In James, Percival Everett brilliantly reimagines The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s perspective, offering a fresh and thought-provoking take on Twain’s classic. Instead of the childlike portrayal of the original, Jim emerges as a deeply intelligent, strategic man. When Jim overhears he’s about to be sold, he hides on Jackson Island. There, he encounters Huck, also on the run, and the two launch into a familiar yet newly meaningful journey down the Mississippi. Through Jim’s eyes, each run-in with danger, every brush with conmen, and the odd moments of luck take on rich layers, highlighting the horror of slavery and the absurdity of the racial norms in the antebellum […]
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Their Eyes Were Watching God
First published in 1937, Their Eyes Were Watching God was out of print for almost thirty years—due largely to the initial audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist. It was reissued in 1978 and has since become one of the most widely read and critically acclaimed works of African American literature. Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie Starks, fair-skinned, long-legged, independent, and articulate, who sets out to be her own person—no easy feat for a black woman in the ‘30s. After three marriages, she journeys back to her roots, where her small southern black community buzzes with gossip about the outcome of her affair […]
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