About the Book
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024
'Truly extraordinary books are rare, and this is one of them' - Roddy Doyle, Booker Prize-winning author of Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha
James by Percival Everett is a profound and ferociously funny reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, told from the perspective of the enslaved Jim. From the author of The Trees, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Erasure, adapted into the Oscar-winning film American Fiction.
The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he flees to nearby Jackson's Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father who recently returned to town.
So begins a dangerous and transcendent journey along the Mississippi River, towards the elusive promise of the free states and beyond. As James and Huck navigate the treacherous waters, each bend in the river holds the promise of both salvation and demise. And together, the unlikely pair embark on the most life-changing odyssey of them all . . .
'Who should read this book? Every single person in the country' - Ann Patchett, bestselling author of Tom Lake
'James has the potential to become a classic . . . Thrilling, bold and profound' - The Sunday Times
'Funny, wise, gracious; this may be Everett's best book yet' - Bonnie Garmus, bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry
'Magnificent . . . Everett's most thrilling novel, but also his most soulful ' - The New York Times
About the Author :
Percival Everett is the author of over thirty books, including So Much Blue, Telephone, Dr. No and The Trees, which was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize and won the 2022 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. He has received the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the PEN Center USA Award for Fiction, has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California. His novel Erasure has been adapted into the Oscar-winning film American Fiction. He lives in Los Angeles.
Review :
A captivating response to Mark Twain’s classic that is both a bold exploration of a dark chapter in history and a testament to the resilience of the human spirit
I’m demanding that you read Percival Everett’s novel James, in which Everett takes the camera from Twain’s Huck Finn and hands it to the slave, Jim. Truly extraordinary books are rare, and this is one of them
James is funny and horrifying, brilliant and riveting. In telling the story of Jim instead of Huckleberry Finn, Percival Everett delivers a powerful, necessary corrective to both literature and history. I found myself cheering both the writer and his hero. Who should read this book? Every single person in the country
Pure brilliance. Funny, wise, gracious; this may be Everett's best book yet
Percival Everett is a giant of American letters, and James is a canon-shatteringly great book. Unforgiving and compassionate, beautiful and brutal, a tragedy and a farce, this brilliant novel rewrites literary history to let us hear the voices it has long suppressed
My favourite novel this year was James by Percival Everett. By giving the runaway Jim from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn his own voice (or voices) and his dignity – James, not Jim – he adds a dimension that’s missing from the original, and, I think, improves on it
Scorchingly funny . . . A significant and exhilarating corrective to history, told in the most compelling of voices
Playful and viciously comic . . . James might be the book of the year and ought to have won the Booker Prize
Percival Everett’s magisterial satire James [is] an essential rewrite of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn
One of the novels of the year . . . [It] is both true to the original and turns it entirely on its head. Crackling with insight and wit
You will never think of Mark Twain's seminal 19th-century novel in the same way again, as Everett's version is subversive, clever and exciting, while also being a rollicking good read
James by Percival Everett [is] such a brilliant retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of the enslaved Jim, resisting and rebelling against underestimation and oppression. A wise and profound book – and funny too
James by Percival Everett is more than a retelling of a classic; it is a reclamation, somehow a homage and a rebuke – a retelling that centres a man we only previously accessed through the lens of a child. It is a wry, wise, funny and touching book that I would gift to strangers on the street if I could
Funny, moving, beautifully written, Percival Everett’s retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a brave thing to do – but Everett is a fitting match for Mark Twain
Original, funny, quirky and serious without being solemn
Choosing the best book of the year is usually a test . . . But this year Percival Everett’s James . . . is so dazzling that it deserves wide appreciation and acknowledgement . . . [It] will surely become a classic to be read alongside Twain
Gripping, painful, funny, horrifying . . . a consummate performance to the last
This is the work of an American master at the peak of his powers
Both a page-turner and a profound meditation on the ramifications of slavery and self-hood . . . Luminous
A classic novel overhauled by a modern master
Percival Everett is an essential writer and James may be his greatest novel yet
A sharp novel . . . You may think you know Huck Finn’s story but this version breathes new life into it with unexpected twists and turns making it a must-read
Majestic . . . [James] is Everett’s most thrilling novel, but also his most soulful
American literature’s philosopher king — and its sharpest satirist
[An] ingenious retelling of The Adverntures of Huckleberry Finn . . . Everett has outdone himself
The audacious and prolific Everett dives into the very heart of Twain's epochal odyssey
An absolutely essential read
Clever, soulful, and full of righteous rage . . . James is destined to become a modern classic
To call James a retelling would be an injustice. Everett sends Mark Twain’s classic through the looking glass. What emerges is no longer a children’s book, but a blood-soaked historical novel stripped of all ornament . . . Genius
‘[A] careful and thought-provoking auditing of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . . . broadening our understanding of an endangered classic by bringing out the tragedy behind the comic façade
In a fever dream of a retelling, the new reigning king of satire, Percival Everett, has turned one of America's best loved classics, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, upside down . . . a startling homage and a new classic in its own right
Heir to Mark Twain’s satirical vision, Everett turns a boyhood memoir into a neo-fugitive slave narrative thriller . . . a provocative, enlightening work of literary art
[A] sly response to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . . . James both honors and interrogates Huck Finn, along with the nation that reveres it
Once you’ve picked up Everett’s James, a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, you’ll know that only Everett could take on the task of allowing Mark Twain’s character Jim to show what was missing from the original story
Audacious. . . Everett [gives] Jim – who, we learn, prefers to be called James – his agency, letting his intelligence and compassion shine through
[Percival Everett is a] prolific genius . . . If anyone is poised to casually write a masterpiece that not only becomes instant canon but also sets a brush fire to the current ones it stands upon, it’s Everett. And that’s exactly what he’s done with James
Everett's latest dazzling novel is a supplement and a rebuke, a corrective and a celebration of Mark Twain's [The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]
[James] abounds in satire and irony . . . Like Kafka, [Percival Everett] is capable at once of being scarily funny and chillingly serious
By recasting Twain’s flawed classic as a portrait of an enslaved man – in all the fullness of his courage, humanity and humour – Everett leaves a meaningful mark on American letters
The wit of the writing and the fascinating examination into the freeing power of language preserves the charm and action-packed adventure of [The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn], while cleverly – and at times harrowingly – deconstructing its flaws
James is a masterful reimagining of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . . . [Percival Everett] has written a classic
James, Percival Everett’s reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, was the pick of the Booker list – a nerveless triumph of tone
Impudent and satirical, Everett demands courageous open-mindedness from his readers
Devastating . . . [James's] fearsome transformation is marked not only in the title, but also in [the novel's] final words
In an astounding riposte, Everett rewrites Huckleberry Finn as the liberation narrative of the enslaved man Huck befriends. Determined to rescue his wife and daughter, James 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
Percival Everett’s rewriting of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn won the Pulitzer and was shortlisted for the Booker. More importantly, it’s a great yarn
Impressive as well as enjoyable - as indeed are all the six or so of Everett’s books I have read
A fiercely clever (and funny) page turner
If the mark of a good novel is that it changes your perspective, and the characters stay in your heart for a long time, then this book knocks it out of the park
