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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
lighthearted
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The narrative speed was on the slower side with this one. It's also felt like a book that intended to have a deeper meaning than what I was able to readily glean while I was reading. Probably because I was distracted enjoying reading this one aloud in a southern drawl, which was much easier to accomplish given the intentional misspelling Mark Twain used to help the reader recreate the sound of the dialog.
The book is very period-accurate, and must be read from a place of understanding historical context. Otherwise you'll be prone to feeling like it's a very distasteful narrative.
The book is very period-accurate, and must be read from a place of understanding historical context. Otherwise you'll be prone to feeling like it's a very distasteful narrative.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Blood
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Slavery, Alcohol
Minor: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Murder
The book is very period-accurate, and must be read from a place of understanding historical context. Otherwise you'll be prone to feeling like it's a very distasteful narrative.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
i mean, isn’t twain great? you have a bit of fun and remain engaged while also exploring heavy topics and themes. it’s wonderful. no notes, would love to read more twain.
adventurous
challenging
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The last 50 pages of this book are utter nonsense and make me so mad. I liked it alright up until then, though it definitely had some lulls in the action that slowed it dow. But everything Tom Sawyer did at the end was just.... ugh. I can't. The first book is great. I get why this novel has it's place in the American literary canon. It's worth a read for the experience. But I probably wouldn't read again.
adventurous
challenging
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
“All right then, I’ll go to Hell.”
4.5 stars
This book was published in 1884, but it feels almost as relevant today as it was then (obviously for different reasons). Its portrayal of the titular character as a rural, unschooled-but-smart, born-into-a-bad-situation, good-hearted-but-doomed child, feels like the spiritual model for Barbara Kingsolver’s recent masterpiece, Demon Copperhead. Twain’s depiction of a boy like that is all too real and heart-rending. Huck suffers domestic abuse, slips through the cracks at school, and ultimately is confronted by a cruel world that he never fully understands, and can only try to grasp through a mix of his own intuition and the corrupted morality that his upbringing has instilled in him. Even in its funniest moments (because Twain can be a very funny writer, as his reputation suggests), I was never able to fully escape the devastation I felt for Huck and, even more so, for its other main character: Jim.
Twain’s depiction of Jim, an enslaved man who just so happens to run away the same day as Huck, will continue to be debated as long as there are people who read it. Personally, I found it to be intensely (and clearly intentionally) humanizing despite a society and characters that insist he is no more than property. I found Huck’s internal battle over whether helping Jim escape was “moral,” as he weighed his personal feelings that Jim should be free against everything he had been taught to believe, to be some of the most important and brilliant writing I have ever read. Twain doesn’t go very deep into Jim’s backstory, only giving us little hints here and there about the suffering this man must have endured, but his actions throughout the story speak for themselves, and make you root for his escape with a fervor that I hope would have made a 19th century reader ponder whether anyone deserved to be enslaved.
Until about the last 30 pages, I had virtually no criticism, but I really can’t call it perfect. The deus ex machina and the plot of the ending are both just so contrived and so frustrating to read. I get the sense that, for the ending, Twain wanted to lean more into the humor (which comes off more offensive than funny at times in this final section) than into the social commentary that was the book’s greatest strength. Perhaps it’s just because of my own modern sensibilities that I found this decision to be so disagreeable. I wanted more complete thematic closure on the central question of slavery in general, on the intrinsic value of every human, and on the parallels between Huck and Jim who find such kinship with one another.
4.5 stars
This book was published in 1884, but it feels almost as relevant today as it was then (obviously for different reasons). Its portrayal of the titular character as a rural, unschooled-but-smart, born-into-a-bad-situation, good-hearted-but-doomed child, feels like the spiritual model for Barbara Kingsolver’s recent masterpiece, Demon Copperhead. Twain’s depiction of a boy like that is all too real and heart-rending. Huck suffers domestic abuse, slips through the cracks at school, and ultimately is confronted by a cruel world that he never fully understands, and can only try to grasp through a mix of his own intuition and the corrupted morality that his upbringing has instilled in him. Even in its funniest moments (because Twain can be a very funny writer, as his reputation suggests), I was never able to fully escape the devastation I felt for Huck and, even more so, for its other main character: Jim.
Twain’s depiction of Jim, an enslaved man who just so happens to run away the same day as Huck, will continue to be debated as long as there are people who read it. Personally, I found it to be intensely (and clearly intentionally) humanizing despite a society and characters that insist he is no more than property. I found Huck’s internal battle over whether helping Jim escape was “moral,” as he weighed his personal feelings that Jim should be free against everything he had been taught to believe, to be some of the most important and brilliant writing I have ever read. Twain doesn’t go very deep into Jim’s backstory, only giving us little hints here and there about the suffering this man must have endured, but his actions throughout the story speak for themselves, and make you root for his escape with a fervor that I hope would have made a 19th century reader ponder whether anyone deserved to be enslaved.
Until about the last 30 pages, I had virtually no criticism, but I really can’t call it perfect. The deus ex machina and the plot of the ending are both just so contrived and so frustrating to read. I get the sense that, for the ending, Twain wanted to lean more into the humor (which comes off more offensive than funny at times in this final section) than into the social commentary that was the book’s greatest strength. Perhaps it’s just because of my own modern sensibilities that I found this decision to be so disagreeable. I wanted more complete thematic closure on the central question of slavery in general, on the intrinsic value of every human, and on the parallels between Huck and Jim who find such kinship with one another.
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes