James by Percival Everett is a masterful story that is clever, creative and hugely enjoyable. James is the slave that Huckleberry Finn escaped with in the Mark Twain classic Huckleberry Finn and this is his story. We find out what happened to James when he is separated from Huck; and we realize how much danger he was really in. The characters in this one are multi-layered. This is a powerful story.

A terrific claiming of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, told from the perspective of "Jim", the enslaved man who accompanies Huck down the Mississippi. Everett gives him back a full name—James—and names are important in the book; enslaved people don't necessarily get to choose their own, and the power of choosing one, especially a surname, is recurrently evoked. James is literate, occasionally engaging in imaginary dialogues with Rousseau and Locke (paternalists and racists both). He teaches his children what amounts to a different language, the drawling, passive, infantile "dialect" that white people expect from Black people, and which is the only safe way for them to speak around whites. There's something almost Colson Whitehead-ish about it, that combination of science fictional affect and historical truth that a totally different reality underlies what the whites of Missouri believe to be their world.

Huckleberry Finn, as I said when I read it for the first time last year, is a dark, scary book: danger from the natural world, and the possibility of violence and death at the hands of other humans, suffuse it. James is just the same. Even white folks who "don't believe in" slavery are untrustworthy: Daniel Decatur Emmett, the leader of a minstrel troupe that "hires" James to be its tenor, "sounds like every slaver I ever heard" when he finds James has left in the night. Even other enslaved people can betray: Luke, a fellow sawmill worker, has internalised his position and spies for his owner. James sees whites not as the oppressors (that presupposes the existence of victims, he says), but as the enemy—yet he loves, protects and shelters Huck. The reason for that is both guessable a mile away and still made me gasp when it was finally revealed. Thank God James has something that approaches a happy ending—and it isn't, to my immense relief, Twain's ending. Beautiful work, this. Pulitzer and Booker material, I hope.

I had recently read Trees, and loved Everett’s storytelling style so much that I could resist in requesting ‘James’. Here, Percival Everett offers a daring reinvention of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" through the POV of the enigmatic Jim, now with the dignity of his own name - James. Everett bravely delves deep into the pre-Civil War American South, presenting us with a tale that's a harrowing journey to freedom and an insightful commentary on the complexities of identity and language.

James, poised to be severed from his family by slavery's cruel hand, finds an unlikely companion in young Huck Finn. The pair's voyage down the Mississippi River is as much an odyssey of self-discovery as it is a flight from oppression.

Everett's prose is just as sharp as in Trees, his narrative charge relentless; ‘James’ doesn't merely echo the classic from which it draws inspiration—it challenges it. Everett confronts the original's inherent racism and transforms it into a narrative of empowerment and enlightenment. The nuanced development of James and Huck, set against a nation on the cusp of war, showcases Everett’s literary mastery.

Percival Everett doesn't simply tell a story; he invites readers into a profound dialogue with history, the is a powerful act. Of transformative fiction at is best.

Thanks Netgalley for the advance readers copy

I'll admit, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn wasn't my favourite book growing up, however, the character Jim has always fascinated me and I wanted to read more about him over the other characters, so I was glad to find James; especially by one of my favourite authors. As with many of his other works, Percival Everett shows humour and horror side-by-side in life in this interesting work of satire as we follow Jim (we learn that his real name is James), a slave who must cultivate an act of ignorance to survive when in actuality he is a highly intelligent and insightful man compared to many of the others around him.

James is such a thought-provoking book that had me hooked cover to cover, unable to put it down. With themes of survival, identity and satire, Percival Everett shows an unflinching look into the lives of slaves in America, especially during the Civil War; a time already steeped in tension and fear.

I highly recommend James to everyone alongside all of Percival Everett's works, especially to those who enjoy seeing novels from another perspective.

Thank you, NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for sending me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What a fantastic read James is. It had my laughing with tears in my eyes!
That being said it's such a thought provoking book that makes you stand up and listen.
It's definitely not for the faint hearted there's moments in the book that made me angry, frustrated and sad.
What the author Everett has written something brilliantly unique to the market.

