James

‘Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the source of my novel. I hope that I have written the novel that Twain did not and also could not have written. I do not view the work as a corrective, but rather I see myself in conversation with Twain.’

Read the full interview here.

‘A masterful, revisionist work that immerses the reader in the brutality of slavery, juxtaposed with a movingly persistent humanity. Through lyrical, richly textured prose, Everett crafts a captivating response to Mark Twain’s classic, Huckleberry Finn, that is both a bold exploration of a dark chapter in history and a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. With its virtuosic command of language and moral urgency, James stands as a towering achievement that confronts the past while holding out hope for a progressive future, cementing Everett’s deserved reputation as a literary sensation.’

Carole V. Bell, NPR

‘In addition to addressing language and identity, James is very convincingly and movingly a book about two runaways’ quest for freedom and the relationship between human beings that society says should not have any connection. James works shockingly well in all those dimensions. America’s original sin and contradictions are his subject, and this riveting riff on a similarly complex American classic that even Toni Morrison called “this amazing troubling book” is his most challenging and maybe even his best canvas. With the previous high water marks of Telephone, The Trees, and Erasure, Everett has long been an American literary icon. But in the wake of an Oscar-winning adaptation, this time the world is watching. James expands the Everett canon in a way that will have to be reckoned with come award season.’

Laura Miller, Slate

‘“White people love feeling guilty,” James announces, even though few of the white people in the novel seem much troubled by their consciences—so which white people is he talking about, exactly? Knowing Everett’s impish propensities, it’s impossible to read James—among other things, a litany of atrocities visited upon Black characters, set in the past—and not wonder if he’s still needling gullible white readers about what we expect from Black novelists. If he’s mocking us, well, he’s earned that right. Maybe he’ll even win a Pulitzer.’

Kashif Andrew Graham, Nashville Scene

‘James is the kind of work we have come to expect from Everett. It is at once acerbically humorous and existential. The novel is a retelling of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Huck’s enslaved companion Jim. But what Everett has constructed is not merely the result of a perspective shift. He’s telling a new story altogether, one that is blazing with nuance and reveals the precarious underpinnings of America’s “peculiar institution.” One need not have read the Samuel Clemens text to fully experience the pastoral drama of Everett’s tale.’

Max Liu, iNews

‘The pain in Everett’s novel is counterpointed by the pleasure of reading his prose, which he has spent the last four decades honing to a sharpness, meaning he never wastes a word. There is also deadpan wit and plenty of comical moments, as in the scene when James is conscripted into a minstrel group and must wear makeup to perform. […] Twain tried to humanise Jim in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn but the novel reflected the attitudes of the 19th century American South more than it challenged them. It reinforced patronising stereotypes about Black people and deployed the n-word far too casually. Everett redresses these failings, giving voice and individuality to James, and exposing the stupidity of racism in a horrific story which is beautifully told. He is an essential writer and James may be his greatest novel yet.’