Some books are so enthralling, so original, that as soon as the book snaps closed, you want to haul off and read everything else the author has written. After all, you don't want to miss something brilliant.
James by Percival Everett is one such book. It's a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of the slave, James (Jim, of course, in Huck Finn). It takes a lot of chutzpah to rewrite Twain's classic, but Everett more than pulls it off. He has reinvented Huck Finn—not so much turned the book on its head but certainly rolled it around. Some—but not all—of the same characters appear, and the Mississippi River is again the spine. I don't know if Huck Finn is taught in schools anymore, but if it is, what a great pairing! Teach James alongside *Huck Finn—*two faces of the same coin.
Everett does not shy from the realities of slavery, but even so, the book is often very funny. Sometimes, the reader feels whipsawed from humor to horror in the same paragraph. It's a tense, propulsive adventure that will keep you up reading, with a twist at the end that would have made Twain proud. For what it's worth, a close "friend"—ok, my husband—loved James. He gives it a rare and coveted A+.
Carin Pratt is one of the remarkably knowledgeable crew at the Norwich Bookstore—and an ardent recommender of books. Before she landed in these parts, she spent 27 years at CBS News, including two decades as the executive producer of Face the Nation.