Review: James by Percival Everett

 

A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature. ~ GoodreadsSource: ALC provided by Libro.fm & Knopf Doubleday in exchange for an honest review

Review: I'm sure I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn back in school but I no recollection, other than than scenes from the 1993 movie. In my child memory - it was just a story about a series of adventures of a young boy. Percival Everett, flips that narrative on it's head by telling the story from the POV of the enslaved Jim (James).

Jim hears that he is about to be sold to a new owner and be separated from his wife and daughter. He decides to run away and lay low while he formulates a plan to get himself out of this and reunite with his family.  

At the same time, Huck fakes his own death to escape his abusive father. Huck has a friendship, of sorts, with Jim and they venture on a perilous journey down the Mississippi River to avoid capture.

I'll just touch on a few things I took note of with this novel. For one, Huck sees this trip as an adventure, not understanding the implications for Jim. 

Huck has certainly been through bad things and, even at 10 years old, understands that Jim is good and slavery is wrong, but just being a runaway slave at the same time as Huck's "death" puts Jim in extreme danger, as the likely murderer. Being found with Huck would present its own problems. While Huck might get a whipping (awful!), Jim would be hanged. 

There are times that a young Huck acts out towards Jim, as a 10 year old would, when he feels betrayed or lied to, or just isn't allowed the adventures he wants. These are life-saving acts of preservation for Jim but the actions of petulant child, without greater understanding by Huck. 

Secondly, Jim engages in code-switching for white people. He is well educated (self taught by reading most of his enslavers expansive library) and is able to write but this is something he only shares with certain people. Not even Huck. While educating a group of enslaved children, he explains why it's vital to use incorrect grammar or what he calls the "slave filter" language rather than letting the slave owners know they were educated. 

"The children said together, “And the better they feel, the safer we are.”
“February, translate that.”
“Da mo’ betta dey feels, da mo’ safer we be.”
“Nice.”

The mere idea of slaves that can become educated, teach other slaves, making the enslavers feel less than superior was a huge threat. Education was an act of defiance.

Finally, there was an instance where Jim was sold to a Minstrel Show - a troupe of singers in blackface. They needed a tenor and the owner hears Jim singing (while under the brutality of yet another enslaver he meets on his "adventure"). The troupe is very proud of themselves as "good" white people. They don't believe in slavery but aren't abolitionists and use the paper saying they own Jim to their benefit. They put Jim in better clothes and feed him so they are able to believe they are the good guys. But this is the most farcical situation of them all. 

Jim, a Black man, in blackface, singing with white men in blackface to make fun of Black people, for the entertainment of white people. While the cover of the troupe might seem safer, his natural hair and mannerisms attract the curiosity of white people. How is he SO good at playing Black? They want to touch his hair to see why his "wig" is so much better than the other singers, a woman shows interest which all poses danger for Jim. 

The owner of the minstrel show also sees an opportunity to keep re-selling Jim. In this scheme, Jim is supposed to keep running away and go back just to be sold again - as a way to make enough money for his owner and to earn enough for himself to free his wife and daughter. Provided the owner would set him free and give him the money. The gist of this experience and every other that Jim endures is - he's never truly free. 

James is a powerful, layered story filled with adventure, danger, betrayal, and a few twists. The story is scattered with songs from the minstrel show - which added a lot of depth as Jim takes the versions sung by the white people - used to mock - and tries to write a more honest version. 

There were a few things that didn't quite work for me like the hallucinations where Jim had fevered, philosophical conversations with Voltaire and John Locke. I also felt the female characters didn't have anywhere near the same nuance and agency that Jim did. They were mostly someone's wife or daughter and raped/killed, although none of it was gratuitous and it was clear that this was all horrible and an everyday part of slavery. 

I understand that a book can't be all things to all people. This was one experience of one man, so I get it, but it felt like a glaring omission in opposition to how well Jim and some of the other, male, side characters were developed.  

The book drifts from horrific to light to mundane. Sometimes that seemed off as far as pacing. While I originally felt this was a flaw, in retrospect, it felt more like the weariness and wearing down of Jim throughout the story. There were no reprieves or moments where he could let his guard down, but you grab on to those small moment of quiet or good when you can before the next blow.

I highly recommend the audiobook if you decide to read James. The narrator - Dominic Hoffman was amazing.