‘James’: Mark Twain’s Character Won The National Book Award For Fiction

In an era characterized by fanfiction, sequels, spin-offs, repetition, reformatting, and rethinking, it was very logical, even obvious that the National Book Award for Fiction went to Percival Everett for James, an imaginative rewriting of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. The same writer who produced Erasure, then turned into The Oscar-winning film American Fiction, took the NBA after being a finalist for the Booker and winning the Kirkus Prize; now people like Steven Spielberg want to take it to the cinema, with Taika Waititi in initial conversations as a director.

It is the perfect mix for this era, and Everett knows it. He delivered a perfectly wonderful book, filled with picaresque, dangerous adventures, crimes, fight for freedom; a scathing, deeply human book. But it ends in a basic and not at all surprising way: almost like a soap opera, without discrediting soap operas. As for the beginning, the Everett didn’t create this character or much of the material on which he based the first part of the book, where Huckleberry Finn is present. The question is, has this mattered to anyone? Apparently not.

James is in no way an homage to Mark Twain’s book; it’s a kind of standalone. Everett is saying, you, Mark Twain, didn’t really know who Jim or James was and I’m going to show you who he was. And he makes a great effort giving personality to that slave created by Twain; which Everett, he assumes, is really his personality. After saying all this, one thing becomes clear: for readers of this era, Twain’s Jim has ceased to exist, replaced by Everett’s “James.” And yes, this James is by far more courageous, interesting and sharp than Twain’s Jim…but Twain’s Jim was the original.

And here it is appropriate to open a conversation about the value of what an author writes versus what another author can later do with that literary creation and legacy. It’s something we see regularly in Hollywood, the music industry, and to quote something, literary fanfiction : everyone writes what they want, there is fanfiction of Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc. Is James something similar taken to its maximum and almost perfect expression?.

Thanks to a great friend of mine, James came into my hands in digital form. I read it in a couple of days. And although each and every one of the reviews about James begin almost identically: praising the originality, the dialogues and the entire content of the novel of Everett, I have this feeling that has been with me since those two days in which I read “James” and it is something like: And what the hell did it matter that Mark Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn and created the character referred to as “”Nigger Jim”?

The answer to the question is quite simple:  Everett would not have had the almost indestructible social and cultural marketing platform that represents taking a work of the weight of that created by Twain and appropriating one of the most recognized characters in North American literature. One of Mr. Everett’s great purposes was to elevate Twain’s character and make the discussion about slavery relevant, even much more than it is, because Everett is descended in part from slaves. Yet when doing such an exercise, literary ethics hangs by a thread. You need to respect authors, no matter they are Mark Twain or  a total unknown.

There are enough reviews about the plot of James, but few mention that Mr. Everett mocks Twain’s work by showing that the Jim that Huck knew is not “real.” He is not a docile and illiterate slave; it is a kind of living mask, a character playing another character. Because James does know how to read and write and has dreams or hallucinations about John Locke. He knows about philosophy and is almost a scholar, passing on his teachings to other slaves and his own children. It’s all a performance that many slaves deployed so that white people ignored their intelligence.

James’ quest is the same as in Twain’s book: to free his family. Here’s a spoiler: he does it, though not without going through a thousand adventures and having to do terrible things. Always under the very keen sense of humor that Everett brings to the character, who narrates the entire novel in first person.

James is a novel that has all the attributes that you have read out there. All.

But I wonder if it was necessary to do an “imaginative rewriting of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” or if it was much better to leave the legacy, Twain’s work, intact and create his own novel with his own characters and create his own new classic. And at least respect what someone, an author like him, wrote in very difficult times.

Mark Twain found inspiration in several slaves he knew. one of whom became his confidant, to create Jim. What if Twain did not explore in depth the personality behind the veil of Jim’s simplicity? Well, who knows, maybe Everett is right and while Twain’s Jim was rowing with Huck down the Mississippi River, he was actually quoting Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his mind.

Three things are very true: James is a great read. This question about whether he deserved to win this or that award is simply subjective. I would have liked to read a book by Everett about that time, on that topic, without being elevated on the shoulders of Mark Twain.

Does James provide anything positive to Mark Twain’s legacy…or anything at all? Time will tell.

And more importantly, if, after I die, someone imaginatively rewrites some of my books, I will return as a vampire and I assure you it will not have a happy ending.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Everett said: “Two weeks ago, I was feeling pretty low” because of the Presidential election results. “And to tell the truth, I still feel pretty low. And as I look out at this, so much excitement about books, I have to say I do feel some hope, but it’s important to remember that hope really is no substitute for strategy.” And I congratulate you Mr. Everett. Your strategy was simply perfect.

I close this piece with a tip that is worth a million dollars and goes right, like “James”, directly into our cultural Zeitgeist: The woman who imaginatively rewrites a novel about Daisy Buchanan ten years after the death of Jay Gatsby and turns her into not the shallow, boring, trophy wife character she was, but rather a smart-ass Dorothy Parker sort of woman, will win all the awards.