Last night, the new book James by Percival Everett won the National Book Award for Fiction. The book is a retelling of Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from the perspective of the escaped slave Jim. The book tells the story of Hunk and Jim as they both escape the strictures put on them and their exploitation. They find temporary refuge with a band of anti-slavery performers, only to find that their leader is secretly just as wedded to slavery. Finally, as the Civil War is breaking out, and after the creation of the United States Colored Troops, a new day appears to be dawning, but will they live to see it?
In accepting the award, Everett thanked his teenaged sons “whose near-complete apathy about my career helps me keep things in perspective.”
The National Book Award is the second most prestigious award given out every year for books after the Pulitzer Prizes. You can read my review of the book here.
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