James - Active Reading Discussion

[John]

Welcome to the discussion area for our August 2024 book selection, James.

Feel free to share your thoughts and insights as we read. To avoid spoiling the book for others, please use the spoiler function ([spoiler]...[/spoiler] but replace [] with <>) when discussing key plot points.

spoiler: (view spoiler)[ It looks like this :) (hide spoiler)]

[Squire]

I'm kinda confused by this book. I'm not getting any new insight into Huckleberry Finn through Everrett's book. I think it would've been more effective as a stand alone story.

[John]

It's been decades since I read Huckleberry Finn so I'm not sure how many connections my brain would still make. Just finished. Good book. I think the group hit the theme pretty well with this pick. Will post a full review when I get a chance.

[Peacejanz]

Percival Everett has been writing books for a long time and only recently is being recognized. He has won numerous prizes and been nominated for many. He is a Black professor (at a major university in California, I think - can not remember which one) who has suffered through racism in so many ways. Every book he has written has excessive something - he makes fun of racism, past efforts to cover up slavery, the funeral home/death/burial industry, the ineptness of local Southern law enforcement, etc. He write satire and the American public is not very keen on satire. Like Jonathon Swift suggested sending all the orphans to another country for food - the infants were to be the food. Centuries ago, this genre was very popular, has lost out to fast robbers with guns and fast planes. Look at how Everett makes fun of the white slave owners because the slaves (i.e., black people) have a different language - subservient to the whites (Yes, Sir,/ No, Mam) when speaking to them but use very educated and proper English when talking among themselves. The whole book is satire making fun of the idiots today who swear that slavery was a good thing and that slaves learned valuable skills while slaves. This book does parallel Huck Finn somewhat but there is a major surprise/difference at the end (still satire). If you do not understand or see satire, you will probably not understand what this book is about. peace, janz

[Kristen]

As I'm waiting for my copy of James, has anyone found it beneficial to reread Huckleberry Finn prior to reading James? Not that I can readily locate my copy of it, or if I still have a copy... been two decades since I read Huck Finn and while I remember most of it, might be nice to have a refresher.

[Peacejanz]

I have not reread Huck Finn in 20-50 years but I understood James perfectly. We have Huck and his friend, Jim, and that is about all you need. Some things are funny - and you will remember them from the book, like when they ran into two cheaters - The Duke and somebody, it will come back to you. i read James, loved it, saw some interesting things. Now, I am looking for my copy of Huckleberry Finn - want to reread it to see the things I missed. Just get James and start - it will come back to you. peace, janz

[Squire]

@Kristen I don't think it would be detrimental NOT reading it first, as long as you are familiar with the story. But it probably couldn't hurt.

[Peacejanz]

Squire wrote: "I'm kinda confused by this book. I'm not getting any new insight into Huckleberry Finn through Everrett's book. I think it would've been more effective as a stand alone story."

I just now reread your message, Squire. Everett has no intent for your to better understand Huckleberry Finn or Mark Twain. He wants you to understand the abuse that black people have suffered from white people for centuries. He has taken an old classic and reworked it for all of us to understand the racial prejudice that exists everywhere in the US. (and many more places) Please read it as satire, using an old classic novel that most of us have read, to better understand the evil, the humiliation, the separation of a society that racism brings upon us. It is not a book of analysis of Mark Twain's work. Everett is playing upon what Twain already told us in more subtle words/terms. Satire, my friend. peace, janz

[Squire]

Then he shouldn't have used Twain's book as a base for the novel. There was nothing satirical about the book. It was a big misfire for me.

If James was meant as satire, then Everett has a basic misunderstanding of the book (realizing, of course, I might be the one with the misunderstanding). The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn deals with racism as seen thru the eyes of a child. Seeing it thru the eyes of an adult is nothing new to literature; if that was his purpose, then there was no reason for Everett to use Huck Finn as the basis of his novel. Besides, most of the events of the book were not recognizable as those in Huck FInn. The characters, for sure.

But divorced for Huck Finn, Everett's book would fall short of better dissections of the institution of slavery.

[David]

I agree that Everett was not attempting to add to or detract from Huck Finn and it's place in the canon. I do think because Huck Finn is so entombed in our literature that taking one of it's characters and so thoroughly transforming him that it helps people question what they thought they knew and now realize - maybe they didn't know or understand at all.

I enjoyed the book I have also loved the character of Jim and wanted more.

[Kristen]

Just started, months behind everyone else.