The fact that fools and servants are wiser than kings and masters is a literary and theatrical motif full of possibilities. Even Shakespeare used this premise to craft his comic entanglements and absurd scenes.

Percival Everett | James | Hanser | 336 pages | 26 EUR

Huckleberry Finn fakes his own death and runs away from home because he no longer wants to be tormented by his brutal, alcoholic father. The slave Jim has escaped to avoid being separated from his family and sold. When the two meet by chance, they decide to flee to freedom together along the Mississippi. The slave is suspected of having murdered the boy. So far, so familiar.

Mark Twain | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Penguin Clothbound Classics | 393 pages | 15.39 EUR

Generations of young people around the world have read Mark Twain's story and wished they too could fish, barbecue around a campfire and spend the night in a makeshift shelter. They have also wished they could be transported away from their grey school days by countless other such captivating books - Huckleberry Finn is exciting, entertaining and therefore devoured at a rate of knots.

Everett's novel is even more exciting and - fortunately - longer, and reading it takes more time than you might expect, simply because it brings tears of laughter to your eyes. It's staggeringly funny that the slave Jim, good-natured, submissive and naive, is just a role James plays so that the white people aren’t threatened by him. In reality, he is a self-confident, clever and literate man who speaks perfect English. The other slaves also converse with sophisticated ease, their English flawless.  Only when white people are within earshot do they lapse into primitive gibberish.

The more you learn about life and racism in the USA at that time, the more often you have to put the book down. This time, however, the tears are those of compassion and anger.
For James, escape is the only way out. If he is caught, he will be lynched, hanged from the nearest tree, or both. For Huck, escape is an exciting adventure. If he gets caught, he simply has to return home.

But 'James' is much more than a novel about love of freedom, murderous racism and the unusual friendship between a white boy and a black man. Through the experiences and encounters with farmers, traders, travellers, hunters and slaves, a painful, razor-sharp portrait of the USA around the time of the Civil War between the southern and northern states emerges.

When James and Huck save two white men from a bloodthirsty lynch mob, they find themselves in extreme danger. The two pretend to be European noblemen, an English duke and the King of France. They also play the parts of actors, faith healers, ex-pirates, storytellers... anything to entertain, dazzle and manipulate people in order to take money from their  pockets. Instead of being grateful to James and Huck, the supposed duke and king force their rescuers to participate in their next scam.

Their victims, who prefer to be deceived rather than thinking for themselves, and the nasty characters of the two villains, bring to mind a disturbing association: The USA of the 19th century shows similarities to the America of today and to its current political developments. However, this is merely a peripheral theme.

The main theme of the novel is James' fate and that of his young friend Huck. The way Percival Everett brings their story to its conclusion is at once obvious, astonishing and sublime, and should not be revealed here.