James | Percival Everett

This book is brilliant. And the good news is that you don't have to be crystal clear on the storyline of Huckleberry Finn to read it. I don't know about you, but the time it's been since I've read Mark Twain can be measured in decades. As you no doubt know if you read even a few book reviews, this story is written from the perspective of Jim, the slave who goes on what Huck sees as a big adventure down the Mississippi River. Told from Jim's perspective, or as he calls himself, James, it's not an adventure but something much bigger--a trip to freedom. You don't need to be totally up to speed on Huck's story because much of that doesn't really involve Jim. (Full disclosure: I read a summary of Huckleberry Finn after I finished the book. I can honestly report that my memory of the book was really bad)

I haven't read any of Everett's other books, but he's an incredible writer. Even if you haven't read anything, you may be familiar with his work. His book Erasure is the foundation for the movie American Fiction. He's known for writing biting, satirical, funny and serious works. There's a lot here to unpack, and frankly, reading some of the reviews was really interesting.

One of my favorite part of the story is that James, and other slaves, spoke to white people with the vernacular that they felt the white folks were expecting. James, who can read and write and holds dream conversations with Voltaire and others, teaches his children how to speak like a slave. It's a line that runs through the book. Brilliant.

One passage caught my eye as a nudge-wink to the current day. The set-up is that Huck was talking about two con men they meet up with--the Duke and the Dauphin--who posed as preachers to take money from people at a revival meeting.

"... But dey was stealin' from dem folk. Tellin' lies lak dey was. He weren't neber no pirate."

"Yes, but them people like it, Jim. Did you see their faces? They had to know them was lies, but they wanted to believe. What do you make of that?"

"Folks be funny lak dat. Dey takes the lies dey want and throws away the truths dat scares 'em."

The end of the story wraps things up at a pretty breakneck pace, including sharing information about how James comes to be so protective of Huck. I really recommend this book.