Reclaiming the Narrative

Without a doubt, American literature has produced several stellar writers who wrote equally literary masterpieces whose impacts have transcended time and physical boundaries. This is compounded by the vast reach and influence of American literature; they are among the most accessible works of literature. These literary classics have tickled the imagination of readers across generations from various parts of the world. They impacted them on different levels and the passage of time has not dimmed their influence nor their popularity. Transcending time and borders, they remain fundamental parts of contemporary literary discourses because of the urgency of the messages that they carry. Many of these works are amongst the most critically studied, with some even serving as gauges for contemporary works. Their influences and impacts are ubiquitous. There is a reason they are called literary classics.

In the ambit of American literature, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a towering and luminous literary masterpiece. Commonly named among the Great American novels, it was originally published on December 10, 1884, in the United Kingdom and Canada; it would be published in the United States early the following year. Upon its publication, it was one of the first major literary works to be written in vernacular English. However, it also earned the ire of readers and literary critics alike because of its language and racial epithets, including its repeated use of the word nigger. This prompted the book’s banning and censorship in various institutions. It even earned the criticism of fellow writers Louisa May Alcott and Ernest Hemingway. Nevertheless, the book was able to weather all these early storms because, despite its pervasive elements, many find its overall tenor to be anti-racist.

This beloved literary classic has also inspired and influenced several contemporary literary pieces. In his latest novel, prolific writer Percival Everett revisits the beloved classic in his latest novel, James. He added his own dimension to the lore by conveying the story from the perspective of Jim. Back to the antebellum south, particularly in the town of Hannibal, Missouri, the novel commences when Jim, a bulky but mild-mannered enslaved man plots his escape after learning about Miss Watson, his owner’s plan to sell him to a buyer in New Orleans. As a slave, Jim was cognizant that getting sold was part of his destiny. This means that he will also get separated from his wife Lizzie and their daughter Sadie. The prospect of getting separated from his family was not an option for him. Jim wanted to avoid it at all costs.

“At that moment the power of reading made itself clear and real to me. If I could see the words, then no one could control them or what I got from them. They couldn’t even know if I was merely seeing them or reading them, sounding them out or comprehending them. It was a completely private affair and completely free and, therefore, completely subversive.”

 Percival Everett, James

He flees to the nearby Jackson Island where he hides until he figures out what he shall do next. The most obvious answer was to travel north, to the Free States, However, he did not want to pursue this plan of action without his family. He also knew what running away entailed; it was common for plantation owners to commission mercenaries to track down and retrieve runaway slaves. While incognito, Huck – the titular Huckleberry Finn of the original novel that inspired Everett’s latest novel – appears. Huck is a young boy who Jim has a soft spot for. However, Huck had to endure the brutal cruelty of his violent father. To escape this oppressive atmosphere at home, Huck came up with an ingenious plan. He staged his own death and, in the aftermath, sought freedom along the banks of the Mississippi River.

As the townspeople started a search for Huck, Jim realized that he would be blamed for Huck’s disappearance. It is thus imperative for them to move. The pair deserted their hideout in Jackson Island, moving downriver instead of the North. This was strategic; they were cognizant that going in the opposite direction from the Free States would throw off their pursuers. Thus commenced a treacherous journey. They travel in a raft and a boat at night and rest in daylight. The darkness served as a veil that obscured them from any hunter or any pursuer who might spot them. Their journey, however, was anything but uneventful. Despite traveling at night, they nevertheless encountered an eclectic cast of characters. Each bend of the river came along with it an unexpected adventure and, in equal measures, triumphs and tribulations.

The pair managed to skirt around their unexpected encounters with their cleverness and quick thinking. During their first encounter with a group of white men, Jim had to hide under a tarp. To keep the white men from digging deeper, Huck creates a lie, claiming that Jim is his smallpox-infected uncle. The white men reluctantly let them go. As their adventures mix with their misadventures, the pair’s path intersects with a pair of confident men (conmen), the Duke and Dauphin. Dauphin claimed to have descended from the French monarchy, hence, his claim of being the rightful king of France. The other man claimed to be an English duke. Nevertheless, Jim was able to see through their disguises. However, getting rid of them proved to be no easy task. The conmen parted the two protagonists but through Jim’s cunning, he was able to bail them out of trouble.

