Review of James by Percival Everett

[chris_gerrib]

James by Percival Everett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I discovered this author when I saw the movie "American Fiction" based on an early novel by him. I decided to buy this book rather than go back to the earlier work.

James is a retelling of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of Jim, the runaway slave befriended by Huck. It's been decades since I read Huckleberry Finn, and that may have been an abridged version, but I didn't remember the two characters being separated as often as they were in this story. Of course, In Twain's story, Jim is a side character.

There's a major conceit in the story - the slaves, when among themselves, speak proper English, and save the "yes, suh, massah," dialect for when among whites as a self-protection mechanism. The story is a grim and direct look at slavery and race, with several black characters passing for white. There is a twist at the end and overall it was a very engrossing book. I highly recommend it.



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