasure and I will repeat it here. Percival Everett is a great writer. Give him his flowers. I can't wait to see what he gifts us with next. If you're one of those people who has not already read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, you might want to pick up Twain's classic first. ...more

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Apr 21, 2024 Angie rated it it was amazing

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year and it definitely didn't disappoint: an easy 5 stars. Everett retells The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim. Through this new lens, moments of comic adventure turn into more serious questions of survival, and the dynamic between Jim and Huck takes on new overtones. The dialect from Huck Finn also takes on new meaning, as it is portrayed as a form of code-switching in James, with the slaves pretending to greater ignora ...more

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