JAMES

JAMES by Percival Everett

James is Percival Everett's New York Times Bestseller about the life of Jim, the runaway slave from Mark Twain's classic, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Right off the bat, we should be asking ourselves why the name James instead of Jim? Titles are often very telling and this one is no exception. James is not your average, uneducated slave. To his slave owners (Widow Douglas owns him, but Judge Thatcher oversees all of the Widow's business) and the white people he is just that, but in truth, he is a self educated man who is highly intelligent. He has passed this learning onto his family and constantly drills them how to speak slave lingo and how to handle white people ( let white people think they are the ones who come up with ideas when it is actually the slaves, etc)so as to never let on how smart they really are. When James is told he is about to be sold (separated from his wife and daughter), he decides to run. Unbeknownst to him, Huckleberry Finn (who is under the care of the Widow) decides he's had enough of living a society life and fakes his own death. Now there is a runaway slave at the same time that a white boy ends up dead. James knows he is in a serious heap of trouble, so the two begin their journey down the Mississippi together for a while, separated for a long stretch, and then reunited. One thing I want to interject here is that this is NOT a retelling of Twain's Huck Finn. This is the story of James' life and Huck is along for the ride in parts of it!

The story itself is very engaging. There is a lot of action - chase, capture, escape, harrowing situations that James puts himself in while desperately trying to help his wife and daughter gain their freedom, etc. Several examples of the brutality of the slave life are laid open for us to view through Everett's words, and they are difficult and heartbreaking to read. However, there are parts in this book that I found difficult to believe. None of these parts have to do with James' life directly as a slave. They all have to do with whom Everett is trying to make him out to be as James. I already mentioned the education part. While we know that there were slaves that were educated, the level that James achieves by reading books from his master's library on his own feels like a stretch. (At one point he debates with a friend what type of irony he experienced after speaking to a white person.) Another time he conspires with a light skinned African American that passes as a white owner, to be sold and then to run away to save money to buy the freedom of their loved ones. While a money making plan, the confidence that he will be able to escape from whatever situation he is sold into feels unrealistic. There is another drastic reveal at the end of the book that feels like an impossible reach. I won't share the details, so you can experience it for yourself.

The idea to take and give Mark Twain's Jim his own story is an interesting one. While a thought provoking read, I struggle with accepting this rendition as a possibility for Twain's Jim.

HEADS UP- There is language to contend with. While not heavy, there is a consistent stream. There is one f-bomb. The topic of rape comes up a couple of times. Once, James witnesses a rape, but no intimate details are given. Slave brutality is a reoccurring reality. While not gory in description, it is heartbreaking. There are slave and slave owners murdered.