Customer Reviews

My Jim: A Novel

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My Jim is an imaginative take on the fictional Jim of Huckleberry Finn lore. Nancy Rawles, a writer and history teacher, took issue with the way the highly controversial book by Mark Twain was portrayed in the schools in Seattle, her adopted town. She began researching which included a trip to Hannibal, Missouri where Hick Finn takes place and years of reviewing slave narratives and the slavery culture. Rawles constructed her story around a passage in Huck Finn that expressed Jim's desire for freedom for himself and his family. Taking literary license, she tells the story through the eyes of Jim's wife, Sadie, as she relays her memories of the man she loved to her granddaughter who is contemplating marriage as they piece a quilt over a twelve-day period.

Sadie was at the birth of Jim, toting water for the midwife. She was barely high as a barrel but the life of a slave child was so that they began toiling from the time they were able to grasp a cup. Sadie and Jim lived on Mas Watson's plantation in Missouri. Sadie watched Jim grow as she also watched the people she loved leave her either through death or by being sold away never to be seen again. In rich details the hard life of back-breaking labor and the beatings endured by the slaves is meticulously told. Slaves were no more than cattle, scratching for food just to survive and for mating and producing more slaves for the master. The most ragged of apparel was hard to come by to keep themselves clothed and they had to condition themselves not show pain when their children were sold away from them.

Reading a book about slavery can be a drain mentally but Rawles' language was fluid and luminous, so much so, I felt like I was walking through the woods gathering the leaves from the sassafras trees and plant roots from which Sadie made her "cures". I could hear the cadence of the many tongues of the slaves who came from different points of the African continent to the plantation in New Roads, Louisiana where Sadie was sold later on in her life. Though written in dialect without contractions and no punctuation other than the period, it was surprisingly readable for this reviewer. The references to the culture of Africa were highlighted throughout the book such as the dance rituals and belief systems of Sadie and the other slaves that were held in their souls.

I met Rawles last year when she came to Oakland for her signing of Crawfish Dreams and as she talked about this new release, she conveyed a sincerity of what she was trying to accomplish with this book. She took artistic allowance as she gave voice to Jim as more than the savior and companion to Huck Finn, but a man of flesh and blood who had hopes and dreams of seeking the elusive quest of freedom and to love and care for his family as a man. This was a love story of Sadie and Jim who promised to love each other always, a testament to those who could be beat down but not broken despite not knowing when they would be torn from the one they loved. "If slaves can love, then free people should love...." Sadie tells Marianne, her granddaughter as she bestows tangible pieces of her past to complete the quilt they have been piecing. A button from her beloved Lizabeth, a shard from the cup that held her potions and a scrap of Jim's hat, all of which symbolized the mosaic of her fractured life. This slim volume is packed with powerful meaning that deserves to be a classic.

Dera Williams
APOOO BookClub

What higher compliment can we pay an author in that their characters become real to us and take us places we've never been. In this case, hard places full of despair.

Rawles drew on extensive reading of slave narratives to create "My Jim." The dialect the story's written in makes reading difficult for the first few pages, but it is possible to begin to comprehend what's happening.

Then, you're lost.

The central character in this story is Sadie, the wife of escaped slave Jim from Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn." Sadie tells her story to her grand-daughter as she prepares a quilt for the girl to take with her when she moves West.

"Ain't nothing on this place belongs to you," Sadie's Master tells her when he takes Sadie's daughter, Lizbeth to be his kitchen maid and sex slave. "My Jim" is full of harsh truths, and tells more of the times than Twain's tale.

I strongly recommend this book for teachers, students of Black History. You can proudly sit it on your shelf next to Twain's work. I do believe "My Jim" will be just as enduring.

In MY JIM, as Sadie, a former slave, and her granddaughter, Marianne, piece together a quilt, Sadie pieces together her own story, gradually revealing the history of the items she has kept for years in a canning jar: a small knife, a piece of felt, the bottom of a clay bowl, a child's tooth, a shiny gold button, and a corn pipe thick with tar. The contents of the jar represent a lifetime of misery, pain, heartache, and survival.

