By John Branston
If you resolve to read only one serious book in 2025, then let it be James by Percival Everett. It is a retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the voice and point of view of Jim who reveals himself as James.
I dog-eared so many pages to reread that it became pointless. It is the kind of book you will want to share but if you do then don’t expect to get it back.
Without spoilers, there are touches of jive, blues, “O Brother Where Art Thou,” James Baldwin, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, current vernacular (“amazing”) and the film-noir dialogue of Elmore Leonard in its 304 pages. Every library, museum, rapper hip-hopper and high school and college in Shelby County should make it available – even though it could be career suicide in some circumstances. The potential rewards outweigh that.
There is no pretty lyrical writing, no fancy writing. Just brilliant writing. The book can be read in a day. There is nary an F-bomb in it, but liberal use of the N-Word will arouse trolls and the tender-minded to do their thing. Code words, dialect, and cultural appropriateness and cultural appropriation are the point.
The plot is pretty much the same as Huckleberry Finn. Runaway slave (N-word) Jim and young Huck go down the Mississippi on a raft, miss the turnout for the Ohio River and freedom and drift south to Arkansas with the King and the Duke, fakers, halfwits, a few good souls, and assorted brutes in the slave states before the Civil War.
There is no mention of Memphis but it is, of course, our Mississippi River, which is enough to make it a local story.
Small spoiler: In the closing chapter of barely 150 words, a sheriff asks “Are any of you named (N-word) Jim?” The answer: “I am James. Just James.”
**
(In the acknowledgments, Everett gives a nod to Mark Twain. “His humor and humanity affected me long before I became a writer. Heaven for the climate; hell for the long-awaited lunch with Mark Twain.”)
**
John Branston covered Memphis as a reporter and columnist for 35 years.
**
To read more of John Branston’s posts, go to categories on the right side of the home page and select his name.
