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Returnable | Yes |
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Resolutions | Eligible for refund or replacement |
Return Window | 30 days from delivery |
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James: A Novel Hardcover – March 19, 2024
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In development as a feature film to be produced by Steven Spielberg • A Best Book of the Year of the Year so Far for 2024: The New York Times Book Review, Esquire, W Magazine, Bustle, LitHub
"Genius"—The Atlantic • "A masterpiece that will help redefine one of the classics of American literature, while also being a major achievement on its own."—Chicago Tribune • "A provocative, enlightening literary work of art."—The Boston Globe • "Everett’s most thrilling novel, but also his most soulful."—The New York Times
When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.
While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.
Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a “literary icon” (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.
- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherDoubleday
- Publication dateMarch 19, 2024
- Dimensions5.74 x 1.11 x 8.52 inches
- ISBN-100385550367
- ISBN-13978-0385550369
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Get to know this book
Popular highlight
“Folks be funny lak dat. Dey takes the lies dey want and throws away the truths dat scares ’em.”2,443 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
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.1,584 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
I chose the word enemy, and still do, as oppressor necessarily supposes a victim.1,288 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
How strange a world, how strange an existence, that one’s equal must argue for one’s equality, that one’s equal must hold a station that allows airing of that argument, that one cannot make that argument for oneself, that premises of said argument must be vetted by those equals who do not agree.1,248 Kindle readers highlighted this
From the Publisher
![this retelling might be a masterpiece writes the New York Times](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/aplus-media-library-service-media/cc96a893-4f05-4cc1-8ad7-52b2dc5dec25.__CR0,0,970,300_PT0_SX970_V1___.png)
![Genius says The Atlantic](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/aplus-media-library-service-media/7f21f6a1-4c5d-4125-a16a-f9b01bffd167.__CR0,0,970,300_PT0_SX970_V1___.png)
![will help redefine one of the classics of American literature says the Chicago Tribune](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/aplus-media-library-service-media/57aab9d7-cae6-49be-8f23-9e3be40aaea9.__CR0,0,970,300_PT0_SX970_V1___.png)
![enlightening work of literary art says the Boston Globe](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/aplus-media-library-service-media/2e745f37-55d8-46ee-b59e-7001433d2ed2.__CR0,0,970,300_PT0_SX970_V1___.png)
![Book title and author](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/aplus-media-library-service-media/345099b0-41bb-492a-9580-c0afd77a73da.__CR0,0,970,300_PT0_SX970_V1___.png)
Editorial Reviews
Review
“The cult favorite author’s electric new work. . . James completely reimagines one-half of Finn’s famous duo, elevating him from unwitting sidekick to reluctant hero. . . Everett brings that laser-sharp wit to James, creating a radical new American adventure.”
—W Magazine
“James offers page-turning excitement but also off-kilter philosophical picaresque. . . Gripping, painful, funny, horrifying, this is multi-level entertainment, a consummate performance to the last."
—The Guardian
“Blasted clean of Twain’s characterization, Jim emerges here as a man of great dignity, altruism, and intelligence. . . Clever, soulful, and full of righteous rage, [Jim’s] long-silenced voice resounds through this remarkable novel. Subversive and thrilling, James is destined to become a modern classic.”
—Esquire
“[A] careful and thought-provoking auditing of Huckleberry Finn. . . [James is] a kind of commentary or midrash, broadening our understanding of an endangered classic by bringing out the tragedy behind the comic facade. And that is no small thing. I expect that James will be spoken of as a repudiation of Huckleberry Finn, but a book like this can only be written in a spirit of engaged devotion. More than a correction, it’s a rescue mission. And maybe this time it will work.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“Heir to Mark Twain’s satirical vision, Everett turns a boyhood memoir into a neo-fugitive slave narrative thriller. . . Using erasure, Everett has produced a daring emendation. Redacting swaths of Huck Finn, he’s revealed another code: the untranslated story of James’s self-emancipation. . . James is a provocative, enlightening work of literary art.”
—The Boston Globe
“[Everett is a] prolific genius. . . A literary jukebox. . . If anyone is poised to casually (after all, he has bills) write a masterpiece that not only becomes instant canon but also sets a brush fire to the current ones it stands upon, it’s Everett. And that’s exactly what he’s done with James.”
—Elle
"Huck Finn’ Is a Masterpiece. This Retelling Just Might Be, Too."
—The New York Times
“[A] sly response to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. . . While The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn lampooned American society through the naiveté of its young narrator, James critiques White racism with the sharp insight of a character who’s felt the lash...What’s most striking, ultimately, is the way James both honors and interrogates Huck Finn, along with the nation that reveres it.”
