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What books should everyone read before they die?Add Book
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain
Literature
James Mustich
Aug 19, 2018
“All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn,” Ernest Hemingway famously proclaimed in Green Hills of Africa, and it is the idiomatic immediacy of Huck’s voice—to say nothing of the speech rhythms of the several other spoken dialects Twain mimics in his novel—that delivers the innovation that would prove an inspiration for novelists across the generations. Kidnapped by his alcoholic and abusive father, Huck fakes his own death and flees to an island, where he meets up with Jim, a slave on the run toward his own freedom. The pair’s adventures on a raft on the Mississippi and their encounters with various threatening characters and circumstances provide the heart of the book. Whereas The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was an idyll of remembered childhood, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel of real and present dangers: violence, abuse, oppression, greed, murder, fear. That Twain’s telling is charming as well as troubling is a measure of the author’s skill at spinning tales.
I grew up in Maryland along the Potomac River in a old civil war town. I always thought it was so much like the things I did like wading across the river and spending hot afternoons on the island in the middle of the river.
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I know it is not fashionable to read this book, but it is still worth the read. The narrative voices alone are a wonder. Think of Jim as the moral centre of the book. It helps.
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"1,000 Books To Read Before You Die" is a registered trademark of Workman Publishing, Inc. Based on the book: 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die by James Mustich, (Workman Publishing Co., Inc.: © 2018 James Mustich)
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