Tuesday – June 24, 2025–4 pm – PCCF and via zoom – Book Group

Title:  James by Percival Everett

Leader:  LeeAnn Stephans and Anita Quinlan

James is a brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Huckleberry Finn both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view.  When the slave, Jim, overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan.  Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town.  As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States beyond.  While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin …), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.

Thursday – Great Decisions will resume at 6:30 pm on August 21, 2015 at PCCF and via zoom.