—The Washington Post
"Percival Everett [is] our current Great American Novelist. . . [JAMES] is a masterpiece that will help redefine one of the classics of American literature, while also being a major achievement on its own. . . I almost cannot imagine a future where teachers assign The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn without also assigning James alongside it. . . Everett is one of the most, if not the most interesting writers working today.”
—The Chicago Tribune
“To call James a retelling would be an injustice. Everett sends Mark Twain’s classic through the looking glass. What emerges is no longer a children’s book, but a blood-soaked historical novel stripped of all ornament. . . Genius.”
—The Atlantic
"Once you’ve picked up Everett’s James, a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, you’ll know that only Everett could take on the task of allowing Mark Twain’s character Jim to show what was missing from the original story.”
—The Los Angeles Times
“Percival Everett continues his blistering pace of unforgettable fiction with James. . . Everett infuses this well-known story with a refreshingly contemporary jolt of agency, intelligence, and compassion, bringing new life to the character of Jim and the American epic.”
—Chicago Review of Books
“Using nuance and vulnerability to emphasize Jim’s humanity, [Everett leaves a] stamp on the literary landscape as he dismantles the stereotypes of the enslaved humans depicted in Twain’s classic. . . Percival Everett has accomplished more than humanizing a marginalized voice. He has, once again, delivered a seminal work of literary reparation.”
—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Everett’s James isn’t out to displace Twain’s book. It’s carrying out a bolder, more ingenuous, and, characteristic of its author, more subversive agenda...Everett endows Jim with greater dimension and nuance than his original creator did. Huckleberry Finn provided Jim with courage, dignity, and virtue. James bestows upon him the greater, if more complicated, privilege of full (if not yet unfettered) humanity."
—The New Republic
“Playful and resonant. . . Everett has plenty of derisive fun here, dissecting and subverting damaging stereotypes. . . For a writer who often plays by few rules, Everett has drawn on what he knows best here – that freedom can be won, one word at a time. Add levity and serious intent and you have a novel that's a class act.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Audacious. . . Everett [gives] Jim—who, we learn, prefers to be called James—his agency, letting his intelligence and compassion shine through. James is a poignant if often distressing reintroduction to a beloved character who deserved better.”
—Time
"Ingenious"
—People
“Percival Everett with virtuosic wit presents a spin on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”
—Vanity Fair
"More than audacious. With James, Everett has mounted a high-stakes, revisionist raid not just on Twain’s imagination but on ours as a nation. . . [Everett is] a brilliantly sly novelist."
—Garden & Gun
"We may not be meeting Jim for the first time, but we’re introduced to him in a bold new way."
—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"In an astounding riposte, the much-lauded Everett (Dr. No, 2022) rewrites [Huck Finn] as a liberation narrative, told from Jim (or rather James’) point of view...An absolutely essential read."
—Booklist (Starred Review)
"The audacious and prolific Everett dives into the very heart of Twain’s epochal odyssey...One of the noblest characters in American literature gets a novel worthy of him."
—Kirkus (Starred Review)
“Ingenious … Jim’s wrenching odyssey concludes with remarkable revelations, violent showdowns, and insightful meditations on literature and philosophy. Everett has outdone himself.”
—Publisher’s Weekly (Starred Review)
"James is funny and horrifying, brilliant and riveting. In telling the story of Jim instead of Huckleberry Finn, Percival Everett delivers a powerful, necessary corrective to both literature and history. I found myself cheering both the writer and his hero. Who should read this book? Every single person in the country.”
—Ann Patchett
"Percival Everett is a giant of American letters, and James is a canon-shatteringly great book. Unforgiving and compassionate, beautiful and brutal, a tragedy and a farce, this brilliant novel rewrites literary history to let us hear the voices it has long suppressed.”
—Hernan Diaz, author of Trust
“This is a brilliant, accessible, and very necessary companion to Huckleberry Finn.”
—Dave Eggers, author of The Eyes and the Impossible
“James is a masterpiece. I read it late this summer, and I have already recommended it to enough people to put it on the bestseller lists, in the classrooms, libraries, book clubs and hands in which it so rightly belongs.”
—Francine Prose
“Percival Everett is a genre.”
—Kiese Laymon
“Pure brilliance. Funny, wise, gracious; this may be Everett's best book yet.”
—Bonnie Garmus
“Percival Everett is an audacious, beguiling American master, whose wild trajectory has reached astonishing highs in the past decade. Now comes James, which enlists and devours not only Mark Twain’s novel but aspects of Melville, Ellison, and even Kafka to makes an irrevocable intervention into the canon. Everett is simply playing this game at a higher level, and it is the most serious game imaginable.”
