I'm reading 'James' by Percival Everett
The right time, the right place, and the right author for this retelling.
Disclaimer: This is not a spoiler-free zone. I recommend reading the book first before reading the post.
First Impressions
I can’t remember the first time this book showed up on my radar. However, I do know that once it did, it was like the universe had paid for a relentless ad that would not let up. It was literally everywhere. So I took the universe’s hint and looked it up.
A retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s point of view, you say?! I was on it faster than white on bread. Or on rice. Or on a conservative politician citing a bible passage they’ve never fully read to justify passing heinous bills. Apparently, the universe’s algorithms are far more in tune with what I like than any social media ad ever was.
I’ll admit that I’d only been dropped into this planet only a few years prior to me reading Huckleberry Finn, and it’s been so long that I remember nothing of it except for the general gist and that I laughed a few times. But I’m excited! Percival Everett is also the author of the novel Erasure, on which the award-winning movie American Fiction was based and which I fully recommend!
Anyway, without further ado, let’s get to reading!
Day 1 - January 28th, 2025
PART 1 - Chapters 1 - 4
I’m loving this from the first page. We’re seeing Jim in full dissimulation mode and teaching the younger ones how to follow suit. (I feel stupid because it didn’t occur to me that this was a thing that slaves would’ve done.) We can see that he’s a smart man, but, furthermore, kind. He has a soft spot for Huck, who keeps coming to him and asking questions that perhaps other kids his age might not be asking — maybe he sees Huck as wiser than his young years due to the circumstances of his upbringing (his father is abusive). Jim feels for his situation with his dad and is even sorry that he can’t do anything to help him because of his status as a slave.
I already love the narrative voice and the way the characters are presented. Loved the little quip at Miss Betsy’s cornbread. I can see I’m going to fly through this book.
Day 2 - January 31st, 2025
PART 1 - Chapters 5 - 11
So Jim was an intellectual. In another life, he might’ve been in academia, maybe even a philosopher. He loves to read and is a fan of Voltaire’s work. This brings extra layers of meaning to the novel’s title James, if we go with the presumption that we tend to refer to intellectuals by their full name more so than by nicknames.
At this point, I’m itching a bit, wishing that I’d given Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn a reread before starting this book, but I know that could also be detrimental. I’d probably be more focused on what was kept true to the source when this is clearly supposed to be a novel that can stand on its own. So, for that part, I’m glad I didn’t. I can take the novel in purely for its own merit.
I can tell this is going to be a tab-heavy book.
A few moments I loved:
Jim pointing out to Huck that animals, insects, et al. have an instinct about the movements and phases of nature, but man no longer does as we’ve become too separate from it. Still, the scene ends with Jim sensing rain coming by the ache in his joints.
Maybe we’re not so separate from nature and the force that unites us all? Maybe there’s hope for us after all? Does Jim, by being purer of heart, still maintain some of that connection to the force that created everything?The whole section where Jim dreams of having a conversation with Voltaire had me giddy. I’ve never read Voltaire. I’ll admit, I tried to read Candide but failed. Someday again perhaps.
“How strange a world, how strange an existence, that one’s equal must argue for one’s equality, that one’s equal must hold a station that allows airing of an argument for oneself, that premises of said argument must be vetted by those equals who do not agree.” — Percival Everett, James
This quote was the first instance of that thing rising up in my throat and threatening me with tears. Even now, typing it out, it’s knocking on the door. Given *everything* going with the world right now — no, just scratch that. Given everything going on with the world all. the. f*cking. time. Will quotes like this ever not be relevant?Jim writing for the first time? Wielding pen and paper for the first time and recording his thoughts for the first time ever? This book is going to destroy me, isn’t it?
The first time Jim reads fiction: “I was somewhere else. I was not on the side of that damn river or the other. I was not on the Mississippi. I was not in Missouri.” — Percival Everett, James
Someone’s going to have to sedate me.
