James by Percival Everett
Published by Knopf Doubleday
Publication date: March 19, 2024
Genres: Book Clubs, Fiction, Historical, Literary
Bookshop, Amazon
I remember almost nothing about the plot of Huckleberry Finn, except it involved a young boy and a slave running away to save their lives and entailed rafting on the Mississippi river. As a Black man author Percival Everett remembered the tale all too well and decided this American ‘classic’ needed to be rewritten. Instead of Huck, Everett lets the enslaved Jim tell their story, his story, in his new novel, James.
The difference between Twain’s Jim and Everett’s James is clear from the opening sentences when Huck and Tom Sawyer are pestering James. His thoughts are those of an articulate, mildly annoyed man who knows exactly what’s going on, but when responds to the boys he pretends not to understand the prank. With each page, James, who sneaks into his master’s library at every opportunity to read, comes into sharper, more eloquent focus. And he’s not alone. Every slave he knows speaks English with the same, if not greater, precision than the white people around them. It’s only when interacting with whites that their speech disintegrates to the slurring, poor grammar, and partial sentences expected from an uneducated Black person. This is just one of the many servile, foolish behaviors the Blacks are forced to adopt, not just to soothe whites’ need to feel superior, but to stay alive.
Everett is far too creative to reduce James to a simple takedown of Huckleberry Finn. The bones are the same, but James isn’t merely shape shifted from a racist caricature to a vengeful hero. Instead, even though he’s forced to move through a world where his life can be bartered away on a whim, James is compassionate, astute, and measured. He never erupts despite the brutality he’s experienced. In his moments of solitude, and sometimes sleep, he’s visited by some of the great Enlightenment philosophers, like Voltaire and John Locke, with whom he succinctly argues how they themselves contradicted their philosophical beliefs with actions that condoned slavery. In Everett’s hands he becomes alive, a nuanced character forced to subvert his very nature to survive.
This is not going to be a book for everyone. The term snowflake has come into vogue, largely as a political reference to liberals, but I’m going to apply it more broadly, and say that there’s a wide swath of snowflakes—very white and very delicate—who are going to deem this novel offensive. Even for those who can withstand their race being mocked on page after page, there are harder emotions to process. Namely, a deep shame. As James and Huck run only Huck has the ability to appear in public. In order to be seen together, they must say Huck is Jim’s master. The times are such that there are no questions about a 10-year-old white boy owning a grown Black man. This and the other indignities James experiences throughout the novel are impossible to read without cringing.
It’s this discomfort that makes James all the more important. That a time existed in America, and to some degree still exists today, when horrifying ignorance and brutality was the norm must be fully acknowledged. Everett flays all the myths around slavery, including that of the kindly slave owner. He has no patience for any of the comforting ideals that have been created to lesson or obscure the truth of what actually happened in this chapter of American history. That he can do all this in a novel that is eminently readable, that scorches with its truths while still eliciting laughter with its raw humor and sly asides is a testament to the brilliance of intellect. James is a new American classic.
If you’re new to Percival Everett I’d highly recommend The Trees. More outstanding reading.
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*I received a free copy of this book from Doubleday Books in exchange for an honest review.*
A very compelling review that makes me eager to read the book. I remember writing an essay in high school on the question of whether Huck Finn was a racist book. I’m sure I’d squirm to read my naive and ignorant remarks from then, and I know I still have a lot to learn.
Understood. Gone with the Wind was a favorite book and movie of mine when I was younger, but in watching the movie recently I was appalled at how the Black actors had to behave.
I am definitely going to read this.
It is such an important book. That it comes at a time when certain states are banning tens of thousands of books from schools and public libraries only makes it more important.
I heard your review of it on the podcast, which was excellent. I just revisited Huck Finn to get some context …. so I will read this one down the line. I need a break from Huck first. James will be tough but good.
Wow. I’m not sure I could read Huck Finn again. You definitely need a breather.