I was intrigued to read reviews of James, the new novel by Percival Everett. Then I decided to remind myself of the novel upon which James is based: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
I haven’t read Mark Twain‘s two novels (Tom Sawyer being the other) since I was about twelve, maybe a year or two older but not much, so it was at least sixty years ago. Reading it again, with a twenty first century sensibility, and that of an adult is rather uncomfortable. The attitudes, the language and even the story is horribly racist.
Although Huckleberry considers Jim, the runaway slave, as his friend it does not stop him also regarding him, as all white people did, as stupid, ignorant and servile. This is further compounded in the tale by the arrival of two out and out con artists, who to the detriment of both characters, lead them into dangerous territory.
It was therefore a joy and relief to pick up James and read the corrected version of the coloured man’s story. The novel follows quite rigidly to the early part of the Mark Twain narrative, but with a boot on the other foot – so when Huckleberry and his friend Tom Sawyer play mean tricks on Jim, the house negro, it is often he who is laughing at them, playing up to the white man’s perception when in fact he is at least as intelligent, clever and learned as either of the two boys.
At some point though, James gets separated from Huck and his adventures are all his own. Everett creates a living, breathing world about this runaway slave – the two con men sell him to a blacksmith, he is then exchanged for two hundred dollars to sing with a black and white minstrel show – in which he must be blacked up! As with other books that touch on this situation, the coloured man’s life in America, Everett uses humour to emphasise the enormity of the situation. There is a terrible lesson involving a pencil – too awful and too real to think about, with fatal consequences. James is well aware of the tightrope upon which he balances.
I am not sure that I recommend revisiting The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, you will get just as much out of Everett’s novel without it. It was just that I had my copy on the shelf – after all these years, though somewhere along the line, I have lost Tom Sawyer.