BY ANNE CROWLEY
What the experts said:
“A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – both harrowing and ferociously funny – told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view.
“When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father… thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.
“Brimming with the electrifying humour and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim’s agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before.” (goodreads.com)
My thoughts:
Jim led a double life, feigning ignorance and illiteracy to stay under the radar rather than attract the wrath of his white slave owners. In fact, he was a well-read philosophically and strategically-thinking man, living by his values including honour and kindness – and he had a great sense of humour.
Jim is a likeable character, through whose eyes we gain an insight into the experience of slaves in the southern states of America – generally appalling, often outrageous, and at times hilarious. My favourite quote comes after a bizarre situation where Jim was enlisted as a member of a travelling minstrel group and was required to use black face (as did the white members of the group) so people would think he was white pretending to be black – he could not be discovered to actually be black. He says: “Never had a situation felt so absurd, surreal and ridiculous. And I had spent my life as a slave!”
We see Jim, after many dangerous encounters, eventually claim his truth proudly and become James. I believe there was a turning point where, having numerous times been ‘damned if I do and damned if I don’t’ he finally chose DO.
I really enjoyed the book – far more than Huckleberry Finn, which I read after James and found impenetrable in terms of the slave lingo and really annoying in the depiction of the so gullible and ignorant Jim.
Almost all my book club friends also really enjoyed it – bar one, who found it contrived and unbelievable. Life would be dull if we all thought the same way! I’d recommend it.