"I gives you my first heart Marianne. The heart I gots for my mama. And the heart I gots for my Jim." In those few words, Rawles lets the main character, Sadie, tell us her stark truth: To survive a brutal life that would drive some to suicide or madness, Sadie has allowed few people into her "first heart." Living as a slave, Sadie learns quickly that friends, family, even your own children, can be wrenched from you with no warning. But Jim enters a young Sadie's "first heart" on the day he is born and lives in it always; his love for her, her love for him, and the hope of his return carry Sadie through years of soul-deadening losses.

Rawles writes simply, relating the most gut-wrenching scenes with control and reserve, with a matter-of-factness that serves to underscore the fact that Sadie's losses were not uncommon but rather a fact of life for a person in bondage. As I read MY JIM, I wondered about the other Sadies and Jims that walked this earth, knowing that this story isn't the story of one but of many.

I finished the book with tears forming, a weight on my chest, and admiration for the writing of Nancy Rawles. She has produced a work of art.

What a fantastic idea...Rawles takes us to the mid-1800s and shows us the world through the eyes of a young slave woman who happens to be the one true love of "Jim," the character made famous through Mark Twain's classic, "Huckleberry Finn." Twain's fiction introduced me to subjects of slavery and prejudice and friendship. Rawles' story takes us much deeper into the same areas.

"My Jim" is sparse, yet powerful. The writing is raw, yet beautiful. Nancy Rawles pens a story that sounds as convincing as any I've encountered. When I read "The Bondwoman's Narrative" a few years back, I expected a tale with this sort of impact. Rawles uses subtle symbolism, brevity of words, and universal themes to remind us of the horrors of slavery--whether it be mental, physical, or emotional. She weaves in the elements of Jim's story without waying down Sadie's. Love and hope are given moments to sparkle amidst the abuse and suffering of Sadie's life. Sadie, serving as narrator throughout most of the book, proves that she has stayed strong and true, passing on this hope to a fearful granddaughter.

With this short but masterful novel, Rawles does her part to continue the circle of learning.

What an amazing novel! Rawles' portrayal is of Jim the man, seen through the eyes of the woman who loved him, the woman who was left behind when he escaped and who was tortured and punished for years because of it. I don't think I have ever read anything that speaks more poignantly about the power of love, or the misery that was wrought by it at a time when people (black people, that is) did not control their own bodies. I was so moved, inspired, and devastated by My Jim that I cried for a full 15 minutes after I finished it.

On behalf of all of the people whose anscestors have been the Jims and Tontos and Prissies in HISstory, thank you, Nancy Rawles, for adding this remarkable work to the body of American literature. I can't wait to read what's next.

Nancy Rawles exercises a deft and delicate touch in weaving this novel of Sadie, a slave who loved the character Jim from Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn," as she reveals her life story to her freeborn granddaughter, Marianne Libre. The reader will be transported to the brutal life of the Old South as seen from the slaves' perspective, a life of tending cane and tobacco, of working from dawn to dusk, of being subjected to the whims and lusts of "Mas".

Written in dialect, with the present-tense verbs often lacking the ending "s", the rich texture of this novel is authentic and evocative. Rawles' writing is succinct, raw, and original. Highly recommended.

My Jim by: Nancy Rawles
My Jim is a remarkable recasting of the slave named Jim who accompanied Huck Finn in Huckleberry Finn. In My Jim we learn of his wife Sadie and his family. This story is more about his wife Sadie than it is about Jim. The story is narrated by Sadie Watkins Jim's wife. When Marianne, Sadie's granddaughter ponders the idea of marriage Sadie encourages her to to go but Marianne isn't sure about love, she isn't sure she is ready to leave her Nana. Sadie and Marianne start to make a family quilt that she can take with her. As they make the quilt Sadie tells Marianne her story. She tells her about her life as a slave, her family and her Jim. How they were separated and how her other children were taken from her. Sadie explains the value of the things she keeps in a jar. Objects that she holds dear, objects that she has taken with her from slavery to freedom. A piece of Jim's hat, a knife and bowl that belonged to her mother, she tells Marianne how her mother and her would work the roots to heal the sick. How the bowl used to bare the Congo cross. The pipe Jim brought back for her, her son's tooth, a button that was given to her daughter. Sadie talks about her first heart. Her heart before her innocence and her youth were taken from her. She tells Marianne about her eye, how it was put out by a cane and the beatings that she used to get. How she was accused of being a witch. This story is so deep; it grabbed me very quickly and held me. The way Sadie tells her granddaughter all things she never knew had my eyes misting and when I turned the last page I shed a tear. This novel will stay with you long after you close the book. This story is the very root of our history. I can't say enough how this story moved me. Nancy Rawles has given us a wonderful gift with My Jim. A novel so brilliantly written it is stunning. A remarkable journey into the past. I recommend this novel to all. This book should be in everyone's library.

