Rick Kohut
I listened to the well done audiobook version read by Elijah "Frodo" Woods and know this contributed to my engagment in the story. I am extremely intrested in reading "James" as it seems to be on every "Best of 2024" list I've seen. And since it builds directly off "Huck," I thought it was time to finally read this famous (infamous?) novel which I skimmed when assigned it in high school decades ago. Although Woods did the voices well, I was not impressed with the story. It's a good "road" (river) tale with elements of the "buddy" genre, yet there's not much focus to the plot. It seems more like a series of vignettes rather than a plot with suspenseful development. There's some humor, but it gets lost in storylines which take much too long to unfold. And then there's the "n-word" issue. Dang - Twain/Huck uses it A LOT - likely at least 150 or 200 times. While it was so hard to hear to the point of numbness, it was a reminder of how this word was used as a categorical name of an entire group of human beings. I hope the value of "James" makes the difficulty of enduring "Huck" first worth the effort.
I listened to the well done audiobook version read by Elijah "Frodo" Woods and know this contributed to my engagment in the story. I am extremely intrested in reading "James" as it seems to be on every "Best of 2024" list I've seen. And since it builds directly off "Huck," I thought it was time to finally read this famous (infamous?) novel which I skimmed when assigned it in high school decades ago. Although Woods did the voices well, I was not impressed with the story. It's a good "road" (river) tale with elements of the "buddy" genre, yet there's not much focus to the plot. It seems more like a series of vignettes rather than a plot with suspenseful development. There's some humor, but it gets lost in storylines which take much too long to unfold. And then there's the "n-word" issue. Dang - Twain/Huck uses it A LOT - likely at least 150 or 200 times. While it was so hard to hear to the point of numbness, it was a reminder of how this word was used as a categorical name of an entire group of human beings. I hope the value of "James" makes the difficulty of enduring "Huck" first worth the effort.