—Jonathan Lethem
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Doubleday; First Edition (March 19, 2024)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0385550367
- ISBN-13 : 978-0385550369
- Item Weight : 1.2 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.74 x 1.11 x 8.52 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7 in Fiction Satire
- #20 in Historical Fiction (Books)
- #28 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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James: A Thrilling Fictional Journey!
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About the author
![Percival L. Everett](https://cdn.statically.io/img/m.media-amazon.com/images/S/amzn-author-media-prod/tjabrucout6nrqkb2ogapaplr._SY600_.jpg)
PERCIVAL EVERETT is a Distinguished Professor of English at USC. His most recent books include Dr. No (finalist for the NBCC Award for Fiction and winner of the PEN/ Jean Stein Book Award), The Trees (finalist for the Booker Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction), Telephone (finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), So Much Blue, Erasure, and I Am Not Sidney Poitier. He has received the NBCC Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award and The Windham Campbell Prize from Yale University. American Fiction, the feature film based on his novel Erasure, was released in 2023. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the writer Danzy Senna, and their children.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the writing compelling, with many layers to understand and unravel. They also describe the writing quality as amazing and the humor as clever, funny, and engaging. Readers describe the author as amazing, brave, and intelligent. They find the pacing delightful, action-packed, and moving. Customers also describe this as a thought-provoking, heart wrenching, and real story.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the plot thought-provoking and heart wrenching. They appreciate the fresh, amazing details and vivid humanity. They also describe the book as exciting, sometimes scary, and often funny. Readers say the love and devotion are explored in unique ways. They say the book tells a beautiful story of resilience and perseverance.
"...A unique and clarifying vision of the slave/master relationship and the horror of a system that reduced human beings to animals in the eyes of other..." Read more
"...We are treated all at once to a rollicking adventure, a reimagined classic, and a debunking of myths, both liberal and illiberal, that have disabled..." Read more
"...actually is paced better than Huck Finn, less digressive, so the tension is better. Huck tends to talk and talk and talk...." Read more
"...The way it’s written though tells a beautiful story of the resilience and perseverance of the main character, James, and his will to survive and..." Read more
Customers find the writing quality brilliant, rewarding, and thought-provoking. They also describe the book as captivating and well worth the purchase. Readers also mention that the craft work is amazing and the plot is gripping.
"What a wonderful,impactful retelling of the Huck Finn story from the perspective and context of Jim...." Read more
"...All this, and a good read, to boot.Highly, highly recommend." Read more
"...Still a worthwhile read, although I wish I had waited to spend less money on a used paperback copy." Read more
"...For me this book was just unputdownable and brilliant. Now, on to read the originals so I can get the full experience." Read more
Customers find the writing compelling and believable. They also appreciate the control of dialog and language. Readers also mention that the book has many layers to understand and unravel.
"...The writing is wonderful,the story tracks with Twain just enough to give it a literary legitimacy,but the perspective of the narrator takes it to..." Read more
"...Creatively written and a delightful read." Read more
"...The book gallops along, driven by an abundance of dialog that echoes historical accents but is not dialect-trodden...." Read more
"...But the reveal of the language drew me in...." Read more
Customers find the humor in the book very funny, engaging, and delightful. They say it's reimagined with wit and grace, and that it causes tears of joy and sadness.
"The paragon of The Great American Novel reimagined with wit and grace...." Read more
"...it’s a bleak look into life before abolition, there are some funny and quirky moments that were just executed so perfectly that it brought some..." Read more
"...It was an exciting, sometimes a bit scary, and often funny account of Jim's running away and traveling down the mighty Mississippi River...." Read more
"Such deep truths, such deep sorrows, such raw insight, a must read...." Read more
Customers find the pacing of the book delightful, deeply moving, and compelling. They also say the writing grabs their attention immediately and reads much more smoothly than the original. Readers also mention that the book is a rollercoaster adventure and a reimagined classic.
"...We are treated all at once to a rollicking adventure, a reimagined classic, and a debunking of myths, both liberal and illiberal, that have disabled..." Read more
"...This book actually is paced better than Huck Finn, less digressive, so the tension is better. Huck tends to talk and talk and talk...." Read more
"...It is an action packed adventure with heart. I never read anything by Percival Everett before, but I am so glad I decided to read James...." Read more
"This amazing book was a quick read that I just couldn’t put down...." Read more
Customers find the author amazing, talented, and a wonderful character. They also say the book is a perfect and heartwarming companion to Huck Finn.
