I am surprised at how highly rated this book is. Not that I can see no reason why readers might like it— I can —but it does not come across as a crowd-pleaser. Had I read this book before it became a hit, I would have expected it to be divisive. The reason being that it's hard to explain or categorise this story. It is a very strange literary book, built of components— some I liked, a lot I didn’t— that didn’t really add up to a cohesive whole.Is it a satire? It seems it must be because some par...

this book made me feel every human emotion possible in a span of ~300 pages - anger, heartbreak, unease, but overall pride. i never read Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn growing up so i just did cliff notes of both of them before starting this (i know i know dont yell at me.) but yeah, i loved this. the ending!! so good

the library hold i've had on this book for 6 weeks coming in the same week it wins the national book award...i feel so alive.even better: the award was deserved.i've been seeing some negativity around this book lately. maybe backlash that it's been nominated for and/or won what feels like every award you've ever heard of and a few made-up sounding ones. maybe the innate human desire for an unpopular opinion (been there). or maybe the boldness of an author daring to retell a Great American Novel ...

Percival Everett's James is a transformative reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but this time, Huck is merely a supporting character to Jim—now James—a man whose journey to freedom becomes the heart and soul of this gripping novel. This isn't just a retelling; it's a ferocious critique of racism, slavery, and systemic inequality, delivered through dark humor, biting satire, and moments of profound emotion. The novel dismantles the simplistic portrayal of Jim in Twain’s original, ...

A brilliant read! Everett takes the story of Huckleberry Finn and flips it on its head, making the enslaved man Jim the narrator, although Jim thinks of himself as James, and has a rich interior life to which his white enslavers are completely oblivious. We follow James and Huck on the same adventure Mark Twain outlines in his seminal novel Huckleberry Finn, but we see the action from James' point of view, which changes everything, and whenever the two main characters are separated, we follow Ja...

Update March 2025: Shortlisted for Dublin Literary Award 2025Update: Winner of the National Book Ward for fiction 2024 Now shortlisted for Booker Prize 2024I discovered Percival Everett two years ago, when he was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for The Trees. I gave that book 5* and it ended up as one of my favorite books of 2022. Meanwhile, I read Dr. No which I liked but was not impressed by it. James was excellent but my enjoyment of it was less than of The Trees. Everett writes satire like ...

I am very cautious with book reimaginings since, honestly, most of the time they are quite unneeded — but here the idea of it indeed seemed necessary. I understand why Jim of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn needed his own story not filtered through the perspective of a young white kid raised in the world of racism - even if that boy slowly learns to see Jim as a human being and not just property. Jim of Mark Twain’s story was simple and ignorant and superstitious, in the end beco...

I have to write this review, even though it hurts. James was one of my most anticipated releases of 2024. You guys know I typically don't anticipate books at all. But this year both Danez Smith and Rémy Ngamije are blessing us with new books, so I actually took some time to look into other books that would be published this year. This is how I came to hear of James. Everyone and their mamma was raving about this new Huckleberry Finn retelling, how funny it is, how clever, how perfect. This book ...

This is a 10/10 no notes book. Holy shit. This is a masterpiece and the reason that classic retellings exists. It is subversive, smart, daring, and supremely executed. This is a fucking book!

Whoa, that was so not was I was expecting. Despite the Goodreads blurb that calls this book “ferociously funny” and “brimming with electrifying humor,” I didn't really find much to laugh about while reading it. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I was just surprised by how serious and thought-provoking this novel ended up being. I mean, sure, there are a few funny bits here and there, but I definitely wouldn't consider this to be a humorous book overall.But, with that said, James is a brill...