Jim
The Life and Afterlives of Huckleberry Finn’s Comrade
Shelley Fisher Fishkin’s Jim is an encyclopedic work of literary criticism that celebrates Mark Twain’s classic.
Jim contends that readings of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as racist have missed Twain’s use of irony to critique mistreatment of Black Americans. Twain’s portrait of Jim, it argues, was laudatory, and he deserves status as an icon of American literature. The book draws on multiple modes, including cultural history and biography, tracing the ways Twain deviated from the norms of his slaveholding society, including paying the university board of a young Black law student who went on to mentor Thurgood Marshall. Its literature review surveys the critical controversies surrounding the novel and its various adaptations to stage and screen. There are also case studies in teaching the novel.
Jim is at its best when presenting lesser-known subjects, as with the story of actor Archie Moore’s screen test for the role of Jim, which was declared one of the best in MGM history. The range of ways in which translators have attempted to convey the richness of American English found in Twain’s use of dialect is also covered. Indeed, the approach is comprehensive. At times, though, the eloquence of the book’s argument is overwhelmed by its welter of examples. The prose is also affected by the project’s scope. However, the middle chapter, which is formatted as a creative retelling of Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s point of view, is a virtuoso performance that seamlessly inhabits Jim’s dialect, although the effect is undercut by the choice to recount all of the book’s major plot points.
A compendium about Huckleberry Finn’s Jim, this literary history seeks to cement the novel as a resounding social critique.
Reviewed by
Carolyn Wilson-Scott
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
