Before I begin, I highly recommend that you read this book! The reason I wanted to read it was because it was supposed to flesh out the story of Huckleberry Finn, which is one of my all-time favourite books. Well, this book did have Huck Finn and the slave Jim in it, but it is definitely not a children's book. Percival Everett is a marvellous author. This is the first book that I have read of his, but I've marked the rest of his backlist now. The book is quite simply, brilliant! The characters are living, breathing human beings. The story is gripping and it filled me with a sense of dread and hope from the very first page. Even with the graphic nature of the subject, the book retains a soft sense of humour and portrays random human goodness. I always loved Jim in Huckleberry Finn, but this book portrays his intelligence, compassion, warmth and his total understanding of the entire human race. In this book we see Jim and Huck paddling down the Mississippi River. Their journey is fraught with danger and extreme stealth is required because Jim is a runaway slave, and there are bulletins promising a reward for his capture. On their journey Huck and Jim meet all kinds of different people. I couldn't help but think that this plethora of characters and their various shenanigans is closely linked to Mark Twain's writing. Twain's characters were very singular and unforgettable, and there was good and bad among them. Everett's characters are like this too and they are all so believable. This book is a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and I hope that the judges realize what they have here in this unforgettable novel, and award him the top prize. ( )

Stylistically brilliant and purposeful retelling of the story of Huck Finn and Jim on the Mississippi River, from the point of view of Jim, or James, as he calls himself. James and Huck meet on the island in the river off the coast of Hannibal, Missouri, both escaping terrible fates: James is about to be sold away from his wife and daughter, Huck is escaping his brutal father.

As Everett says, Twain could not tell Jim's story, because he could not really know Jim's story. In this story, James has taught himself to read and is more educated than most of the whites who surround him. He speaks a Southern slave Blacklish to avoid their detection.

At every point in this riveting story, I was routing for James to survive and gain his freedom. This is a masterpiece, one that should be read in high schools along with Huckleberry Finn. ( )

I think I need to sit with this, and perhaps after doing that I will augment this review. Or maybe I don't have a lot to say about this masterpiece. It is tragic, action-packed, funny and redemptive and it tells the story of a real man and of America, then and now. In his GR interview, Everett said he could not have told Huck's story, and that Twain couldn't write this story. I kept remembering that as I listened to this audiobook, and though I would never have had that thought independently it feels absolutely accurate. (The narration by Dominic Hoffman is stellar by the way.) I have read Huck Finn five times and listened to the audio with my then teenage son on a road trip to Memphis. It is one of my favorite books. While I think the grounding in the original may have made me love this a hair more, I don't think it was necessary. This stands on its own, though knowing the basics of the original would be helpful. In the end, the books have very little to do with one another, they are as related and as unrelated as Brave New World is to The Tempest. A new classic is born. ( )

A retelling of Huckleberry Finn from Jim's (aka James) point of view. I really enjoyed the telling of the story (though it's got some very raw moments, that fit the times in which it was written) and the authors style of writing. One of my favorite 2024 reads.

when the slave James learns that he is about to be sold, he decides to hide out on Jackson Island until he can make a plan. Down the Mississippi he goes with Huck but told from his viewpoint. Jim is shown to be intelligent, compassionate, and brave. ( )