As Jim and Huck journey down the Mississippi River, the vestiges of slavery rise to the fore; the banks of the Mississippi are riddled with the looming presence of slavery. Huck and Jim encountering enslaved men was inevitable. During the early parts of their journey, the pair encountered a group of indentured slaves – Josiah, Old George, Young George, and Pierre – who advised them to flee the area they were in lest they risk capture. However, before fleeing, Jim asked for a pencil. Young George was able to steal one from his master, believing his master would not be able to notice it. Unfortunately, this was not so. The discovery of the theft led to the whipping and lynching of Young George. This was one of the many grim reminders of the brutal realities and harsh conditions that enslaved men like Jim had to contend with.

“There is no God, child. There’s religion but there’s no God of theirs. Their religion tells that we will get our reward in the end. However, it apparently doesn’t say anything about their punishment. But when we’re around them, we believe in God. Oh, Lawdy Lawd, we’s be believin’. Religion is just a controlling tool they employ and adhere to when convenient.”

 Percival Everett, James

The main plotline and the events that transpired form the same outline as the original. In the process, Everett provided a perspective to a character who was not heard from in the original, thus coaxing the readers to reevaluate their understanding of the original. This is a phenomenon that has become prevalent in the contemporary literary landscape. Take the case of Jean Rhys’ widely-acclaimed Wide Sargasso Sea which gave voice to the “mad woman in the attic” from Charlotte Bronte’s beloved literary classic Jane Eyre. In the same vein, Madeline Miller painted a more humane portrait of the Greek mythological villain Circe in her novel of the same name. This is in stark contrast to Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead which reimagines Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. Regardless, retellings grant readers a fresh perspective upon which to understand beloved classics.

Touchstones of slavery were ubiquitous in the story. These were elucidated by Jim’s encounters with fellow enslaved men and women. One memorable encounter was with Norman, a member of Virginia Minstrels, a minstrel owned by Daniel Decatur Emmett. Traveling from town to town, Virginia Minstrels was no ordinary minstrel as they performed original songs but in blackface. Norman is the only Black minstrel but in the eyes of the public and his fellow minstrel, he passes for white. Slavery was even more brutal for the women. Sammy is a young enslaved woman who was constantly raped by her overseer, Henderson since she was young. An escape attempt ended in an unfortunate ending. The rape of young enslaved girls and women was prevalent. Katie, another young enslaved woman, suffered the same fate as Sammy. Beyond this, they all share the same yearning for freedom from their oppressors. Ironically, there are also slaves like Luke and Brock who submit to their destinies.

While these touchstones and harrowing images of slavery pervade the story, James is more than just a novel about slavery. At the heart of the novel is the spirit of humanity illuminating through the darkness. What distinguishes James from the original is the agency placed by Everett on Jim and his fellow enslaved men and women. In Everett’s reimagining, the slaves were more clever than they seemed. In front of their white owners, they speak their broken brand of English. However, when no white man is around, they speak normally. The slave dialect conforms to the master’s idea of the slave’s submissiveness and simplicity. Any signs of literacy might make their masters and owners feel threatened and might result in harsher punishment. It is a performance act meant to assuage their master but, in the grander scheme of things, this deception is essential for their survival.

The highest representation of Everett’s portrait was the novel’s eponymous character. Jim is a connoisseur at giving the white folks what they want. He was born a slave and the legacy of his birth permeates every level of his existence. Nevertheless, he redefines himself on his own terms. He learns to write, is widely read, and makes it a habit to take notes, hence, the pencil he requested. He dreams of writing his own book one day. He even had internal dialogues with intellects and philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, and John Locke, at times challenging their ideas. Jim teaches his fellow slaves how to read. Jim also prefers the name James, hence, the book’s title. Despite the limitations imposed on him by society, James showed remarkable and indomitable qualities. The novel is also about owning the narrative. When Jim chose James, he embraced his identity, one that had been repeatedly taken away from him by slavery.

