James by Percival EverettMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Percival Everett starts with a simple premise: what if a Black character from a Mark Twain novel was an intelligent human being with feelings and motives all his own? He transforms Twain’s Jim from Huckleberry Finn’s kind-but-witless sidekick into a man trying to escape slavery and rescue his wife and daughter. Some of the plot twists are new takes on the familiar story, while others are entirely new. I was particularly impressed by the treatment of code switching, which would make this an excellent read for anyone who doesn’t understand the concept. Despite a few third act problems, overall this is a brilliantly sad, angry and occasionally joyous view of racism in the prewar South.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment