James by Percival Everett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I loved 98 percent of this book. But I’ll start with the bit that I didn’t care for. There was one major deviation from the original source material that I found disappointing. I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone but it really changed my perception of Jim … not for the positive.
With that out of the way, the rest of the book was INCREDIBLE. The telling from Jim’s point of view really brought to light how things can be perceived and remembered by people very differently.
I have no qualm with the fact that every minor detail didn’t line up the same since I really view both this and Huckleberry Finn as memoirs — both probably told from unreliable narrators. In fact, some of those discrepancies really added to the realism of both stories. This book made me like Huck Finn more than I had, in fact.
The narration was absolutely stunning. Dominic Hoffman’s ability to switch to different characters, voices and dialects at the drop of a hat was truly impressive. His ability to convey Jim’s emotions through tone really made the character come to life.
I’m not the biggest fan of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and I’m not sure it should be taught in schools. But if it is, this needs to be taught alongside it.
If I could give it 4 1/2 stars, I would.
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