A stunning re-imagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim the slave.

Jim lives in two worlds. In one, among other slaves, he is an intelligent, well-read, and articulate family man. In the other, he talks “slave” and behaves in ways that white people think dumb slaves should behave. He despises all white people for their complicity, either overt or covert, with slavery, with the exception of two local boys, Tom Sawyer and, especially, Huck Finn.

When he finds out that he is to be sold away from his family, he escapes and takes refuge on an island in the Mississippi, where he meets up with Huck, who has faked his own death and run away from his abusive father. As the two head down the river on a makeshift raft, they have a series of encounters, some re-worked from Twain’s book and some that are Jim’s alone. However, rather than being written as a series of adventures, these are played out from Jim’s perspective and are chillingly terrifying in their portrayal of the precariousness and powerlessness of a slave.

There is nothing entertaining about lynching, rape, whippings, and beatings but the author make no bones about including them in this 19th century setting. He doesn’t flinch from the appalling acts of violence that are committed for the slightest of reasons but presents them in a matter-of-fact, justified way. There are a couple of episodes which have a sliver of lightness, but are quickly sucked into darkness. In one, Jim is bought from his new owner by the (real-life) Daniel Decatur Emmett and his Virginia Minstrels to fill in for their tenor; he has to look like a white man who is blacked up to look like a black man. Though Emmett claims he doesn’t believe in slavery, his subsequent actions show that Jim is right to be dismissive and afraid.

All of Jim’s journey is spent on the run, driven by the need to free his wife and daughter. His protectiveness towards Huck sometimes leads him to make selfless choices, and the reason for this becomes clear later in the book. Along the road, Jim meets other slaves; some are helpful and some, Jim learns, seem to like being owned. Every single white person he meets is a threat to not only his freedom but also to his life.

By the end of the novel, Jim has emerged from the proverbial hottest fire as the strongest steel and symbolically re-names himself James. A whisper of hope for slaves appears with the trickling arrival of the Union army.

This is a short and absorbing read that packs a major emotional punch. I’m not particularly familiar with Huckleberry Finn, bar the Wikipedia recap, but I think the author has taken an American classic and re-worked it to tell a startlingly different, devastating, and authentic story. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Doubleday and Netgalley for the digital review copy..

This is a masterclass in writing, and a masterpiece of fiction, James is so, so brilliant and Percival Everett is a gift. I was incredibly moved by this retelling of Huck Finn, and I can’t stop thinking about it. I expect a Pulitzer for this one—it is nothing short of fantastic. Bravo. I cannot wait to sell this, and talk about it, and hear all the praise coming to Everett.

Though has a legendary status in the Great American Literary Canon, for many, including myself, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, was a very uncomfortable adventure, often abandoned midway because of the vernacular and the machine gun like repetition of the n-word. So, I had some trepidation, even with an author of Everett’s reputation, with the idea of embarking on this adventure again, though from the perspective of Jim. How wrong I was to have any reservations! This is a magnificent novel that manages to both preserve the excitement, pacing, cadence, poignancy, voice, and much of the plot of Twain’s original creation, while simultaneously extending the reach and complexity of the narrative, through the eyes of Jim. Jim is highly literate, clandestinely teaching himself to read and adept at linguistic code switching with other slaves when around white people.

And Jim evolves into James, running away before he is to be sold, escaping down the Mississippi River with Huck and in the process becoming the boy’s protector, and ushering Huck into his own awakening of the injustice of slavery and the equality of black people. In dreams, James dialogues with (Voltaire, Locke, Cunegonde, and others) of the nature of race and prejudice, which often takes the form of intellectual sparring full of logical constructs, which he dazzlingly dismantles. But in a powerhouse of a book, the greatest power is perhaps James’ matter of fact narration detailing the precariousness and viciousness of everyday existence of slaves; the slaves use the term, “hell” to describe their surroundings, rife with whippings, rape, lynching, daily humiliations, and families ripped apart as their owners see them as commodities to be trafficked. This is not new literacy ground but achieves a special heartache and horror within the scaffolding of this book. Nature: the weather, and especially the river, is as palpable a character as anyone in the story and the plot twists and turns itself like a formidable and unpredictable body of water. Just as in any masterful book, the greatest regret is that the story ends. So highly recommended.