James takes the great novel Huckleberry Finn as a starting point, however it is told from the point of view of the slave, Jim, rather than Huck, and as their paths diverge later in the story we follow Jim to a very different outcome.
This is an unflinching look at the life of slaves in America. The cruelty and fear they live with on a day to day basis is unbearable but Percival Everett writes the slaves with intelligence and humour. Their use of “slave language” is merely to make the white people believe they are stupid and lull them into a false sense of security. Here Jim has taught himself to read and write, he runs with a clear purpose; to make money and come back for his family. Huck is useful to him as he can travel more easily in the presence of a white boy.
As their paths separate and Everett invents new trials for Jim the book really takes off. He is forced to join a minstrel group and “black up” as he needs to pass a white playing black. The dark humour doesn’t last long as he sees an even more evil side to the slave trade than he has braved before. The ending is clever and tragic all at the same time, the realisation that a slave could never really have a family life. They were lucky to be allowed to stay together if their masters chose. This is an immensely powerful novel and one that will haunt me for a long time.

'James' is a an outstanding new novel from Percival Everett, in which the writer applies many themes of his earlier work to this revisionist take on Mark Twain's 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' told from the perspective of the enslaved Jim - or, as we learn his actual name is, James.

As in 'The Trees', Everett's Booker-shortlisted novel based on the lynching of Emmett Till, humour and horror exist side-by-side in this scathing work of satire. Everett's James is a far more intelligent character than Twain's Jim appears to be - but we learn that James, like other enslaved people, must cultivate a facade of ignorance. Unlike Twain's Jim, Everett's James is thus not taken in by the pranks that Huck plays on him, but knows that he must feign an often utterly implausible degree of naivety in order to confirm Huck's impressions of him. In fact, James is highly literate and a sophisticated philosophical thinker who engages in dream dialogues with figures such as Voltaire and Locke.

This theme is particularly reflected in their use of vernacular: Everett adapts the idea of code-switching so that in this novel, Black characters have to ensure that they speak with 'the correct incorrect grammar' when white people are around: 'White folks expect us to sound a certain way, and it can only help if we don't disappoint them', James explains. Likewise, Everett suggests that 'the more you talk about God and Jesus and heaven and hell, the better they feel [...] and the better they feel, the safer we are.' Despite the novel's Civil War-era setting, Everett's concerns as ever feel strikingly contemporary, for instance mirroring his novel 'Erasure' and the film adaptation 'American Fiction' in which the Black protagonist's novels are accused of not being "black enough".

The novel offers a horrifying indictment of the evils of slavery, with many harrowing cruelties presented including murder, rape and torture. James' response to this will again resonate with readers today thinking about the injustices Black people continue to face. At one point, James remarks 'I was as much scared as angry, but where does a slave put anger? We could be angry with one another 'we were human. But the real source of our rage had to go without address, swallowed, repressed.' And when describing the lynching of another enslaved person, a character remarks, 'The worst part was that the judge told the grand jury that it was an act of a multitude and so they couldn't recommend any indictments. So, if enough people do it, it's not a crime.'

Everett's plot follows the shape of Twain's, recounting some of the same adventures from a different perspective, and including new ones where James and Huck's paths separate, as well as a number of powerful twists towards the novel's conclusion. It is thus a gripping read. What will stay with me above all, however, is the voice that Everett creates for James, that of 'a man who is cognizant of his world, a man who has a family, who loves a family, who has been torn from his family, a man who can read and write, a man who will not let his story be self-related, but self-written.'

This is surely one of the most important novels to be published this year. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.

This was quite uncomfortable reading, as it should be. Brutal in places but also wonderful. And yes, that does make sense. It is a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn but told from the perspective of James/Jim the slave. Now, I haven't actually read the original book but I am familiar with the basics of the story and, from my limited point of view, the two marry up together well. The original is used basically as a framework onto which Everett weaves the story of James. How he, with Huck, fled when he was going to be sold, how they travelled together and apart. How Huck learned some hard hitting truths, along with the reader!
Oh and there are NO punches pulled. It's brutal and quite graphic in places. But then there's no soft soaping this era. No brushing under the carpet. And that is exactly how it should be. Whitewashing is called that for a reason... One of the things that I found fascinating - if that's the right word - was the way that James' diction changed depending on who he was talking to. And actually, not just that, his whole demeanour too. Adapt to survive... And the rules the slave had to follow to keep in with the white folk, to avoid the beatings... and worse...
We also segue into the whole philosophy around slavery with James' "chats" with philosophers during his dreams... But I will leave the bones of that for you to discover.
All in all, not my usual read but a book that touched me, one that will stay with me for a while, and one that I really hope will fly come publication day so that others can share in it...
This is my first book by this author but, on the back of it, and having read more about him, it most definitely won't be my last... My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

This was not my usual choice of genre but having enjoyed the Adventures of Tom Sawyer as a child my curiosity was piqued. I am so glad I took the chance as this book with its abominable descriptions of racism and slavery that were regarded as absolutely normal in that dark era but then in its delightful observations, characters and narrative a beautiful story evolved that gave hope. I loved the relationship between James and Huck and of the different adventures and dangers they encountered along the way. The ‘slave speak’ was at times hilarious, that is once I understood it. This book was well written, never boring and had so much that was thought provoking while being a most memorable and entertaining read.

