A review by just_one_more_paige
James by Percival Everett

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

 
Ok, I thought I should (and so was planning to) reread Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn before picking this up. But here's the thing...I don't think I remember liking it the first time I read it (or at least, I wasn't into it enough to want to read it again). Then, James was getting so much freaking notice and praise and I wanted to see what it was about for myself. And I realized that, if I waited for a Huck Finn reread, I might never read this. So, I said "F that" to the reread, and jumped right into James with nothing but the vague memories from a childhood read as context.   
 
So, James is, at base, a retelling of Huck Finn. But, in the grand contemporary tradition of retellings, it's told from a new (and historically silenced) perspective...in this case: Jim, the (escaped) enslaved man that Huck adventures down the Mississippi with. The two have a number of adventures, relayed in an episodic sort of narrative style, both together and in moments of separation (which, in this case, means the reader gets the story of Jim's experiences, during those times). From snakebites to con men to being part of a blackface minstrel group, along with the myriad quotidian dangers and terrors of being Black in a slave state (or really, in America), Jim travels up and down the Mississippi trying to stay alive, find his way back to his wife and daughter, and find a way towards freedom as a family. Oh, and simultaneously, develop a deeper relationship with Huck, that takes some twists for both of them, as they spend time together. 
 
Well, I really don't think it affected my reading experience that much, to not really have the context of the original. Maybe it could have made for a more comparative review, but as far as appreciating this book....it was more than impressive enough to stand "alone," as it were. This was a superb piece of literature. The classic framework of the episodic adventure/journey is maintained, as far as I can tell, from the original. There is clearly an unfolding story, and character/relationships development, but it very much jumps from one mini-interaction/escapade to another. Not generally a story-telling style that I am drawn to. However, it is the right fit here. 
 
And the real highlight is the writing, like the words themselves, the reorienting of the narrative, and the messages it carries. The overall style is a really unique mix of the absurd and surreal with the grounded and too real. It is a masterful parody or (or satire maybe...I was never enough of a literary critic/student to truly understand the nuances of some of those differences), and some very genuine insight into, the “handling” of the fragile white consciousness that was, and is, necessary in so many ways for Black survival. It is, like I said, so real...and terrible and horrible in that reality. And it is cuttingly, like blood-drawing levels of sharp, humorous. It also read, to me, like a parable for the origins (for lack of a better word choice) of code-switching. It takes the exaggerated obsequiousness that is always written (when written by white storytellers) as the affect of enslaved people and reclaims and pulls power from that racist and biased presentation. Incredible. 
 
There is also quite a bit of philosophical exploration throughout the novel...on a number of topics related to equity, race and, ultimately, and freedom. Everett asks what those terms and constructs really mean, and in no uncertain terms, asks if they actually mean anything or if it's just power structures that have given them importance. He brings something really visceral and devastating to those conversations. The blooming relationship between Huck and Jim is both heartwarming and heartbreaking in the simultaneous tenderness and distance of the two, on their totally different planes of existence. And that ending... There was a tenuous, but palpable, power in it. One that fills, but doesn't promise. 
 
I absolutely see why this has gotten all the accolades. So well deserved. Jim's narrative voice is not one that I will soon forget. 
 
“The only ones who suffer when they are made to feel inferior is us.” (phewwwwwwww that is too real) 
 
“And the better they feel, the safer we are.” (this one too...too real) 
 
“So, if enough people do it, it’s not a crime.” (and isn’t that still the truth) 
 
“How strange a world, how strange an existence, that one's equal must argue for one's equality, that one's equal must hold a station that allows airing of that argument for oneself, that premises of said argument must be vetted by those equals who do not agree.” 
 
“At that moment, the power of reading made itself clear and real to me. If I could see the words, then no one could control them or what I got from them. They couldn't even know if I was merely seeing them or reading them, sounding them out or comprehending them. It was a completely private affair and completely free and, therefore, completely subversive.” 
 
“When you are a slave, you claim choice, where you can.” 
 
“Folks be funny lak dat. Dey takes the lies dey want and throws away the truths dat scares 'em.”    
 
“A distance you know is shorter than one you don’t.” 
 
“Belief has nothing to do with truth.” 
 
“Was it evil to kill evil?” 
 
“White people often spent time admiring their survival of one thing or another.  I imagined it was because so often they had no need to survive, but only to live.” 
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