James

 by Percival Everett  

  The book begins as a real adventure story in the same vein as Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (1876).

But in « James », P. Everett has radically reworked Huckleberry’s story, telling it from the point of view of the black slave who accompanies Huck down the Mississippi River in their quest for freedom.

This is a « picaresque » novel telling the adventures of an anti-hero Jim ( James)  the good  runaway black slave opposed to the  bad white men.

James is not an illiterate, he stealthily gained  access to his master’s library and learned to read. He is a thinker , quotes Voltaire and Montesquieux…

Above all , he is going to write the story of his own life, «  to write himself into being » . Throughout all his  traumatic adventures, his obsession was not to lose his notebook and his pencil !

In this novel , Everett highlights the horrors of bondage in America, the hypocritical rules of society where good and evil are inverted notions. He says that «  Religion is just a controlling tool they employ and adhere to when convenient for them ».

This book is  a tribute to friendship , to the family bonds,  the power of reading : « If I could see the words, then no one could control them or what I got from them….It was a completely private affair  and completely  free and therefore , completely subversive ».

It is also a tribute to the resilience of James who, in the end , got his own back !

We all found this book endearing and  a timely read, but  sometimes difficult to understand the language spoken by the black people among themselves.

                                                                                               Anne Van Calster 

                                                                                                         April 2025