James by Percival Everett to me to completely opposite poles of emotion and knocked the wind out of me. "That was a flipping good book" I said aloud, earning a look of disdain from one of the cats who was disturbed from their slumber

Why am I using such an anecdote? Because if I laugh out loud, make emotional vocalisations and proclaim my opinion to the degree that the herd takes notice, then yes, it is an incredibly good book

James deserves to be a global bestseller. If you read Huckleberry Finn as a child, you will want to read this book, if you are interested in classic literature, you will want to read this book, if you draw breath, you will want to read this book. It's notjust a retelling, or a reimagining, it is an entire regeneration, reworking, revitalising for our times. It blew my everfluffing mind

To tell the tale from the perspective of Jim is absolutely genius and I will say no more as this book is more than capable of speaking for itself. This is a keeper, a literary great

Thank you to Pan Macmillan | Mantle and the awesome author Percival Everett for this epic ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

This book is absolutely fantastic, and I have no doubt that it will be amongst my favourite reads of the year. Percival Everett is a very skilled writer, who draws the reader into his books and has you questioning everything you thought you knew.

The book is a retelling of Huckleberry Finn, told from the perspective of Jim the slave and what a character Jim is. Everett breathes life into the character, he is fully imagined and we see that Jim is able to play the role of a slave, hiding his intelligence to ensure that he doesn’t upset his white owners. We see the hopes dreams and desires of Jim, and are reminded, if a reminder was needed, of the horrors of slavery and how slaves were dehumanised.

The book is beautifully written, it is compelling and I read it in just two sittings, because I was desperate to know if Jim managed to achieve freedom.

Everett is a masterful writer and here he has created a book that makes the reader consider the horrors of slavery and racism, the extent of human cruelty, and juxtaposes this with the strength of love and friendship and the resilience of the human spirit, all written in Everett’s beautiful, often satirical, prose.

I would highly recommend this book, I hope it receives the accolades it deserves.

Also there is no need to read Huckleberry Finn to enjoy this masterpience.

This is the extraordinary alternative story-telling from Jim's (James') perspective on what happened when he and Huckleberry Finn got away from Missouri as two runaways, but James being a slave, always dependent on the young white boy's mercy and his wherewithall.

The writing is absolutely brilliant; it emulates Twain, but it adds so much to it, I feel that it truly enhances the original adventure story. There is plenty of black (no pun intended) humour, as well as some clever, witty remarks that had me chuckle loudly to myself while reading this. Overall, my heart sank almost any time a white person showed up (notwithstanding Huck and Norman, but hey.....), and as many times before I asked myself what level of ignorance allows people to develop a superiority complex leading to tyranny for centuries. Disgusting. The anger that Everett via James is channelling, is palpable and very much justified.

I am so grateful for this ARC courtey of the publisher's and cannot wait to recommend this to anyone around me come publishing day this week.

As a fan of Percival Everett's writing, I was not disappointed. This reimagining of Twain's controversial original is somehow a rolicking adventure story with a little righteous revenge mixed in, a devastating indictment of being human in a world that is trying to deny your humanity at every time, and a hilarious and biting satire, as 'Jim' performs the blackness expected of him in order to survive whilst conversing with philosophers in his sleep. A very easy recommend for me.

In "James," Percival Everett retells "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" through the eyes and words of Jim. Everett gives us a scholarly James who constantly has to code switch between forced submissiveness and his own philosophically astute ruminations. As modern readers, we are reminded of how often black men and women still have to adjust their speech and tone based on the contexts of their interactions with white society. For James, it's a matter of survival; he must always be the submissive slave who doesn't look directly at whites, and who must always allow the white folk to feel smarter . By focusing on the code-switching aspect of James's life, Everett successfully retells Twain's novel in a way that honours the original while allowing a new Jim/James to come forward.

James must be on guard because the merest slip of the tongue will put him in danger, and there are moments within this novel where James does make verbal slips. The whites are outraged that he can speak so much better than they can. They thrive on feeling superior to the slaves, and these realistic characters see slaves as playthings and property. Everett highlights this when James encounters a white singing troupe who dress up in black face and makeup to sing for a white audience. These troupe members reenact a cake walk for the white viewers because it allows the spectators to feel comforted by an activity originally created to mock white behaviour.

