You may or may not know that Percival Everett is an acclaimed American author and professor best known for his satirical novels that explore race and identity, and that he has written over 30 books, including Erasure, I Am Not Sidney Poitier, The Trees, and James.
Everett has received numerous awards, including the National Book Award for Fiction in 2024 for the James.
A friend loaned me a copy of The Trees and I was immediately hooked on Everett’s story telling. I had to read more of his books. So I picked up James.
I’ll file James under the “Oh my word, is this ever an incredible story”. Honestly, you need to read this book.
A funny thing that Everett said when he was being interviewed about what he did before writing James, he said that he read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain’s book 15 times cover to cover before beginning to write James.
You may wonder why he would read somebody else’s book 15 times before beginning to write his own book.
The answer is actually quite simple. James is a sort of retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – from the character Jim’s (James) point of view.
Now, if you have read Huckleberry Finn, then you know the awful name that they called James in that book. It is a horribly racist name and does not deserve, and will not be repeated.
Anyway, as you may or may not know, Huckleberry Finn is a kind of carefree, fun adventure that Huckleberry Finn, better known as Huck, has after he runs away from his drunk and abusive father.
Huck is a white teenager of about 14 years and while he is running away from an abusive dad, he travels along the Mississippi River by raft and other means, on a fun adventure.
Contrasting the fun and carefree sort of adventure that Huck is on, James’ trip along the river is a story of his “adventure” as he travels with the very real threat of death always present.
The story starts when James, the protagonist finds out that his owner, yes, if you can imagine he is owned by another human being, plans to sell him to another slave owner miles away from his current home.
Miles away from his current home, as well as away from his wife and daughter.
When James learns this news, he decides to run away, go to another state where he can be free, and earn money so that he can buy his wife and daughter’s freedom.
James has runaway from his slave owner and is hiding on an island until he can leave for a safer location. Unbeknownst to James, Huck Finn has also runaway and has made his way to to the same island.
When Huck tells James what he has done, James says, “Oh no, now they’ll be searching for me now just because I’m a runaway slave but also because they’ll assume I murdered you. And now they’re guaranteed to lynch me now.”
Huck’s adventure has created a life threatening situation for James.
Anyway, I’m not going to retell the entire story. Get yourself a copy of James and read this book yourself.
It is very eye opening for those of us who have never seen the world through the eyes of a person like James.