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James

Percival Everett

Doubleday 2024 | 320 pages
E25-04

Jim learns he is about to be sold by his slave master and flees to avoid being forever separated from his wife and daughter. He plans to return for his family, though this plan is fraught with danger as Jim will be intensely hunted by the slave master and face certain death if captured. He is soon joined by another runaway, Huck, a white boy faking his own death to escape an abusive father. A runaway slave harboring a white boy can only draw unwelcome attention to them both, and Jim is initially unhappy with his unwanted companion. Besides, now Jim must always remember to use his “slave filter” – the simplistic speech and behavior white people expect of him. He cannot risk dropping the act and reverting to James, the intelligent, erudite, well-read Black man he really is. In the course of various tribulations, Huck and Jim help each other survive. Jim keeps young Huck safe in several life-threatening situations. Huck repays the debt by unobtrusively gathering crucial information about the whereabouts of Jim’s family. This modern reimagining of Twain’s 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' adds layers of complexity, meaning and interest to the much-loved original story, while retaining its cheeky humor and a strong sense of satire.

References

“…to call James a retelling would be an injustice. Everett sends Mark Twain’s classic through the looking glass. What emerges is no longer a children’s book but a blood-soaked historical novel stripped of all ornament.”
Tyler Austin Harper in The Atlantic
“In recent years, Mark Twain has come under criticism for his use of racial stereotypes and slurs. However, Everett has made it clear that he did not write James as a corrective to the original. Rather, the two books have been set up in conversation, with Everett employing a clever final twist. James is a layered, compassionate book with a rich supporting cast, full of anger, humor and – ultimately – hope.”
Lucy Popescu in New Humanist
“One of the main points being made is that James’ ability to speak clearly and to write is what gives him identity, meaning, and value. It allows him to tell his own story. But I would argue that to be able to speak and write with intellectual clarity is not what gives one value. It is not being well spoken and well read that gives one identity, and one does not necessarily need to be literate to have a story. There are other ways in which we can have grounding for our identity, including being connected to place and community, which at least partially happens through spoken language. Our dialects and accents give us a connection to place and meaning, and it is their loss that makes us feel uprooted -- just the opposite of what the author proposes in this novel.”
JoshPNYC on Reddit

Recommendations

Book: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a recommended companion book to James. Everett takes Twain’s story, which was told from the perspective of Huck, and turns it inside-out. He allows Jim, an enslaved black man, to control the narrative and the perspective. Comparing and contrasting the two stories brings to light the emancipation of the ignorant and superstitious slave Jim into the erudite, intelligent freeman James becomes.
Jim and Huck on a raft, from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1884
Book: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa: But Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America, Related by Himself. This is one of the earliest autobiographies written by an enslaved person. It tells the story of his kidnapping as a six-year-old boy from the Gold Coast (modern Ghana) and being sold into slavery. He was ultimately able to purchase his freedom and that of his family. Jim reads the book and is critical of its credibility (chapter 15).
Book: Toleration and Other Essays by Voltaire. Although Voltaire did not dedicate a specific work to the discussion of equality between all men, his influential views on the subject are part of most of his works. “Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference” (Voltaire, 1824). Jim has a fevered dream in which he discusses this subject with Voltaire (part 1, chapter 6).
Podcast: NPR’s Book of the Day (March 22, 2024), Percival Everett centers a new voice in “James”, a retelling of “Huckleberry Finn”. An interview with Percival Everett about his intentions in writing James.