About the Book
The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson’s Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father who recently returned to town. Thus begins a dangerous and transcendent journey by raft along the Mississippi River, towards the elusive promise of the free states and beyond. As James and Huck begin to navigate the treacherous waters, each bend in the river holds the promise of both salvation and demise.
With rumours of a brewing war, James must face the burden he the family he is desperate to protect and the constant lie he must live. And together, the unlikely pair must face the most dangerous odyssey of them all . .
Format: eARC (313 pages) Publisher: Mantle
Publication date: 11th April 2024 Genre: Historical Fiction
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My Review
If I ever read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn it was probably at school and, if I did, I remember next to nothing about the story. If you’re in the same position, I’d recommend reading a summary of Mark Twain’s book so you can appreciate the ways in which Percival Everett has reimagined the story, especially in the first part of the book. This follows broadly the events in Huckleberry Finn but told from the point of view of the enslaved Jim. He prefers the name James but, of course, as a slave he’s used to being addressed in far more abusive terms.
James is not the person his owner thinks he is. He’s intelligent, knowledgeable, can read and write, and possesses an extensive vocabulary. At one point he debates with another slave whether something is ‘proleptic irony’ or ‘dramatic irony’. There’s sly humour in the fact the slaves use eloquent language when conversing amongst themselves but adopt a way of speaking they believe their masters expect when in their presence. “White folks expect us to sound a certain way and it can only help if we don’t disappoint them.” It’s as if their only power is to hide their true selves.
Escaping with Huck on a flimsy raft, the pair have many adventures on their voyage along the Mississippi. There are narrow escapes from death and they encounter many colourful, but not necessarily commendable, characters. Each saves the other from potential death at some point but, of course, it’s James who risks certain death if he is recaptured. Although Huck and James form a bond, there are still things James keeps from him, such as hiding the fact he can read. Other things as well.
In later sections of the book, the pair are separated for a time and it’s just James’s experiences we witness. This includes the bizarre episode when James is recruited into a minstrel show and finds himself a black man disguised as a white man entertaining white people by pretending to be a black man. They even perform a cakewalk, something actually intended to mock white people but which their audience doesn’t realise. A double irony, notes James.
The book doesn’t shy away from describing the brutality endured by enslaved people: the grotesquely harsh punishments for minor offences, the sexual abuse of women and young girls. And for all James’s intelligence, he’s still the possession of another person, and so are his wife and children. His desperation to be reunited with them is inspiring but also heart-breaking as we witness just what it’s like to have no power over your own future.
James is a brilliantly inventive, subversive retelling of an American classic that touches on issues of inequality that persist today. I can see it winning many literary prizes.
I received a digital review copy courtesy of Mantle Books via NetGalley.
In three words: Powerful, clever, thought-provoking.
Try something similar: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
About the Author
Percival Everett is the author of over thirty books, including So Much Blue, Telephone, Dr No and The Trees, which was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize and won the 2022 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. He has received the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the PEN Center USA Award for Fiction, has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California. His novel Erasure has now been adapted into the major film American Fiction. He lives in Los Angeles. (Image: Goodreads author page}
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