A review by duckoffimreading
James by Percival Everett

5.0

This was a masterpiece. Percival Everett builds a point a view from Jim’s - well, James’s - standpoint, the slave from Huckleberry Finn. Action packed, very fast moving plot and very quick read - I felt angry, sad, disgusted and delighted, so many emotions in so few pages. It reminds me very much of Django Unchained: slave uprising to scared slaveholders, with the underdogs coming out on top. There were many twists and turns - from Jim being Huck’s real dad, to Jim being a triple runaway, kidnapper, murderer and thief to the duality of the slave vernacular in the presence of white people vs fellow black people, it kept the novel a page turner. The ending was incredibly righteous…well, super immoral but justice was ultimately served. However, I think Jim let Judge Thatcher off too easy. Lots and lots of trigger warnings and granted, it is slave treatment on the front end of the Civl War, so trauma and tragedy is plentiful. I wanna see the movie version. I need to reread Huckleberry Finn now. Everett absolutely deserved that Pulitzer.