I’d heard so much about this book, and now I completely understand why it’s won so many awards. A retelling of a story—from an alternative perspective. It feels gritty, fresh and powerful! It’s so beautifully written that it blends rawness with humour and stands out as one of the most compelling literary works I’ve read in a long time. The story follows Jim (James) as he runs away before being sold, driven by the desperate hope of returning to and reuniting with his family. The bond between Jim and Huck is captivating, and their journey is filled with tension, fear, and the constant struggle to survive. The anxiety feels tense and real!The pain is written and displayed with such emotion that I could feel the fear, the anger, and the resilience in every sentence.So many lines don't just land...they hit hard—not just because of how they’re written, but because of the truths they carry. Definitely one to read if you haven't so far!

Everett has taken a classic, completely flipped it on its head, and added his satirical writing style to make it unputdownable! I loved James' narration. His spark, his intellect, his logical musings, and fantastical dreams. Everett has taken the slave Jim from Huckleberry Finn and given him a purpose, a strength, and a spirit to move mountains. James has a depth to his character that was missing while still connecting him to Huck for eternity. James gives a voice to that time period. It's a voice to the plight within the history of black people in the American South. It gives a secondary character a political voice and the ability to change the future. And Percival Everett was robbed! James fully deserves all of the awards it was up for this year!

A retelling of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", told from the perspective of Jim (or James), the runaway slave with whom Huck escapes their Missouri town. Huck and Jim take a raft down the Mississippi and head for the free state of Illinois, away from Huck's abusive father and the slaver who wants to sell Jim away from his wife and daughter. NB I have used the name Jim in this review, rather than James, as it is what he is called for most of the book. Content warning: extreme violence (including against children), racism and frequent racist language, sexual assault and rape This is a warm, dark, funny and terribly sad account of Jim and Huck's "adventures". It fills in Jim's story in those parts where he and Huck are separated, but also gives us an insight into his view of their relationship, his account of what happens to them on their travels. This doesn't necessarily contradict Twain/Huck's version, but like all accounts of past events, it will vary depending on who's telling it, whose eyes we're seeing it through. Everett imbues the well-known story with his trademark satire. Quickly, we learn that the way Jim and the other black characters in Twain's story speak is a camouflage, a performance, to make them less threatening to the white characters. When they are together and not hiding, they are more eloquent and intelligent than they can let the white people see; not unlike Monk's alter ego of Stagg R Leigh in Everett's "Erasure". When Huck plays tricks on Jim in the original story, he may not have him as fooled as he believes. Jim is, after all, a grown man with a wife and child, who has travelled and been subjected to terrible treatment. He is not naive. Jim has a great fondness for Huck still. He is a grown man who has had this boy thrust in his care, a boy who has been beaten and neglected. Jim's parental instinct often conflicts with his survival instincts. Protecting Huck isn't necessarily the quickest way for him to get free and get money together to save his wife and Lizzie. At times, he is tempted to abandon the boy, to save his own skin. After all, the risks to him of being caught are far greater than those to a white child. Of course, the subject of slavery is tackled more directly than in the original story. As in "The Trees", Everett isn't afraid to use humour alongside exploration of the monstrous side of humankind. Even in the original, Jim is running away because the woman who owns him wishes to sell him, separating him from his wife and child, probably forever. Everett merely asks us to consider the true extent of the barbarity of his black characters' experiences. Even a group of self-proclaimed abolitionists demonstrate horrendous bigotry when they believe Jim has wronged them. Another masterpiece from Percival Everett, JAMES is an incredibly multi-faceted book, about slavery and human cruelty and at the same time, love and friendship. Everett has so much to say with each of his novels and he does so with great nuance, intelligence and humility. If this isn't a shoe-in for the Pulitzer and Booker nomination, I don't know what is.

This was astonishingly good. I grew up reading Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer and of the two stories I always preferred Tom Sawyer because it wasn't as scary and obviously problematic. I couldn't imagine what Percival Everett would do to a story that was already so firmly embedded in my imagination. What he did with it was to give it a totally new life without destroying the original tale. It is a seamless merging of old and new in such a way that held me from the first page. I loved this. I started and finished it in one day because I absolutely had to know what happened. I literally couldn't put it down. Sharp, clever, angry and so full of heart and soul. It's a masterpiece. James is a triumph as a character and as a voice of the oppressed.

This book is incredible, I hope it replaces 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' in popular culture and on school syllabus everywhere. I love these kinds of revisits to Classics and this book does a fantastic job of challenging and adding to the original while working on its own terms as well.