Reading guide: James by Percival Everett

A profound meditation on identity, belonging and the sacrifices we make to protect the ones we love, which reimagines Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Huck’s companion, Jim. 

1861, the Mississippi River. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson’s Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father who recently returned to town. Thus begins a dangerous and transcendent journey by raft along the Mississippi River, toward the elusive promise of free states and beyond. As James and Huck begin to navigate the treacherous waters, each bend in the river holds the promise of both salvation and demise. 
 
With rumours of a brewing war, James must face the burden he carries: the family he is desperate to protect and the constant lie he must live, and together, the unlikely pair must face the most dangerous odyssey of them all… 

Percival Everett lives in Los Angeles, where he is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California. 

He has been nominated for the Booker Prize twice – he was shortlisted for The Trees in 2022 and for James in 2024 – and is the author of over 30 published works. A Guggenheim Fellow and Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Everett has won the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award, the Academy Award in Literature, the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, and the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for Fiction. His 2001 novel Erasure was adapted into the Oscar-nominated film, American Fiction. In 2021, he received the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Book Critics Circle Awards. 

‘At its core, the novel examines the dehumanising effects of slavery and the pervasive, institutionalised racism that underpins it. These themes powerfully resonate with ongoing struggles against systemic oppression and the legacy of slavery in contemporary society. 

‘Jim’s use of language and his reclamation of his own identity speaks to the universal need for self-determination in the face of oppression. This struggle for autonomy and agency remains highly relevant in today’s politicised climate on a global scale.’

James, alongside the other Black characters in the novel, routinely code-switch, adopting a ‘slave filter’ when interacting with white characters. They are careful not to break character so the white people feel safe. Discuss the significance of this behaviour with regard to the novel, but also in relation to wider Black history in America. Might this act of performance still occur in racially oppressive societies?  

A central theme in James is identity: the identity given to us, versus the one we claim as our own, and the extent to which we reveal our true identity to others. How does James explore the tension between these identities and how does this theme shape James’ journey throughout the novel? 

Throughout the book, Everett throws in many literary motifs. James has read Voltaire and appears in conversation with John Locke in his dreams. What does Everett’s decision to present James in this way say about the expectations placed on Black characters in literature? 

‘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.’ (Page 52). Discuss how this quote reflects the novel’s themes of power and inequality, and the paradoxes of racial justice. What does this statement reveal about the challenges James faces in asserting his own autonomy? 

In a recent interview with the Booker Prizes, Percival Everett said ‘I do not view the work [James] as a corrective [to Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn], but rather I see myself in conversation with Twain,’ he said. How does James engage in a ‘conversation’ with Twain’s book, and in what ways does Everett challenge or reframe the classic work?  

Like much of Everett’s work, James contains elements of satire, alongside serious reflections on societal and racial oppression. How, and why, does Everett leverage humour amongst the darker issues he tackles in James?  

The Booker Prize judges said ‘the complex, evolving relationship between Jim and the young Huck is a key source of our narrative empathy’ noting that the two form a ‘deep emotional bond as Huck comes to see Jim as more than just a slave’. Discuss Huck’s character arc, and awakening, within the novel, and his evolving relationship with Jim. How does this differ from Twain’s original? 

NPR described James as ‘a startling homage and a new classic in its own right’. In your opinion, does James have the potential to stand the test of time and be considered a classic? Why or why not? 

James opens with ‘THE NOTEBOOK OF DANIEL DECATUR EMMETT’, which contains lyrics from a selection of songs. Emmett was the real-life founder of one of the first minstrel troupes in the U.S and he appears midway through the novel, when James is sold to him to perform in the troupe. Later, James escapes and begins to document his personal story. Discuss Emmett’s work and extracts from the notebook as a literary device within James and the purpose it serves. What commentary does this provide on the relationship between Black history and white narratives? 

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn contains more than 200 occurrences of the N-word. In James, Everett chooses to follow suit. How does this deliberate use of the racial slur affect the reading experience? Discuss the response Everett may be trying to evoke and its purpose in James. 

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 

The Trees by Percival Everett

Erasure by Percival Everett 

The Sellout by Paul Beatty 

Beloved by Toni Morrison 

The Long Song by Andrea Levy