A reimagining of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim, Percival Everett’s newest book James is compulsively readable. Jim, or should I say James, runs away when he hears is about to be sold. Huck Finn also runs away, and they travel along the Mississippi together. While there are a few characters and occurrences that readers will remember from the original novel, such as the appearance of the King and the Duke, much of the plot revolves around what happens to James while he is separated from Huck. In James’ telling, as one can imagine, the plot is much more violent and traumatic than what is seen through Huck’s viewpoint. Readers of the original will find that they do not actually know anything at all about this well-known classic character (and there is a pretty major surprise in store about Huck Finn as well).

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is considered by many to be one of the Great American Novels, and James may be joining this list as well. It is a standalone knockout that would appeal to readers of the classic as well as contemporary readers who are uninterested in the original. I have not read Twain’s novel in quite some time, but I can’t wait to go back to it and read it with this fully realized version of Jim in mind.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for the electronic advanced review copy of this novel. James certainly lives up to its hype!

For more reviews and bookish posts visit: https://www.ManOfLaBook.com

James by Percival Everett is the reimagining of the story of Huck Finn’s runaway adventure, from the viewpoint of the enslaved person Jim. Mr. Everett is a published author and educator at the University of Southern California.

When Jim hears he’s going to be sold to a man in New Orleans, he decides to escape. He does separate from his wife and daughter for the time being, but he has to be careful since 1840s Missouri is no place for an escaped slave.

Huck Finn, meanwhile, fakes his own death to get away from his abusive father. The two embark on an adventure down the Mighty Mississippi hoping to reach free states.

I haven’t read Mark Twain’s The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn in a long time, but I do remember the highlights, and that I enjoyed the story. in James, Percival Everett retells the story from the viewpoint of Jim, the enslaved person who is running away after he was sold.

I found the story to be exciting, and very thought-provoking, contrary to the marketing which promised me a tremendously funny book. Frankly, I liked it much more for bringing up points of view I didn’t think of while entertaining at the same time.

The fact that Mr. Everett stayed true to Twain’s story, characters, and style while creating a different work is a feat all by itself. I think that humanizing Jim, the enslaved hero of the book, actually shows the inhumanity that he faces better than just describing atrocities.

I do have to read the original again at some point, but I have a feeling that as an adult James might be just as meaningful. I’m glad that Jim got his voice, a clear, proud, and strong one at that.

Around the middle of the book, the author changes course from the Twain narrative. There are twists and turns, new characters, and a revenge scene that would make Quentin Tarantino proud.

This is a remarkable novel, that shows self-awareness and irony, sometimes in the same scene. I have read several of my favorite books as an adult (Treasure Island for instance), and discovered that there’s a whole new novel in them when reading with a perspective of a few decades behind you. This novel, an intelligent and fascinating retelling, is one of them.

Percival Everett's James is one of the best books I've read in a long while. I love a good retelling; Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead was one of my favorite reads last year. This, however, is not a retelling, it's a reimagining. It takes the narrative beats of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and imagines the story as told from Jim's POV. But here, Jim is James. He's intelligent, articulate, thoughtful, and as ambitious as a slave in Mississippi could hope to be. James (and his fellow slaves) all put on a show for the white people they encounter; they're smart enough, by the mid-1800s, to understand that the white folks feel more comfortable when they feel superior.

If you've read or are familiar with Huck Finn, you'll feel dropped into a world you recognize here. However, Huck is merely a means to an end; he and James find themselves on the run at the same time, and Huck is a reason for James to go on the path he ultimately takes. But this is entirely James's story, and it's all the better for it.

I don't want to say more because it should be read as blindly as possible. It's such a stunning piece of writing and it deserves as much attention as imagine it will recieve.

Five stars. Thanks to Doubleday and NetGalley for the ARC.

This book is so much more than a reimagining of the Huckleberry Finn story; it’s a take on slavery that reaches down to the core. There are acts of violence described enough to make you squirm and feel uncomfortable, but not over-the-top. At some point I started to question how long the main character would continue to go in and out of bad situations, but the ending made it all worth while. Great book!

