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A review by morgangelfand
James by Percival Everett

adventurous dark sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

First I wanna say that the audiobook narration was incredible. I know that if I was reading it, I would have stumbled over and had to re-read a lot of the "slave talk" but having a narrator read it made it easier to understand. 

That being said, I'm not sure how to feel about this book. On one hand, it was a great adventure with interesting and lovable characters, but on the other hand I felt weird about some of the revisionist choices the author made. I can understand the appeal of slaves actually being eloquent, and playing it up for their masters, but in a book that aimed to show the brutal truth of slavery, it felt out of place. Why show on-page rape and torture, but omit that form of control? The slaves spoke more eloquently than their owners when they weren't around, so where did they learn it? Could they not be smart in a way that wasn't tied to white people's view of what smart was? I don't know, it's hard to explain but something felt off about it. 

Also, the ending of the book felt super abrupt.
He finds his wife and daughter and we don't see any of their trip north? One sentence later and they're in a free state?
 

Overall I enjoyed the story, but it's not a new favorite, and I see some problems with both the premise and the execution. 
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