James in Reading with Style

Jun 26, 2024 Joanna rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2024-read, rws-2024-summer

How is it possible that I've never read anything else by Percival Everett? He's written more than 20 books and never managed to be on my radar before this one. In any event, I adored this Huck Finn retelling. It's razor-sharp, keeps to the tone of the original, yet has something important to add.

I'm really looking forward to discussing this book with my book clubs. I think this will generate some important and interesting conversations both about the literary choices being made here and about t ...more

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Apr 30, 2024 Joy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, 5-star, literary-fiction, 2024

Searing and brilliant. I started it before bed and then stayed up reading the whole book. No, you do not need to have read or remember Huck Finn.

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Apr 21, 2025 Bucket rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-about-books, reviewed, history, literary, culture, life-and-death, race, communication, adventure, class

James was a fantastic reading experience. It's well-written, it's challenging, and it pays respect to Mark Twain without any sort of fawning or homage. It's more than a commentary -- James is a sparring partner for The Adventures of Huck Finn. It feels like the other side of the story that was always missing is now here, and both sides push and pull on each other.

James' code-switching was a brilliant choice and it works so well all throughout the story - it fits right in line with the Jim of Twa James was a fantastic reading experience. It's well-written, it's challenging, and it pays respect to Mark Twain without any sort of fawning or homage. It's more than a commentary -- James is a sparring partner for The Adventures of Huck Finn. It feels like the other side of the story that was always missing is now here, and both sides push and pull on each other.

James' code-switching was a brilliant choice and it works so well all throughout the story - it fits right in line with the Jim of Twain's book, while also pointing out that as accurate as Twain was there was much he could not and would not see and hear as a white man. It also serves as humor here and there, it deeply humanizes Jim, it illuminates how much Jim's (and every slave's) life might depend on a word or a look. They can make no mistakes. And it puts in sharp relief how much the white people hid the humanity of Black people from themselves. To the point that they are more bewildered and frightened than angry or dictatorial by Jim's true voice.

Some quotes I marked:

"You're saying we're equal, but also inferior," I said.
"Ain't no such things as rights," I said.
Drowning to death always made a person more interesting, but I wanted, at that moment, to be, to remain, as boring as possible.
I had already come to understand the tidiness of lies, the lesson learned from the stories told by white people seeking to justify my circumstance.

John Locke "Some might say that my views on slavery are complex and multifaceted."
"Convoluted and multifarious."
"Well reasoned and complicated."
"Entangled and problematic."
"Sophisticated and intricate."
"Labyrinthine and Daedalean."
"Oh, well played, my dark friend."

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

"Belief has nothing to do with the truth. Believe what you like. Believe I'm lying and move through the world as a white boy. Believe I'm telling the truth and move through the world as a white boy anyway. Either way, no difference."

White people often spent time admiring their survival of one thing or another. I imagined it was because so often they had no need to survive, but only to live. ...more

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Feb 04, 2025 Krista rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction-usa, audio-library-libby, race-relations, fiction-award-winner, historical-fiction, setting-usa, time-1850-1899, 2025-books-read, fiction, retellngs

Now I'm going to need to read Huckleberry Finn! This was a great (if sometimes hard to stomach) book.

This retelling of Twain's classic book, but told from Jim's perspective is wonderful. I listened to parts of it on Audio, and the narrator made the dialogue come alive. ...more

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