A reimagining of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that is recentered and retold from the perspective of Jim, whose chosen name is James. As in the original, James is an enslaved man who is entangled with Huck. However, in Everett's novel, Jim is highly educated, well-read, well-versed in code switching, and a multi-dimensional character. 
Everett's writing style is smart and witty, and you will find yourself laughing  throughout the book despite the heaviness. Everett does not shy away from the brutality and inhumanity, so there will also be tears. Ultimately, this reimagining is about the power of telling one's own story, so the ending brought me joy to see James writing his story and legacy into existence. 

This book is an absolute must read. I'm certain it'll be on all the top lists this year, and hopefully for years to come.

As Percival Everett said in an interview with Double Day books, James is not a retelling of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He said it is something brand new:

“To say that it’s a retelling is not precise. To say that it’s a reimagining is not quite correct. It’s finally an opportunity for Jim to be present in the story.”*

While reading James, I kept the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn open next to me, annotating the times when the two stories clearly intersected. Percival Everett’s words rang in my ears constantly, and, as I compared the two books, examples of what he said leapt off the page. 

A Spoiler Free Example:

In Chapter XXII of Huck Finn, Jim inexplicably disappears from a major episode in the narrative. Mark Twain offers readers frustratingly little details. He sends the Duke, The King, and Huck off on an adventure in ”They Loafed Around Town” and says only this about Jim:

“..and all of us but Jim took the canoe…”

That’s it. A principal character, Jim, is left on the riverbank with no upfront explanation (and no backstory later). So often, there was no story of Jim to reimagine. There was no telling to retell. 

So, in James, Percival Everett either starts from scratch or morphs the paltry details from Huck Finn into whole chapters. A Huck Finn moment like “all of us but Jim,” for example, becomes the storyline that takes off in Part 1: Chapter 25 of James. 

James is not a book I will read just once. It not only stands alone as something great, it has completely altered how I see Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I have rereads and deep reads already planned. In the future, I want to excavate all the examples of irony; study the conversations James has in dreams with famous writers like Voltaire and Locke (that reminded me so much of Monk Ellison’s imagined conversations between artists in Erasure); explore the motif of fire; and lookup all the literary allusions. James needs to be reread and reread, studied and studied. I'm ready to to see the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn shelved because the new classic worth hundreds of years of study is here.

*This quote is from a @doubledaybooks reel shared on Instagram February 17, 2024.

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

I love re-imaginings of classic stories, and have been excited to read James by Percival Everett, which will be released on March 19. This is a re-imagined Huckleberry Finn, told from the viewpoint of Jim.

Jim is an enslaved man with secrets. He is self-educated (highly educated) and devoted to his wife and daughter. He is also entangled with Huck (as in Twain’s novel.)

Jim learns that he is going to be sold, separated from his family, so he runs off to a nearby island to hide. There, he meets up with Huck, who has just faked his own death to escape from his cruel drunkard of a father. Now Jim knows he will likely be charged not only with running away, but also with killing Huck. The two flee the island.

Jim’s goal is to find a way to earn money to purchase his wife and daughter. Huck’s goal is adventure. While roughly following the timeline of Huckleberry Finn, this novel follows Jim rather than Huck. His adventures and close calls are even more compelling than Huck’s.

The novel shows the agency of enslaved people and the secretly subversive ways they undermine the institution of slavery. It also shows the fear and loss that are embedded in their daily existence. One of their tools is language. Whenever around Whites, they speak “slave,’ but among themselves, they speak in an educated, grammatical way that allows them to mock the ignorance of Whites. One of the most unsettling and even frightening things that Jim can do is to speak “correctly” to a White man. Language is power. Liberation will ultimately require choosing/claiming his own name, James.

This is a powerful novel that turns Mark Twain’s classic on its head. Highly recommended.

This will be one of my top reads of the year. A continuation of the story of Huckleberry Finn, told from the viewpoint of Jim. It was excellent and will be highly recommending to everyone.

In this reimagining of Twain's classic THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, the story is told from enslaved Jim's point of view.

Jim overhears that he is to be sold; he panics and then flees. While hiding out hatching a plan to save his wife and daughter, he encounters his young friend Huck, who has faked is own death to escape his abusive father. The pair decide to swipe a raft and ride the mighty Mississippi north. Huck seeking salvation, and Jim, freedom, with hopes to return south, in time, to rescue his family. Overflowing with humor with equal parts horror, this book is not to be missed.

