James

This widely praised retelling of the Huckleberry Finn story by Percival Everett has won both the Pulitzer for fiction (2025) and the National Book Award for fiction (2024) and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. We are reading this for our book group in October; I have been wanting to read it for several months and feel richly rewarded for doing so. The basic premise is to retell Twain's novel from the perspective of Jim the slave, or as Everett put it, it's a conversation with Twain about a book he could not have written at the time.

Several of the "set pieces" from Huckleberry Finn are maintained while others are added to help create the character of James, a secret reader and philosopher. Library Journal succinctly notes that "The rules of engagement for Black people encountering white people are brutally clear in 1830s Missouri, a state with enslavement. Don't ever make a white person think you know something he doesn't, or you'll pay. " James teaches the local children how to code-switch --using slave speak--within hearing range of whites even though his vocabulary and grammar are far superior to those of his enslavers. They go on in their review, praising the "fast and furious" action, the attention grabbing characters, and an unexpected reveal that "changes the nature of Huck and Jim's relationship dramatically." They conclude by saying that "Everett ...has written an even richer and penetrating Adventures than Twain's already rich masterpiece."

James decides to run when he learns that he is to be sold down river and separated from his family. Huck decides to fake his death to avoid the severe beatings of his father and stumbles into Jim on a small island in the Mississippi River. Booklist summarizes the story's trajectory: "When he is accused of robbery and murder, James flees with an initially gleeful Huck, who only gradually understands the terrifying reality of being a Black man with a price on his head. As Huck comes to acknowledge the depth of his relationship with James, and the "slave's" profound gifts, the boy is forced to recognize the illogic of white supremacy and privilege. Meanwhile James, determined to return and rescue his wife and daughter, takes the story in a completely different direction than the original, exemplifying the relentless courage and moral clarity of an honorable man with nothing to lose."  

Publishers Weekly calls this an "ingenuous retelling" of the classic tale noting that "Everett also pares down the prose and adds humor in place of sentimentality. " They conclude that "Everett has outdone himself." Kirkus praises "One of the noblest characters in American literature gets a novel worthy of him." The New York Times calls this "...Everett’s most thrilling novel, but also his most soulful."