I picked up this book after listening to the New Yorker Radio Hour, and they had interviewed Percival Everett about his book, James. The way Perival had came to write the story was after multiple re-reads of Tales of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and he developed the black slave character, Jim, into a full story.
It is a very interesting book, but unnerving to read if you haven’t watched shows like Django Unchained, or read books like 12 Years a Slave. There is something quite dark about American Civil histories, and these stories give a big voice to it.
I enjoyed the book because of the portrayal of a thought process in a world expecting you to behave otherwise. It is quite wild to imagine, but the world shown in James is one where black people would talk normally between each other, but when a white person is around, they would speak as if they lacked understanding, and with poor grammar. They spoke with wild exaggeration, just to pretend to be lesser, so the white person would continue in a state of ignorance.
It was a really good book.
A big implication for me was how I would expect people to act or think a certain way, and if they didn’t, would I be surprised? What if a Chinese National would speak to me with perfect diction and understanding, would the mannerism throw me off? What if they were more fluent and understanding of English than me?
That being said, I enjoy throwing everyone else off by speaking Chinese, and reading it through as well.
Perhaps I understand James different, because it’s a scene from my life. I know how it feels to be expected to sound or talk or behave a certain way, but it’s not me, and I don’t like to pretend otherwise.
Perhaps, you could catch that glimpse of my life through the book.
Just maybe.
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