by Percival Everett ★★★★★
James is Percival Everett's retelling of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through the eyes of Jim, an enslaved black man who flees with Huck down the Mississippi River as his companion in that novel. It is indeed a retelling, to an extent, but it is so much more. Like other alternative points-of-view novels, we have the opportunity to experience a story we know through a new lens, and Everett's reimagining of the "true Jim" beneath Twain's mostly stereotypical presentation is masterful.
Early in James, Everett (through Jim) introduces the importance of language, speech, and acting according to expectations as a matter of safety in a country at a time (the 1860s) in which slavery still existed. Jim holds a brief lesson for a number of black children in the town and says, "White folks expect us to sound a certain way and it can only help if we don't disappoint them. The only ones who suffer when they are made to feel inferior is us." When among other slaves, the black characters in the books speak proper English. But when white people are around, they revert to "slave language", translating their thoughts into a dialect that suggests they're simple and uneducated to put the whites at ease and make them feel superior. One early exchange between Jim and his daughter Lizzie is illustrative of the concept:
"Do I have to eat it?" Lizzie asked.
"No, you don't," Sadie (Jim's wife) said.
"But what are you going to say when she asks you about it?" I asked.
Lizzie cleared her throat. "Miss Watson, dat sum conebread lak I neva before et."
"Try 'dat be,'" I said. "That would be the correct incorrect grammar."
"Dat be sum of conebread lak neva I et," she said.
"Very good," I said.
In an explanatory note at the start of Huck Finn, Twain refers to Jim's pattern of speech as "the Missouri negro dialect", and explains that the dialects in the book "have not been done in a hap-hazard fashion, or by guess-work; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech." Twain may have been personally familiar with the dialect, but Everett establishes early that there's more at play than Twain was likely privy to. It's also a way to reclaim ownership of Jim's story. By establishing that Twain had a limited understanding of what was taking place outside of white earshot, he's also indirectly suggesting there is far more story to tell.
The events of the first half of James are fairly true to Huck Finn in terms of significant plot points and character interactions. It's an interesting and elevated retelling of a story that most Americans have read at some point in their lives. It's been more than 30 years since I've read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and I'd recommend picking it up as a companion to James. Given Everett takes limited liberties with the plot for the first half of James, it's enlightening to experience the same events reimagined and retold in, quite honestly, a more effective, compelling and emotive way. Despite its status as a great American classic, Huck Finn feels tired, simple, and incredibly racist by comparison. While most Twain scholars will argue that he wrote the novel in such a way—including the liberal use of the n-word (212 times in 216 pages)— as to bring to the forefront of conversation the racism and atrocities of the time, I can't help but wonder if we're forcing too much credit upon Twain. Everett gives us an alternative that examines the same topics more directly and requires far less excuse-making.
While the first half of James is an elevated retelling of Huck Finn, it hits its stride and evolves into something truly great in the second half. Everett splits from the Huck Finn narrative and takes Jim on a new path, embarking on an even deeper exploration of slavery and the role of race in America in the 1860s. Jim's goal in James remains the same as it was in Huck Finn—gain his freedom and come back to free his family—but his path to pursue that goal becomes newly imagined by Everett in a brilliant and poignant way, and rather than relying regularly on his young white companion, Jim takes greater agency and control over his destiny. From that divergent midpoint, the novel barrels forward to a fully satisfying conclusion.
James was #1 on Amazon's "Best Books of the Year So Far" list, and I'd be surprised if it doesn't finish the year on top. It can be a difficult read at points; it pulls no punches when exploring the horrors of slavery and the pervasive racism of the time. Like with The Covenant of Water last year, I'm struggling with where to rank this. It is the most impactful book I read this year, and I think it's one that will sweep awards and be on everyone's "best of" lists. It didn't bring me the same level of joy that some of the others among my top books did, but I can't ignore what Everett has accomplished.
It's a truly a staggering achievement when you think about it: Everett took the most well-known and frequently taught work in the American literary canon and authored a novel that, quite simply, eclipsed Huck Finn in every way. While I suspect Huck Finn will forever hold a place of some prominence, Everett has given us a superior examination of the same time and themes, and done so in a way that makes it the more deserving of the two books to be taught and studied. It's a pretty incredible accomplishment and a book that I believe every American should read.
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