Percival Everett's James is a fascinating retelling of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of enslaved Black character Jim, who here demonstrates intelligence, ambition, defiance, unbridled fury, and the ability to wrest control of elements of his life.
In James, Percival Everett's retelling of the Mark Twain novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, we hear a version of that novel's story told from enslaved Jim's point of view.
James is secretly teaching other enslaved people to read; sneaking to delve into the library of books in the big house, including works of philosophy by John Locke (he also holds imagined arguments and discussions with noted philosophers during several delirious moments of the story); and is an expert code-switcher who tailors his language to follow white people's expectations of a submissive Black person.
When the book begins, James's escape is imperative--he hears that he is about to be sold, and that his wife and daughter are to remain on the plantation. In an inconvenient coincidence, Huck Finn has just faked his own (gruesomely bloody, courtesy of pig blood) death in order to run away from what he feels are oppressive rules. The timing will almost certainly set white folks on James's tail as a presumed child murderer.
The two are stuck together for a time, and the James-Huck Finn connection built by Everett is unexpected and intriguing.
But the real heart of the book is James: the crushing limitations put upon him due to the color of his skin; his growing inability to abide by the constricting, frequently deadly stakes of being a slave on the run; and his sometimes violent, scrabbling struggle to wrest control of his life.
James is beleaguered by the ignorance, skewed power structure, and cruelty of the white people surrounding him. Through a stint as a performer in a minstrel show; a pivotal encounter with versions of the scam artists from Huckleberry Finn, the Duke and Dauphin; and the making and losing of allies and enemies, Everett turns multiple situations from Huckleberry Finn on their heads, frequently empowering James to shift the course of events.
Yet the true horrors of life as an enslaved Black person in the deep South at the time of Twain's novel are brutally evident, and Everett doesn't shy away from depicting the resulting abuse, casual cruelty, and, often, death of Black enslaved people at the hands of white people. The trauma on the page is difficult to read, but more difficult to consider in its origins, as it is rooted in horrifying fact and reality.
I listened to James as an audiobook.
Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book?
Percival Everett is also the author of Erasure, Assumption, Wounded, The Trees, and other books.
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