Day 3 - February 1st, 2025
PART 1 - Chapter 12 - 20
Jim picking out his own last name (and the whole discussion of why he doesn’t have a last name to begin with) is so poignant. It comes up a few times in the span of these chapters. He chooses one name early on and then seems to be still playing around with other options later on. However, he refers to himself as James. There’s so much important nuance in this. “James” evokes a wholeness that “Jim” doesn’t have. I mean, it’s kind of like when your mom full-names you, or full and middle-names you, as a child. That’s when you know she means business. She’s about to try you as a whole person/adult. Business is fully meant when a full name is evoked.
Jim and Huck get separated in these chapters. Again, I keep itching to know “BUT IS THIS HOW IT HAPPENED IN THE ORGINAL?!” and then having to remind myself that, ultimately, that doesn’t matter. There’s a young adult in me who knows that many of Ron’s lines in the Prisoner of Azkaban movie were given to Hermione, and she’s never finished fighting about it and gets easily triggered when movies or derivative content change things. So I have to keep reminding myself, “IT DOESN’T MATTER.” Because, truly, it doesn’t.
During this separation, Jim runs into three other slaves. They help him out a bit, and one of them gets caught (he stole a pencil for Jim because Jim wants to keep writing). Jim then becomes a far-away witness to his punishment. And it hurts. And his guilt is transmitted through the page. This is the most harrowing moment of the book so far. It brings a darkness that was never fully present in Huckleberry Finn, that could only be guessed at. It’s interesting to see how the mood of the story changes by changing the perspective of the main character.
Huck standing up for Jim — saying Jim is his friend and even just claiming him as his slave so that the two white guys pretending to be royalty don’t try to steal him and sell him — is giving me life. We need more Hucks in the world. *bawls*
Fave quote of this section:
“With my pencil, I wrote myself into being. I wrote myself to here.” — Percival Everett, James
Day 4 - February 3rd, 2025
PART 1 - Chapter 21 - 32
WAIT - IS EASTER ALLUDING TO JIM BEING HUCK’S FATHER?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
***HYPERVENTILATES***
Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Hold on.
WHAT.
WHAT.
IT’S NOT JUST ME, RIGHT?!?
*inhale, exhale*
Does this tie in with Huck asking Jim if he thought his mother was pretty back in chapter 21??
Oh man, so much to think about.
These eleven chapters have been a journey and a half, with that possible revelation being the wildest of all.
Jim’s been taken twice, sold again, run again, he’s once again separated from Huck and I WISH I COULD REMEMBER HOW HUCKLEBERRY FINN GOES SO THAT I COULD KNOW WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT.
Which is why I’ll now be starting that audiobook. I NEED TO KNOW OKAY.
The conversation about being white passing and what that means to each individual has entered the narrative.
Jim gets bought into the Virginia Mistrels because they like the sound of his tenor voice and he can sing. The leaders of this troop don’t believe in owning slaves but are okay with others owning slaves. They pay to own Jim but won’t release him until he’s at least worked off his cost. They’re not abolitionists. But they treat Jim with kindness. They’re just happy to ride the middle line of whatever becomes the best play in their favor. (Lol, where have I encountered this energy before? Oh, WAIT. *Upsidedown smiling emoji face.*)
Over and over, we’re reminded that white people will use Jim however it’ll benefit them with little concern for consequences as it’ll be Jim and not anyone else who suffers these consequences. And his death is always on the table as a consequence.
Day 5 - February 4th, 2025
PART 2 - Chapters 1 - 6
Jim has run away again. This time Norman, his fellow Virginial Minstrel singer, a man who is so white-passing that no one can tell that he’s Black, followed right after and joined him. Jim pulls together a plan to have Norman sell him and then escape, then sell him again and escape again in order to gather enough funds to go back and buy his wife and daughter.
The white-passing conversation has become more layered, with Jim even mistrusting Norman’s word that he’s Black or a slave. He begins to doubt whether he can trust him to help him at all. When Jim meets a young slave girl, Sammy, and gets her to run away with him (from the PoS Norman sold him to), she, in turn, is frightened by Norman. It’s only when she asks Norman why he stays colored and Norman responds, “Because of my mother. Because of my wife. Because I don’t want to be white. I don’t want to be one of them” that they finally begin to trust him.
