James by Percival Everett

 

 

In July, a small group gathered to discuss James: A Novel by Percival Everett. Remember Huckleberry Finn? Well, James takes that story of Huck and tells it from the perspective of Jim, the slave. 

We spent some time recounting what we knew about the Huckleberry Finn plot to see what storylines were present in both novels and where the two diverged. For example, [*spoilers] the snake bite, floating house, feuding families, duke and king are all a part of Everett's plot as well. There are significant twists though, especially near the end where we learn the 'true' relationship between James and Huck. 

The book was well received. The author did a great job of balancing the known plot of Huck Finn with new material that makes this novel able to stand on its own. We discussed themes of philosophy, dreams, language and identity. At times the book included difficult scenes as it dealt with topics such as slave torture and slave rape. Viewing these from the perspective of a narrator who identifies with the victims and eventually settles the score with some characters is powerful and allows us to dig deeper into this uncomfortable part of our nation's history. 

Although interesting, none of us really bought the author's idea that the slaves pretended to speak a slave language while in the presence of white people but then spoke in an educated way among themselves. It plays into the book's theme of the role of language in identity and perception of identity, but unfortunately, we didn't buy it. We all did seem comfortable with the author's reimagining of Huck and Jim's relationship though. All in all, the book stands highly recommended.

Summertime is always difficult for scheduling but Amy was able to join us briefly from Hawai'i. We look forward to meeting up with Rebecca, Karen, and Liz at future meetings and hearing about all their adventures this summer.