The Warsaw Public Library Book Club met on Tuesday, Aug. 4 to discuss \u201cJames\u201d (a \u201ctake off\u201d on the \u201cAdventures of Huckleberry Finn\u201d) by Percival Everett with the ratings ranging from 3-4. The group considered the book a \u201cgood read\u201d that astutely conveyed the \u201cbrutality of enslavement,\u201d even in Hannibal, where \u201clife wasn\u2019t extremely cruel.\u201d Some members agreed with Kent Naderhoff\u2019s assessment of Everett as a \u201cgreat writer\u201d whose emphasis on propaganda, incomplete character development, and an \u201caxe to grind\u201d detracted from a focused message about racism. Rosemary McNeil, who led the conversation, noted that the book won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize only after two other novels that tied for the honor were discarded.<\/p>\n
The conversation focused on the impact of physical environment in developing internal and external identities with McNeil, Donna Naderhoff, and Linda Leffler noting that Jim, an escaped slave, \u201cexploited the underdog theme\u201d to his advantage by using simple language. The character was \u201cwhat people would anticipate him to be,\u201d so as not to appear \u201csmart or uppity.\u201d It is noteworthy that he changed his name to \u201cJames\u201d when he wanted to be perceived as a \u201cgentleman.\u201d<\/p>\n
Huckleberry Finn struggled with his identity after becoming close to Jim. He is faced with the choice of intertwining his identity with the black community or the white one. Otis Thompson expanded on the way we identify ourselves, and how other facets of one\u2019s identity \u201ccome from the people around us.\u201d He also noted that our identities can differ when interacting with various people. Donna commented that people \u201cinherit their identities from their relatives\u201d as they tell stories and observe traditions.<\/p>\n
The Warsaw Public Library Book Club invites other bibliophiles to join this group for stimulating discussion and fellowship on the first Tuesdays of the month at 6 p.m. in the Warsaw Public Library conference room. The members will review \u201cLast Bus to Wisdom\u201d by Ivan Doig on Tuesday, Sept. 1, and \u201cPeace Like a River\u201d by Leif Enger on Oct. 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Warsaw Public Library Book Club met on Tuesday, Aug. 4 to discuss \u201cJames\u201d (a \u201ctake off\u201d on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[95],"tags":[69684,182,181],"class_list":["post-146540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-warsaw","tag-percival-everett","tag-poland","tag-warsaw"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117100979698260813","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}