James
Ratings16
Average rating4.6
15
Ratings16
Average rating4.6
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 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 the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a “literary icon” (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature. --penguinrandomhouse.com
Reviews with the most likes.
What an instant iconic book. Everything from the deeper and complex character construction, to expanding the literary world in which its based. This may be based on our past but so eerily familiar of our present. This book itself defies itself from any perception.
Even as someone who hasn't read Huckleberry Finn in a long time - you don't need to - to understand that this book is the ultimate companion and must read.
“With my pencil, I wrote myself into being. I wrote myself to here.”
The first third alternated between annoying and compelling. Then something flipped inside me: the more farfetched the story became, the more immersed I got in it and the more I came to love it. I think it’s because my expectations weren’t well suited to the book: although the content is harsh and sobering, the presentation is more yarn than epic. Everett was channeling Twain. With the right expectations I think you, too, will love this.
James is a wonderful new take on Huckleberry Finn. Jim is enslaved, and he learns that he is to be sold. He hides on a nearby island while he can formulate a plan, and his friend, Huck, joins him.
Jim and Huck have many adventures, including a flood, trying to con two con artists, and more. This book gives readers both a new look at Jim as well as a new look at the horrors of enslavement.
I started Erasure and Dr. No a few days after finishing James. Trees is waiting on my shelf. Believe that James struck me. It did. But James may as well be called Erasure 2 for all that Everett presents James like trussed up veal to be guiltily picked over.