"...or James, as he comes to be known, is an intelligent, loving, and brave man. A true hero.I will be thinking about this book for a long time...." Read more
"...story since it presents Jim as a highly intelligent, savvy, and wonderful person...." Read more
"James is amazing. This book was definitely my best read of 2024. The writing is engaging and the retelling of Mark Twain’s Jim is fresh and hopeful." Read more
"A good read about James, a slave who leaves his family when his owner plans on selling him. James and Huck travel together...." Read more
Customers find the characters in the book rich.
"...A wonderful heart breaking tale with wild characters, horrible cruelty, unexpected reason, and the raging Mississippi River...." Read more
"I though James was an incredibly sympathetic character for despite is crimes. Everett made me want to read Huckleberry Finn over again." Read more
"Thoughtful interpretation of a special character that we never considered. James has been revealed to be seen as more than a background character ...." Read more
"...Huck's character was wonderful and authentic, and made a lot of sense. This is the story that Mark Twain meant to tell." Read more
Customers find the book original and logical.
"So original and at the same time, so perfectly logical and necessary to complete what Tom and Huck told us...." Read more
"Riveting and unique - the author does a wonderful job in describing the agony that Jim saw and endured. Highly recommended" Read more
"...It is so well written and so creative of an idea that it is already a classic. If you don't have this, get it" Read more
"So creative! I love Huck Finn, so this new, reimagined perspective was a must read for me...." Read more
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![Everett's brilliant idea, fantastically executed](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/common/transparent-pixel._V192234675_.gif)
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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We are treated all at once to a rollicking adventure, a reimagined classic, and a debunking of myths, both liberal and illiberal, that have disabled our understanding of race, slavery and the Civil War itself. There is great affection shown by the author for his characters and the power of language; empathy and unexpected rendering of speech as a literary device compel the reader to hear what these characters have to say.
All this, and a good read, to boot.
Highly, highly recommend.
It's got some shortcomings though, imo. For one it tends to overexplain things, doesn't always give the reader enough credit: "I was running because they were after me and I didn't want to get caught." Yeah, that's what running is. I was already with you on that.
The other is the whole conceit with the register the slaves operate in depending on whether or not white people are around. So they all really speak like highly educated people but just play the hambone bit as a bluff to make white people think they're stupid? It's fine if we're not going for verisimilitude here, but why does secretly adopting the speech of the dominant culture signify sophistication? That just reinscribes the dichotomy. Granted, most of the white characters use a vernacular dialect and don't use the elevated literary voice the slaves use, but it still privileges a "white" voice to make the black characters seem super smart. Weird move, and it's not subtle at all because James is constantly explaining this to the reader, which goes back to my first critique.
This book actually is paced better than Huck Finn, less digressive, so the tension is better. Huck tends to talk and talk and talk. James explains too much, but the plot still moves at a decent clip.
And one last thing. The book has taken an entire fictional landscape, characters, and plot from one of the so-called great American novels, so a lot of the imaginative work has already been done for the author here. Still a worthwhile read, although I wish I had waited to spend less money on a used paperback copy.
It is billed as telling the story of Huck Finn from the perspective of the enslaved Jim. While it follows many elements of Huckleberry Finn, the events are seen in quite a different angle through Jim’s eyes. While the author includes humor, the story is incredibly thought provoking, as well as heart wrenching.
Jim, or James, as he comes to be known, is an intelligent, loving, and brave man. A true hero.
I will be thinking about this book for a long time. It was definitely worth reading.
Top reviews from other countries
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I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel. ‘Enjoy’ feels like a strange word to use for a book that focuses on such a dark side of human history, but Everett is clearly a master of his art. The focus on the use of language is excellent. Everett positions well the dichotomy between how enslaved people spoke with each other and how they spoke with the white men and women who purported to own them. In speaking with white people, they protected themselves by attempting to appear as they were perceived—simple, lacking intelligence. But in private, they were truly themselves, discussing life, love, politics, philosophy, and everything in between.
There are some excellent scenes, which have garnered much attention, where James meets with philosophers of old in his dreams. An avid reader, sneaking into his master’s library at night, in states of delirium he discusses the ethics of slavery with several of the European philosophers who had pontificated on the subject. There Everett explores the complexity of the arguments for and against slavery, showing how even those Europeans who were against slavery still had complex and often problematic views. This kind of sequence could have been gimmicky, but Everett pulls it off well. He never lingers too long, and doesn’t lean into it too hard, which is to the book’s benefit.
Though, confessedly, I don’t know Huckleberry Finn well, where I understand James diverges from its source material is where I think it is at its strongest. There are times where Finn and James are separated, and this gives Everett the freedom to explore more deeply the themes of justice and the experience of enslavement.
Overall, I rate this book very highly. It tackles a difficult topic in a novel and compelling way; and those who read Huckleberry Finn at school would do well to read this as a companion.
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