“At that moment the power of reading made itself clear and real to me. If I could see the words, then no one could control them or what I got from them. They couldn’t even know if I was merely seeing them or reading them, sounding them out or comprehending them. It was a completely private affair and completely free and, therefore, completely subversive.”

 Percival Everett, James

Everett’s portrait of James dispels the stereotypes about enslaved people. James, after all, was more than just a slave. Beyond his quick-thinking, wit, and strong sense of independence, he also showed remarkable compassion not only for his fellow slaves but also for other people’s plights, as can be gleaned from his fondness for Huck. Huck, in a way, contrasts James’ wisdom. Huck was the embodiment of youthful innocence, an antithesis to Jim’s worldliness. Huck’s sincerity and yearning for adventure were detached from James’ increasing disillusionment and yearning for freedom. The story, nevertheless, was anchored on James. The novel underscores the factors that have resulted in his growing cynicism and distrust of white men who have always shown not only distrust of Black men but also exhibited hypocrisy, including those who say they advocate against slavery.

Earning Everett’s second longlisting for the prestigious Booker Prize, James is more than just a retelling of a beloved literary classic. A multilayered and multifaceted novel, it sheds radically new light on a character rarely heard from in the original. In James, the readers are introduced to a psychologically complex character who is imbued with worldly wisdom, compassion, remarkable intelligence, and an indomitable spirit that sees through the indignities of slavery. Slaves were treated next to animals. They were beaten, raped, whipped, and even sold as commodities. James bore witness to all of these cruelties. Despite being shackled to the ground by slavery, he was always certain of his worth. His story resonates with strength and resilience amidst the pandemonium of racism and slavery. With his latest novel, Everett orchestrates a skillful performance that integrates the emotional, the horrifying, and, at times, even the humorous.

“I am called Jim. I have yet to choose a name. In the religious preachings of my white captors I am a victim of the Curse of Ham. The white so-called masters cannot embrace their cruelty and greed, but must look to that lying Dominican friar for religious justification. But I will not let this condition define me. I will not let myself, my mind, drown in fear and outrage. I will be outraged as a matter of course. But my interest is in how these marks that I am scratching on this page can mean anything at all. If they can have meaning, then life can have meaning, then I can have meaning.”

 Percival Everett, James
Book Specs

Author: Percival Everett
Publisher: Double Day
Publishing Date: 2024
No. of Pages: 303
Genre: Historical, Literary

Synopsis

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim’s agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

About the Author

Percival Leonard Everett II was born on December 22, 1956, in Fort Gordon (now Fort Eisenhower), Georgia, USA; his father was a sergeant in the U.S. Army. Shortly after he was born, his family moved to Columbia, South Carolina where his father opened a dentistry practice. He graduated from high school at age 16. He then attended the University of Miami in Florida where he earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy with a minor in biochemistry in 1977. In 1982, he earned an M.A. in fiction from Brown University.

As a child, Everett developed an interest in reading. While completing his M.A., he started working on his first novel, Syder which was published in 1983. In 1985, his sophomore novel Walk Me to the Distance was published, and a year later, Cutting Lisa was published. He would go on and publish 22 more novels, with Erasure (2001), I Am Not Sidney Poitier (2009), and The Trees (2021), among his best-known works. His most recent novel, James, was published in 2024. Erasure was adapted as the Academy Award-nominated film American Fiction (2023). He also published short story collections, poetry collections, and works of children’s literature. Everett has served as fiction editor for Callaloo, a prominent arts and culture journal of the African diaspora. 

For his works, Everett earned several accolades across the world. Telephone (2020) won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Fiction and was a finalist at the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Dr. No (2022) won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2022 and the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award in 2023. The Trees (2021) won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. James was also longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize. Among his other honors are a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 2014 and a Guggenheim fellowship in 2015. In 2021 he also received the Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle.

Apart from writing, Everett also worked in the teaching field. In college, he taught high school math to help pay his tuition. Post-college, Everett taught at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, and the University of California at Riverside. He is currently the Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California. Everett currently resides in Los Angeles, California.