James is loosely based on Mark Twain's classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Some of the early scenes of Everett's novel closely follow Huckleberry Finn, but as the two separate and Jim goes off on his own picaresque "adventures", the tone turns more serious as it explores issues of rape, murder, beatings, and racism.
Reception
According to Book Marks, the book received "rave" reviews based on nineteen critic reviews with seventeen being "rave" and one being "positive" and one being "pan".[2] In Bookmarks, a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received four out of five stars based on critic reviews. The magazine's critical summary reads: "Critics quibbled a little over the novel's ending, but, as The New York Times concludes, "James is the rarest of exceptions. It should come bundled with Twain's novel".[3]
Writing for The New York Times, Dwight Garner praised the novel as more successful than many re-imaginings of famous classics, stating, "What sets 'James' above Everett's previous novels, as casually and caustically funny as many are, is that here the humanity is turned up — way up. This is Everett's most thrilling novel, but also his most soulful."[4] Writing for The Guardian, Anthony Cummins stated: "James offers page-turning excitement but also off-kilter philosophical picaresque".[5]
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