'Big Jim and the White Boy,' a new graphic novel, reinterprets a Mark Twain classic

NPR's Book of the Day

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Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2024

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Since its publication in 1885, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been celebrated as one of the great American works of literature. But the novel has also been criticized for how Mark Twain stereotyped Black characters like Jim, the enslaved man who befriends Huck Finn. Now, author David Walker and illustrator Marcus Kwame Anderson have reimagined this story with Jim at its center. Their new graphic novel, Big Jim and the White Boy, is an action story filled with adventures, fight sequences and an acknowledgment of the danger of the world Jim operates within. In today's episode, Anderson and Walker join NPR's Scott Simon to discuss the novel, including what they did to turn Jim into a multidimensional character, their decision to keep the N-word in their retelling and whether Huck and Jim were ever really friends.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
0:07.3	is kind of having a moment right now, eh? There was, of course, Percival Everett's book,
0:11.9	James, which is a retelling of Huck Finn from Jim's point of view. And now there's a graphic novel,
0:17.0	Big Jim and The White Boy by writer David Walker and illustrator Marcus Kwame Anderson.
0:22.0	It is, again, a reimagining of Huck Finn with a greater emphasis on Jim's story.
0:27.3	And it's interesting to have these multiple points of view on Jim's story because
0:30.6	NPR Scott Simon asks the two of them in this interview, are Huck and Jim really friends?
0:37.4	I'm not sure if I agree with their answer,
0:39.8	but it's an interesting take on the complexities of being human. That's after the break.
0:46.3	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life. Distant wars, murky
0:52.5	conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors. On our new show,
0:56.6	Sources and Methods. NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
1:01.5	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app,
1:07.6	or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:16.9	Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been praised, popular, banned, and assailed since it was published in 1884.
1:19.8	It's been called Bold, Lyrical, and Anti-Racist, and also a profane book that promotes racial
1:25.3	stereotypes.
1:27.3	Huck, Jim, and their travels have been
1:29.0	reimagined in a new graphic novel, Big Jim and the White Boy. David Walker has written the
1:35.9	story, and Marcus Kwame Anderson, the illustrator, join us now. Gentlemen, thank you both for being
1:40.6	with us. Thanks for having us. Yeah, thank you. Let me ask you both, beginning with
1:45.0	you, Mr. Walker, and then Marcus Kwame Anderson, why was it vital to you to reimagine the story of
	...

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