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4.5 

James: A Novel

By Percival Everett
James: A Novel by Percival Everett digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

While many narrative set pieces of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.

Brimming with electrifying humor and lacerating observations, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.

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58 Reviews

4.5
“I was swept up in the hype, tbh. But the hype is justified. I loved seeing Huckleberry Finn through James's eyes. It was beautiful, gut wrenching, and at times really funny. This is Literature at its finest. The audiobook performance was amazing and I'm glad I read it in that medium.”
Smiling Face with Heart-Eyes“Percival Everett's "James" was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2024 and when reading it one can see why it did. While many would consider it an entry into the trend of creating stories from minor characters from long-lasting stories, "James" offers its readers a fresh perspective into this literary movement. While Mark Twain's original story was Huckleberry Finn's adventure, this story, narrated solely in Jim's POV, sheds a much needed light on the true socio-political context of Civil War era America. The concept of "slave speech" being added as a narrative technique to highlight the slaves' need to survive in a white world is on one hand disturbing but also provides a ironic comedic relief throughout the novel. Everett does a great job in showing us a multitude of characters that stand out including the White-passing Norman, the 15 year old slave girl Sammy, and Brock, the slave who likes being a slave. It serves to add to the already rich narrative providing a much needed outlook into the complexities of the African-American experience which can easily be paralleled to modern day society. Simply speaking, I, as a reader, loved it, and would love to recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the complex nuances and dynamics of Civil War America.”

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