THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN

I was supposed to read this in high school, but I didn't. I was too busy reading giant books on the American Civil War. But lately, I've been seeing quotes of Mark Twain on various social media feeds and even a couple of coffee mugs. Twain's wit, irony, and honesty has always caught my eye, so when I found Huck Finn looking lonely on the shelf of an awesome bookstore in Big Sur, I took the plunge.

It was interesting. I won't lie and say I thought it was spectacular, but I think a huge part of it is the whole dialects thing. Reading twangs and dialects has always been hard for me — even Hagrid's slang in Harry Potter was tough. This, coupled with the time-specific elements of the story, made it a start-and-stop experience, but one I'm still glad I took. (The notes in the back of the Penguin edition helped a ton — plus I picked up Azar Nafisi's The Republic of Imagination due to her awesome Introduction in the front of the book, which explores the themes and historical context. 

Huck's flight from an abusive father down the Mississippi River with a runaway slave named Big Jim was a strange mixture of fairy-tale adventure and dark social commentary. The laughs I experienced usually came with a grimace, as Twain explores the all-around good-naturedness of certain characters with the ugliest of blind spots on the topic of religion and race relations. It doesn't have the tone of an abolitionist manifesto, though, which makes me wonder about Twain's own views. 

I also picked up The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Will be reading those in the coming weeks for sure and report back. {JG}
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