Read alike: LET US DESCEND by Jesmyn Ward

If you've never read a book by Percival Everett you truly are missing out. He is turning out book after book that just makes you expand your mind on race and history in America. His latest and greatest is called James (so am I so how could I not love this book!) From the very first page you know are into something special. It's a retelling of Huckleberry Finn and the Jim. You go on adventures with them that are somehwat similar to the story Huckleberry Finn but Jim is not the character you read about in the book. He's a slave who knows how to read and write and many other things that the white men who owns slaves never expect a slave to be able to do. The story just flies by because those fof us who know the story can maybe maybe figure out where the story is going but no so in Mr. Everett hands. I read the book in one sitting on a six hour flight. Books like this don't come out very often but when they do you just want to tell the world about them. You MUST read this book and add to your book club. There is so much to discuss and dive into. I hope it wins many awards because it deserves them. Thank you to Netgalley and Doubleday. I'll be buying this book and spreading this book to everyone I know!

A hilarious and harrowing novel told from the perspective of Jim from Huckleberry Finn. Thoroughly enjoyable, even though the number of escapes seemed rather far-fetched.

✨The portrayal of slavery here is brutal and violent, and while it was distressing to read, it is a vitally important read.
✨I’m not usually one for retellings, but this one will sit on my shelf with the classics.
✨The cast of characters – some I loved and some I loved to hate – were masterfully written, and I won’t soon forget them.
✨At once eloquent, devastating and triumphant, this is a book I definitely recommend you check out.

🌿Read if you like:
✨Historical fiction
✨Retellings
✨Own voices stories
✨Difficult but vastly important works of literature

To undertake the monumental task of reimagining arguably the greatest of the Great American Novels—the haunting work that has left an indelible mark on subsequent American writers—and to, in the process, craft the Great American Novel of the 21st century requires an author of extraordinary caliber.

Percival Everett reaches back in time to seize Twain's timeless adventure narrative, dragging it through the decades and thrusting it into the contemporary landscape. While preserving the essence of the original, he not only bestows Jim with narrative prominence but infuses his story with renewed vitality, offering insights not only into the past but also our present era.

Few writers possess the ability to weave a profoundly significant, emotionally resonant, and timely tale within the confines of such a compelling narrative. Everett, a master of this craft, consistently demonstrates his prowess.

Compelling, intense, whimsical, fiercely intelligent, humorous, profoundly moving, and imbued with hope—this is an exceptionally rare book, the kind that emerges infrequently. In fact, I'm uncertain if a work of such brilliance has graced readers in quite some time.

JAMES by Percival Everett to be published March 19, 2024

5 stars. This is a reimagining of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of Finn’s enslaved friend, Jim.

I am at a loss to describe how much I enjoyed this. Everett has created a masterpiece.

Smart
Superbly written
Original
Just wowza
I hope this is as widely read as Huck Finn itself.

I feel honored to have received an early gifted copy from @doubledaybooks. Thank you so much.

Link to come.

A retelling that invites you in to the wise and kind internal world of James, despite the horrific circumstances of his enslavement. Everett weaves a narrative around James, known as Jim in the original work of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain, that gives readers a window into the physical and mental torment of slavery. James humanity leaps from the page, requiring readers to challenge and untangle broad cultural narratives that often diminish the atrocity of slavery. Many will be faced with stereotypes and assumptions they never realized they held and inspired by new understanding and perspectives. Readers will close the book with a mind nad heart more open to the stories, voices, and experiences of others.

I thought this was genius.
In his own words Percival Everett has said it’s not a retelling but a character getting his due. And boy does he ever. Everett strips away the old patina and washes it with a modern day realness bringing us into James’ world and securing a modern day classic.
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There are so many clever devices and twists worked through here, especially with what he does with language. And I promise no spoilers, because part of the sheer delight of this book is seeing how he takes something familiar and recasts it effortlessly, or dare I say playfully, in a completely new mold while also incorporating history, philosophical scholars, and religion. It’s a brilliant marriage of the old and the new, and a book that is certainly going to be front and center for a myriad of awards. Thanks to @doubleday for the #gifted copy.
Don’t miss James when it comes out 3/19

I was absolutely blown away by this book! It was powerfully thought provoking. Everett brings depth to a character that deserves to have his story told. James is a contemporary masterpiece. Everett totally upends the classic Hukleberry Finn- everyone should read this book as a companion piece.