The novel JAMES

All the fuss about this book is well-deserved

THE NOVEL JAMES by Percival Everett has been referred to by some readers as a retelling of Mark Twain’s classic Huckleberry Finn.

No, no, no. Not really.

It true that it has Twain’s character Huck Finn in it. Tom Sawyer has a cameo appearance. But the title refers to the character called Nigger Jim who accompanied Huckleberry Finn in the novel by that name.

James is a different tale set around the of the outbreak of the American Civil War. It’s simply a stunning story, told expertly.

If reading the name Nigger Jim jolted you, my apologies. I believe in 50-plus years of professional writing I have never used it in print. But it is the character’s oft-used name in the novel, morphing to James.

Everett’s novel is so extraordinary that as soon as I finished reading it - about 15 minutes ago - I knew I need to write my reactions to it quickly while they burned hot. The hardest part as I write this screed is to not give away too many of the details of this tale.

James is a book about slavery, family, danger, relationships, redemption and above all, language. Language? Yessuh and yes. Language is clearly a major character of sorts.

My skimming of the early pages of James almost made me put it down when I slogged through some difficult dialog. But then I saw what author Everett was up to.

As the story moves along - and it does quickly - the book becomes very difficult to put down. James, the character, is the narrator. It’s his story entirely. Huck Finn is a player, too. But don’t go back and read Twain’s Huckleberry Finn as some kind of prep for reading James.

In one way, the book does mirror Huckleberry Finn. Huck and James are perpetually walking, floating on hand-built log rafts, catching and eating fish, and often eluding people looking for them. The Mississippi River is a character, too, just as it was in Twain’s novel. A river steamboat blows up, though compared to the other drama in James, it seems almost like a minor event.

Author Anne Patchett said James “delivers a powerful, necessary corrective to both literature and history…Who should read this book? Every single person in this country.”

I’m with Anne on this.