🛶 James is the reimagining story of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, now told from the enslaved Jim's point of view. My reading of Huckleberry Finn was a few decades ago (hence no link of a review to provide here), that I almost remember nothing of the details before reading this book.
🛶 This story begins at the same point as was Huckleberry Finn. Jim heard about Miss Watson's intention to sell him, while Huck was apprehensive following news that his abusive Pap is coming home. Both slave and boy ran away that night. First to the Jackson island, then along the Mississippi river, with a lot of adventures - misadventures is more appropriate; more dangerous than fun - and revelations.
🛶 Their first adventures are close to what Mark Twain written in Huckleberry Finn - their boating along Mississippi river towards Cairo, the great flood that swept a house, from which they took provisions. I don't remember, though, the identity of the corpse they found in the house, which, would be revealed later in this novel. Their encounter with two con artists or confidence men, the King and the Duke, who were always attempting to prey on the gullible and naive, is also told here.
🛶 The major difference between the two books is in the depth of the story. Huckleberry Finn is more appropriate for YA readers, while James is more for those who had read the latter at school and now want to dig deeper than just what's on the surface, that is the adventures. For instance, here we get to know more of Jim's personality - his thirst for knowledge and passion for reading and writing.
🛶 His literary passions shaped Jim to be a more dignified man. The farther we plough through the book, we get to know the true mind and personality beneath the seemingly stupid, enslaved Jim: the intelligent, resilient, family man James.
🛶 Through James we were reminded of the extend of cruelty in slavery. Not only physical - the punishment, the lynching - but also the belittling of innocent human being. This novel is daubed as "both harrowing and ferociously funny". I personally think it's more thought provoking, though there are sprinkles of hilarity here and there, and of course, it's packed with the youthful adventures we are familiar with from Huckleberry Finn.
🛶 My favorite part is when Jim, or I should call him from now on James, talk normally to his fellow blacks, but then changes his language when a white people is present. His philosophizing in his mind or dream with John Locke or Voltaire is indeed quite hilarious. But my most favorite is perhaps the biggest revelation in James and Huck Finn's relationship; that is something I did not see coming, yet, quite makes sense. Their dynamic relationship is the book's soul anyway.
🛶 Needless to say, I am so impressed by this book, something I didn't expect. It deserves one day to be a classic of its own, which I believe Mark Twain would have approve had he read it himself. It's harrowing, but also hopeful.
Rating: 5 / 5
**James will be published on 11th April 2024.
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