James, Jim and Huckleberry Finn: your questions answered
Do you need to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn before reading James by Percival Everett? As the Booker shortlisted novel comes out in paperback, we answer some of the questions we’ve had about the book.
James by Percival Everett won the National Book Award for Fiction in the US and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in the UK. Here, we answer your questions about the book.
What is the novel James about?
James is set by the Mississippi River in 1861. Jim, an enslaved man, overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner, and therefore separated from his wife and daughter. Panicked, he runs away to the nearby Jackson Island to work out what to do. There he comes across Huck Finn, who has also recently fled, having faked his own death to escape his abusive father. So begins a dangerous and transcendent journey along the River, towards the elusive promise of the free states and beyond. As James and Huck navigate the treacherous waters, each bend in the river holds the promise of both salvation and demise.
Is James the same story as or a sequel to Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain?
Percival Everett himself says James is a 'revisiting' of Huck Finn. It follows the same basic story, but offers 'an opportunity for a character whose story could not have been told by Twain to have his story told.' It is not a sequel, although Everett has set events slightly later than in Twain's novel, in order for the story to occur closer to the start of the American Civil War.
'The more correct answer is that it's a story of Jim, Huck's slave companion throughout Twain's novel. Huck and Jim are not together throughout that novel and so things happen to Jim away from Huck. To say that it's a retelling is not precise; to say it's a reimagining is not quite correct: it's finally an opportunity for Jim to be present in this story.'
'Though I never intended the book as a corrective to Twain’s novel, I did want to address the failure of the culture to acknowledge the humanity of enslaved people,' Everett told The Guardian in the run-up to the Booker Prize ceremony. 'It was not so much that I wanted to give the character Jim agency (he already had that), but that I desired to offer him a method, a vehicle for expressing that agency.'
Do you need to read Huck Finn before James?
No. James is a profound, viciously funny and action-packed read, whether or not you have read Huckleberry Finn. However, having some knowledge of Mark Twain's characters and story may bring an extra layer to your reading of James. Apparently Everett read the book fifteen times in a row before starting his novel – but we're not sure we can genuinely recommend doing this with any book!
