Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a classic in American juvenile fiction. Set in 1880s Missouri, it’s the story of the friendship between a young white boy and a black slave, both on the run, from a violent father and a slave owner. Much loved for its portrayal of youthful adventure, Huckleberry Finn, packed with racial stereotypes and the N-word, makes for uncomfortable reading today. In James by Percival Everett, we get the story from the black man’s perspective, and it’s far cry from the charming adventure story so many readers have come to love.
Jim – or James, his real name – his wife and daughter are the property of Miss Watson. Routinely beaten, James knows that playing stupid is the best way to avoid abuse. He’s anything but stupid, secretly reads philosophy books and teaches the slave kids to read. Language matters and James adapts what he calls a ‘slave filter’ when he speaks, the black vernacular his ‘Massa’ expects.
When Miss Watson plans to sell him, separating him from his family, James decides to flee. Huckleberry Finn is also on the run and the two join forces, find a raft and travel down the Mississippi towards Illinois and freedom.
James meets all kinds of twisted people on his ‘adventure’ and pretty much everyone lets him down. No one can be trusted, even fellow blacks. In his dreams, Jim confronts the thinkers whose stance on equality made them famous champions of democracy and human rights. Except, they failed to include blacks in those rights. God, it seems, has also forgotten blacks.
James has been described as a funny book. I don’t necessarily agree with that, although there plenty are of darkly comical moments. What made this book stand out for me was the deeply felt situation James finds himself in and his relentless pursuit of the basic right to be free. James is a convincing and relatable character and when it all goes terribly wrong we can’t help but understand that too. A great addition to African American historical fiction and very much recommended.
James by Percival Everett is published by Mantle, 320 pages.
