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elbarto 's review for:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Pleased to re-read this as an adult and find it interesting and impressive still. Putting aside for a moment the treatment of race and class, from a purely linguistic standpoint, this book is a towering triumph. Few are the books written in the 19th century that can be read so easily and with such vividness to modern ears. That's really something. It's also pretty funny a lot of the time. As for the contentious treatment of race and class, I won't go too deep into well worn territory others better equipped than myself have delved into for decades just for a review no one will read :) but I'll say this: I re read Huck Finn to prep for Percival Everett's James which I'm excited to take on. I think that the failings and successes Twain laid out here will prove fertile ground for an account of the same narrative from the most interesting perspective available. I think the chances for a much better ending are pretty high, too.
Now some hottakes.
My wife mentioned Hemingway said Twain didn't know how to write an ending. It's true here. The last 60ish pages starting with the appearance of Tom Sawyer are not good.
Quite convenient that Jim gets mixed up with relatives of Sawyer, that move takes all the air out of the tires vis a vis tension since Huck no longer has to lie his face off with fear of real consequence. Almost felt like Twain didn't think he could keep it up himself. Sawyer adds nothing, only distracts from the main narrative. The king and the duke disappear and barely get a resolution. Instead the reader has to endure a bunch of intentional nonsense because of Tom until we get to the happy ending. I'm not against a happy ending here but it felt weak. Jim's fate is determined almost as an afterthought. Huck and Tom face no consequences. Worst of all, Twain misses a great opportunity to play with the wonderful tension in Huck's internal conflict where at earlier times in the book he wrestles with his desire to do 'right', which he sees as turning Jim in, despite not wanting to for personal reasons of loyalty he judges as 'wrong'. That is a great place to work from! I don't need Huck at the end to reverse his opinion but it would've been smart if Twain called that back and had Huck pontificate on the matter at the end of the adventure.
Did Twain think he would've been criticized for omitting his former titular character?
He seemed to be caught between writing a YA novel and one for an adult audience. Perhaps he realized too late that he had a bonafide book on his hands, more sophisticated than his previous novel for children, and failed to make the full adjustment the way Tolkien managed jumping up from The Hobbit to LOTR.
Now some hottakes.
My wife mentioned Hemingway said Twain didn't know how to write an ending. It's true here. The last 60ish pages starting with the appearance of Tom Sawyer are not good.
Quite convenient that Jim gets mixed up with relatives of Sawyer, that move takes all the air out of the tires vis a vis tension since Huck no longer has to lie his face off with fear of real consequence. Almost felt like Twain didn't think he could keep it up himself. Sawyer adds nothing, only distracts from the main narrative. The king and the duke disappear and barely get a resolution. Instead the reader has to endure a bunch of intentional nonsense because of Tom until we get to the happy ending. I'm not against a happy ending here but it felt weak. Jim's fate is determined almost as an afterthought. Huck and Tom face no consequences. Worst of all, Twain misses a great opportunity to play with the wonderful tension in Huck's internal conflict where at earlier times in the book he wrestles with his desire to do 'right', which he sees as turning Jim in, despite not wanting to for personal reasons of loyalty he judges as 'wrong'. That is a great place to work from! I don't need Huck at the end to reverse his opinion but it would've been smart if Twain called that back and had Huck pontificate on the matter at the end of the adventure.
Did Twain think he would've been criticized for omitting his former titular character?
He seemed to be caught between writing a YA novel and one for an adult audience. Perhaps he realized too late that he had a bonafide book on his hands, more sophisticated than his previous novel for children, and failed to make the full adjustment the way Tolkien managed jumping up from The Hobbit to LOTR.