On a quiet afternoon in late August, 2025, I sat overlooking the bay in Sullivan, Maine, watching a few small boats drift across the water. Earlier that day, I had wandered into Sherman’s Bookstore in nearby Bar Harbor and picked up James by Percival Everett. It felt like the perfect place to begin a new book.

James is a reimagining of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, told from the perspective of Jim, the enslaved man who travels with Huck down the Mississippi River. In Twain’s novel, Jim appears mostly as a gentle and loyal companion, seen through the eyes of a boy.

Everett begins with that familiar image but quickly deepens it. In this retelling, Jim becomes a far more complex figure, observant and constantly aware of the dangers around him. What once felt like a boy’s adventure becomes heavier. A story about survival and freedom.

What struck me most is how Everett keeps the bones of Twain’s story while quietly shifting its center. The gentle Jim, many readers remember, is still present, but he is no longer contained by that image. He becomes the mind of the story, fully aware of the dangers around him and the cost of survival.

By the end, the choices Jim makes are difficult to sit with. They resist the comfort Twain allowed. They force the reader to confront what survival in the world actually demand. The story feels less like an adventure and more like a reckoning.

Buy James on Bookshop.org. I love supporting indie bookstores!