It’s a heartfelt confession. It would be hard to imagine, at the time of slavery, why anyone would want to claim their Blackness when passing came so easily to them. But there were reasons. And mighty strong ones at that.
I don’t know why or how, but I saw Sammy’s death coming. I didn’t foresee the way it would happen, but I sensed it. Another powerful moment in this section is when Norman wants to argue that she should’ve stayed with her owner, then at least she’d be alive. Jim rebuts that, no, at least this way she died free.
It’s a crux. Alive and enslaved or free and dead. It’s no choice at all. We can argue about either one having benefits all day. They don’t. The only true significance that can be given to Sammy’s death is symbolic.
Jim ends chapter 6 of this section by affirming that he will never be a slave again, and it’s one of the most chill-inducing moments of this book in the best way ever. Jim’s already smart, resilient, aware, and strong. Add determined to that list, and what can Jim not do? I can’t wait to find out.
Day 5 - February 7th, 2025
PART 2 - Chapters 7 - 9 & ALL of PART 3
These were some action-packed chapters, which is probably why I ended up marathoning it through to the end.
So can I just take a moment to say I KNEW IT!! I KNEW JIM WAS HUCK’S FATHER!
I have to go there first because I can’t talk about Jim saving Huck from the river without bringing up his confession. The thing is, even before he confesses to being his father, I knew Jim would save Huck. Not because he felt a responsibility bound by blood. Not because, despite not being able to remember anything that happened in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I know that Huck survives. But merely because Huck is a child. It seemed like the logical choice.
In terms of Jim being Huck’s father — what I wouldn’t give to read that story. The story of Jim and Huck’s mother meeting, falling in love??? Someone, please write this, I’m begging you!
Norman’s death did not hit me the way Sammy’s did. Though they were both tragic, I guess it must have to do with Sammy seeming more innocent. I never quite grew to trust Norman. Even after his impassioned speech to Jim and Sammy. I think he was an okay guy, but he seemed confused and so indecisive all the time (as opposed to Jim, who was calling the shots and working toward a goal).
In the end, Jim journeys back to Hannibal. The Civil War has just started, but despite word on the streets that the North wants to free the slaves, Jim still decides to be the master of his own future. He’s not about to sit around and wait for others (especially white others) to decide whether he and his family are worthy of freedom.
In an attempt to find his wife and daughter, who’ve been resold since he ran away, Jim commits his first act of murder. We pass no judgment (at least, I don’t). The overseer he ends up murdering deserved it, to say the least. I could recount his many despicable sins here, but you read the book. You know.
Jim finds his family at a slave breeding farm (the term alone is enough to conjure up an excess of bile) and may inadvertently have started a slave revolt in the process.
The book ends as powerfully as it began. Jim escapes and reaches Iowa with his daughter, wife, and a few other escaped slaves in tow. When asked by the local sheriff if any of them is named N***** Jim, Jim responds, “I am James.”
The thesis of the novel comes down to this final statement. Jim has been a slave. Jim is someone others have seen as lesser. They’ve assumed him to be lacking in wit. Lacking common sense. Yet no one in this novel has had more of either of those than him. With his statement “I am James,” he stands as a fully self-made man. He is what he says he is, never again will someone else decide that for him.
Final Thoughts
I loved every second of this book. I loved how simple it was to read. I love how poignant, even in its simplicity, it was. This book and others like it are so needed right now. I’m usually wary of most retellings, but this was masterfully done. Percival Everett understood the assignment.
There are so many quotes I’d love to share here, but I’m afraid that would begin to border on literally copying 90% of the book.
But to add one final quote from the book that blew me away:
“Night felt like an animal, its own season. My voice, even in my head, had found its root in my diaphragm, had become sonorous and round. My pencil had more firmly grasped the pages of my newly dried notebook. I saw more clearly farther, further. My name became my own.” — Percival Everett, James.
There’s so much more that I’d love to touch on, but then this post would never end. Please share in the comments or in the chat what you think. What stood out to you? What were your favorite moments? How’d the book make you feel? Let’s start a discussion!