James

Genre

Literary Fiction

Publisher

Doubleday

Publication year

2024

ISBN

9780385550369

James retells Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim, an enslaved man who escapes to avoid being sold and separated from his family. Percival Everett reworks the familiar journey down the Mississippi to foreground language, literacy and self-possession. The novel...

Percival Everett takes one of the most argued-over figures in American literature and hands him the pen. Retelling Huckleberry Finn from Jim's point of view, James reveals a man who conceals his intelligence and command of language as a survival strategy, performing the dialect white society expects while thinking in a wholly different register. The conceit is bracing and often mordantly funny, but Everett never lets wit soften the horror of the world he depicts. What emerges is both a thrilling escape narrative and a sharp inquiry into how stories get told and who is allowed to tell them. Everett writes with economy and blade-like irony, trusting readers to feel the gap between what James says aloud and what he privately knows. For anyone who met Twain in school, the novel offers a profound corrective; for newcomers, it stands entirely on its own. It is a landmark reworking that speaks directly to present arguments about race, canon and voice.