Hello, friends! It’s been about a year since I last posted. Last year became a bit hectic after closing on my home. But I’m all settled now and ready to do better 🤣
I read some amazing books in 2024, and I will upload as many of those reviews as I can, but 2025 is off to a great start. I haven’t been disappointed yet. What better book to kick off my return than with James, by Percival Everett.
“With my pencil, I wrote myself into being.”
If any author was going to reimagine Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s perspective it would Everett, because he always does a great job tackling identity and the hypocrisy of racism in America. While Mark Twain critiques slavery in Huckleberry Finn, the narrative was centered around a white boy. In James, the story isn’t only shown through Jim’s eyes but also told in first person. Very important.
Jim is a learned man who loves teaching other enslaved people to read, write and use dialect that is more befitting of an enslaved person when around white people so the latter doesn’t feel threatened and make life even more unbearable for them. It’s funny because throughout the story, Jim forgets himself and slips into standard English, leaving white people puzzled and paranoid. In one instance, a white man is so disturbed by Jim’s speech that his imminent death is of less concern 😆
I loved that Jim interrogates the use of religion to justify slavery and especially enjoyed his dreams in which he challenges so-called enlightened thinkers Voltaire and Locke who spoke out against slavery yet benefited from it because they failed to see its brutality. A benevolent master is still a master. The act of withholding someone’s freedom is violent in and of itself.
There’s one scene that sums up the inhumanity of slavery. Jim witnesses something despicable and is unable to intervene because the world “wouldn’t let me apply justice without certain retaliation of injustice.” The helplessness and rage he feels is palpable. This lack of autonomy is why he refuses to get rid of that pencil despite knowing what would happen if it’s found on him. By writing his own story, Jim is able to validate his identity and go by his full name.
Reading about slavery is never easy, but Jim’s observational humor around the absurdity of racism makes this a brilliant story. I read along with the audiobook, and Dominic Hoffman does a fantastic job encompassing the tone of the book, Everett’s dark humor. I want to listen to other books he’s narrated. He is James.
I can’t thank Everett enough for giving James a voice. If you’ve been meaning to read Huckleberry Finn, don’t bother. Read this instead.
TW: slavery, racism, racist slurs, murder, rape, violence, child abuse
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