James

James ~ Percival Everett

James is an enslaved man on a plantation in Missouri on the Mississippi River. He lives there with his wife and daughter, and he teaches the children on the plantation how to stay as safe as possible in the presence of white people. How to code speak, avoid eye contact, play dumb, pretend to be superstitious, that kind of thing. There are two white boys, Huckleberry “Huck” Finn and Tom Sawyer, who like to play pranks on James, and he pretends to be frightened or worried or whatever will make them happy. When James learns that he is to be sold, he runs away, hoping to camp out on a nearby island in the river, and then to come back and get his wife and daughter. Things get messy when he discovers that Huck is already on the island, and he worries that now he will be hunted not only for running, but also for kidnapping Huck.

James is sort of the retelling of Mark Twain’s classic novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, in that the characters are the same, and some of the events are the same. But it is definitely its own novel. Everett brings the dates forward a few decades, to the early days of the Civil War. There are major differences in the narrative as well. Retellings of famous literary works can be horrible, and can sometimes come across as parody. In the right hands, they can be masterful. James is masterful. James is a character of deep thought and intelligence, of humanity and curiosity, who reads and writes, dreams of philosophers and converses with them about the evils that men do.

While Huck seeks adventure and counts Jim amongst his closest friends, James knows the danger he is in, knows the consequences if he is found, if he reveals himself too clearly to a white person, even his friend Huck. He knows the danger for a black man to be perceived as looking at a white woman, to be perceived as considering themselves above their station, to be perceived as clever or competent, all while being required to master skills that require cleverness and competency. I loved every minute of this book, even while I was often very worried for its inhabitants. Highly recommended. I listened to the audio book, which was excellent.

James was chosen as this year’s book for Read Contra Costa, put on by our local libraries to encourage residents to come together to read and discuss the same book. The culmination was a conversation with the author, Percival Everett, held at a local community college, which occurred yesterday. Ted and I went and were among the 400 people present, and there were a further 1,000 attending via Zoom. He discussed his writing process, his inspiration for the book, his admiration and dislike for Mark Twain. He said that he had 4 main inspirations for humor and irony in his life: his father, Mark Twain, Groucho Marx, and Bullwinkle the Moose. I was very glad that we went, and Ted got his copy of the book signed. It was a really enjoyable event.