COMMUNITY READ
2026-2027 Selection:
James by Percival Everett
James
When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.
Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim’s agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.
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“James is funny and horrifying, brilliant and riveting. In telling the story of Jim instead of Huckleberry Finn, Percival Everett delivers a powerful, necessary corrective to both literature and history. I found myself cheering both the writer and his hero. Who should read this book? Every single person in the country.” — Ann Patchett
“James is a masterpiece. I read it late this summer, and I have already recommended it to enough people to put it on the bestseller lists, in the classrooms, libraries, book clubs and hands in which it so rightly belongs.” — Francine Prose
About Community Read
Community Read, sponsored by Mississippi University for Women, is a community-wide shared reading experience that:
- draws on the university and community’s rich literary heritage and The W's commitment to liberal arts education
- develops connections between students, faculty, staff, and community members
- fosters intellectual curiosity and broadens our understanding of our world, our community, and our neighbors
- promotes gatherings of readers to explore and talk about issues raised in selected books
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