A New American Classic

Who could be more quintessentially American than Huckleberry Finn?

That’s what my grandparents thought when, for my eighth birthday, they gave me a boxed set of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, illustrated by Norman Rockwell. Both books originally belonged to my mother; the 1935 set is one of my prized possessions and helped instill in me a love of reading.

Fifty-five years after my first encounter with the kind-hearted, naïve, superstitious Huck, and one hundred forty years after the publication of Mark Twain's masterpiece, a new, instant classic has emerged to sit on the shelf next to my mother’s Huckleberry Finn. With its DEI implications, it’s precisely the kind of book that the Trump administration would love to ban, making it all the more imperative a read.

James, the newly awarded Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Percival Everett, was published in March 2024. The novel reimagines Huckleberry Finn's familiar story from the viewpoint of his enslaved friend and sidekick.

Surprisingly, this incredible novel is a page-turner. I’ve read and reread Huck’s version of events countless times. Even so, I couldn’t wait to see how James’s account might challenge Huck’s narrative and make me reassess everything.

Everett gives James agency, and that agency is rooted in language. James is literate and articulate. His sophisticated locutions, spoken only in private and to other enslaved people, far surpass Huck’s rudimentary, Pike County, Missouri dialect. Early in the novel, he teaches enslaved children how to use language to convey the subservience expected of them, thereby enabling them to navigate their circumstances. 

James is also a passionate reader, well-versed in the ideas of the intellectuals of his day: Rousseau, Voltaire, and Locke. He acquires a pencil stub, whose theft may have cost another man his life, and begins to write his own story.

The Duke and the King
as imagined by Norman Rockwell

Twain’s novel uses humor to convey profound messages; that strategy is also at work here. There were laugh-out-loud moments, especially ones featuring those two dangerous conmen, the Duke and the King.

The first half of James chiefly follows what we already know about Huck and Jim—sorry, James—before things take an unexpected turn. There are no spoilers here, except to state that James’s agency isn’t confined to language. By the end, Everett’s concatenation of events subverts everything we thought we knew about this beloved American story.

This Fourth of July, I recommend you get to know James. Who could be more quintessentially American?

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