Everett underscores how Jim the slave has few options, and he must always shape shift to meet the demands of whatever cruelty he encounters. He’s always on the verge of being killed or returned to be killed. There’s not a second where he can feel at ease. If James does try to relax, another moment of danger will descend upon him. There are hideous moments of violence, but Everett shows readers what a slave had to endure. He does not hide from the emotional and physical violence inflicted upon slaves.

Percival Everett’s “James” is a revelation. The novel speak to the horrific history of slavery and the erasure of black voices from the arts and the history books. Everett refuses to allow these voices to be curated, edited and silenced.

James is a brilliant re-telling of Huckleberry Finn from the slave Jim's point of view. Jim leads a double life, one as James, a husband and father, the other pretending to be an ignorant and credulous slave Jim for the benefit of white people.

The story mainly follows the plot of Mark Twain's novel, but with some brilliant additions and changes by Everett.

I absolutely loved it and hope it wins all the awards.

Another masterpiece from Percival Everett, his books get better and better. While I enjoyed this novel very much, I suspect I may have got more from it had I read Huckleberry Finn. I may go back to it now, as many of us went back to David Copperfield after Demon Copperhead. This is a beautiful way to revisit the classics, which may otherwise get less of a modern audience.

The focus on a minor character from the original is a new angle, and it works so well in the hands of an expert such as Everett.
Highly recommended

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for the ARC

I might be biased, but Percival Everett can do no wrong. I have never read Huck Finn (I now will) but this book was a brutal, yet refreshing 'retelling' of a story that has been in the peripheries of my life for as long as I can remember. I have always heard of Huck, but never of James. This book sets that record straight. The writing is beautiful and I am now very curious to see how it will influence my reading of Huck Finn. Just a really good book!

Percival Everett has - somehow - managed to bring Mark Twain's voice back to life in this incredible book. The language and tone are perfect and the narrative engaging as well as informative.

The story follows Jim and Huckleberry Finn on a journey along the Mississippi, imagining what might have happened when Huck pretended to be dead in the original story. From stowing away on a steamship, singing in a minstrel show and making some questionable choices regarding freedoms, the underlying message in Everett's book is clear - love DOES conquer all. Love of family, love of freedom and love of self drive the plot forward in the most satisfying way as we slowly, but surely, become invested in the outcome of the adventure. Some of the most memorable images in the novel are those of soldiers marching to fight in the Civil War and the descriptions of the great river that is the backbone to the tale.

If you liked Brook's 'March' then this is the book for you. If you love Twain run!!

Percival Everett’s “James” takes a well-worn American tale, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” and flips it for a fresh and thought-provoking perspective. While the opening might feel slow, setting the stage for the narrative shift, Everett quickly rewards patience with a powerful reversal.

Instead of Huck Finn guiding the reader, we see the iconic journey down the Mississippi through the eyes of Jim, the enslaved man Huck befriends. This shift is more than just a change in perspective; it’s a dismantling of stereotypes and a powerful act of giving voice to the silenced. Everett’s James is a complex and compelling character, his intelligence and humanity shining through in stark contrast to the dehumanizing realities of slavery.

The novel tackles race and the experience of slavery head-on, offering unflinching honesty without sacrificing readability. Everett draws you into James’s world with a sharp wit that even allows for moments of humor amidst the harsh realities.

While the ending left me wanting more closure, it arguably reflects the uncertain nature of freedom for enslaved people in that era. “James” may not provide all the answers, but it certainly sparks a firestorm of questions, prompting readers to re-examine a classic story and the historical context it represents.

In conclusion, “James” is a must-read for anyone who appreciates a good retelling, a powerful voice, and a thought-provoking exploration of race and history. Though the start might be slow and the ending abrupt, the journey in between is more than worth taking.

Having not read the original books and solely diving into this remake, I was able to take in James' story first. Perhaps this influences my review, with me having missed intricacies that others would noticed. But regardless, this book is another example of why Everett remains one of my favourite authors.
Exploring slavery, cruelty and racism, he manages to keep humanity central. To find beauty in the bleak backdrop of human history and remind us that these stories are all unique and personal to each person who experienced the horrors of being owned, sold and used like cattle. The first half of the book was slow, written simply and observing the world in a matter of fact way. Around half way through it begins to develop as do the characters and their experiences. This is likely a stylistic choice, mirroring the transitional experiences of Jim. But it did make for a tough beginning of the book and saw me read the book a lot slower than I typically would have.
Overall, I'd still recommend this book, along with any other book by Percival Everett.