Review: “James”

Percival Everett sharpens his pen in this radical retelling of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”

Everett’s writing cuts like a knife. He takes the bones of Mark Twain's classic American novel and slices it into something new. Something sharp.

You'll see some familiar faces. The Duke and the Dauphin, still running their cons. Tom Sawyer, Miss Watson, Judge Thatcher too. But now you're seeing them through Jim's eyes. And Jim is no one’s fool.

Jim’s got to run. His family’s on the line. Huck’s along for the ride, but this isn’t his show anymore. The Mississippi twists and winds its way through everything, big and mean, ready to swallow them whole. Ready to render misfortune at every turn.

The river doesn’t care if you’re a slave or free, black or white. It can carry you or kill you.

Everett’s novel will leave its mark on you. Sure it’s a hoot and a holler. A goddamn thrilling adventure full of angry, drunken racists and stupid hucksters, flinty scoundrels and ne’er-do-wells. It’s also full of love and justice.

It’s a reckoning too. With America’s past, its present and hopefully its future.