Reviewed by
Dawn

My Jim flowed like a great poem through its rhythm and imagery. I read this book in eight hours and enjoyed every minute. Sadie was a rock, who had weakenesses, like real people. I appreiciated that about her character. The only thing that took me for a loop was the absence of punctuation marks, particularly commas and quotation marks. I believe Ms. Rawles omitted them for dialect effect, but it forced me to re-read some sentences to see who was speaking, or to clarify the meaning for the sentences. But otherwise a great read!

Among the many poignant scenes in Twain's "Huckleberry Finn", few stand out like "Jim's" soliloquy on his lost family's life. Jim's discovery that a daughter was deaf was one of many things Huck discovered about Jim's humanity - and his own. What was omitted in the account was mention of Jim's wife, dear Elizabeth's mother. Nancy Rawles has taken Twain's character, a runaway slave who shatters Huck's traditional views, and weaves a tale about this unknown woman. Of greater significance, however, is Rawles' vivid personalising of what it meant to be a black slave in the freedom-loving United States. In a book economical with words, but graphically rich, Rawles has given us a gut-wrenching account of slave life.

Jim's granddaughter has an offer of marriage, but is hesitant. The gran, Jim's wife Sadie, urges her to accept the proposal from "a good man". Sadie will make the pair a quilt, which will have the family story illustrated in the patches and pieces sewn in. As the quilt is assembled, Sadie relates the story of her own life and the man she loved. As a slave with "healing" talents, Sadie led a precarious life on a tobacco plantation near Hannibal, Missouri. While her powers were in demand by white and black alike, her situation as a slave made her vulnerable. The scenes of abuse, both verbal and physical, are sure to keep the book out of the reach of children. That's a shame, since the story is being told to a teen-ager, who has little more notion of slave life than today's youngsters. Sadie is able to glean some comfort from Jim, finally coming to love him. The marriage scene, performed by members of the slave community instead of a white church, is telling.

Jim, owned by Miz Watson and kept out of the fields, follows a peripatetic life. He is in and out of Sadie's ken, and Rawles' technique for imparting his journey with Huck down the Mississippi is handled with tantalising subtlety. If you haven't read "Huck Finn" much will be lost in translation. Jim's more extensive experiences in comparison with other slaves gives him a raging desire for freedom. Sadie, ever cautious and wary of patrollers who recover runaways, tries but fails to temper Jim's ambition. Later, when emancipation does come during the Civil War, it proves largely illusory. The blacks may be free, but they're hardly secure - and never "equal" with those who fought to end slavery. If for no other reason, this situation is a strong motivation for Sadie's daughter to marry a man who seizes opportunities for betterment.

In one sense, this book is a tease. Jim's infrequent appearances depict him as a man of intense feelings. Twain's picture of Jim pointed out that he was as human as the next man - a significant departure in US literature at a time when segregation was coming into its own as a legal fiction. Rawles' sketches project him fully as a man - an individual with hopes, fears, successes and failures - just like the rest of us. Rawles' created character Sadie, strong and enduring as she is, remains locked in a narrow perspective. She doesn't see the world as Jim had. While she endures with a strength he might lack - after all, he ran away and left her behind - her wants are limited to family. What is needed is a companion to this volume. It's time some skilled author, who understands Twain, the era and the people, tackle the job of producing "Jim's" biography or "autobiography"? [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Ms. Rawles did a wonderful job with this story. Once I started, I couldn't put it down. The language is real. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I highly recommend this book.