Port City Social Book Club

A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

303 pages, 2024

suggested by Geraldine

With the disclaimer that his book is neither the ""history"" nor the ""true story"" of slavery, Stanley Feldstein has pieced together excerpts from hundreds of slave narratives to reconstruct the physical and psychological experience of bondage.
Against the general backdrop of dehumanization and fear a few themes stand out most starkly. The terror and rage at the violation of family life by masters who considered the slave's child ""of no more consequence to him than the calf is to the cow"" and the slave owners' pathological fear of the educated chattel (""Let me ever know you to spell another word"" she screeched ""and I'll tear your heart right out of you"") are omnipresent.
Less overt but equally pervasive are the fierce class antagonisms within the slave community exemplified by the exalted status or the domestic over the field laborer and the pathetic pride of some of the blacks in belonging to ""quality folk"" rather than ""po' white trash.""

1970
suggested by Val

It is 1984, and the worlds' three major powers-Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia-are constantly at war. In Oceania, where the Party is in power, the thought police unearth every act of dissent, and Big Brother is always watching. Winston Smith, a dutiful citizen of Oceania, works for the Ministry of Truth as a propaganda writer who rewrites history to suit the needs of the authoritarian government. But when Winston falls in love with fellow worker Julia, they begin to question the very system they work for, placing them in immense danger.

1984 is George Orwell's haunting prophesy of the future, which has held multiple generations of readers spellbound in its chilling and terrifying vision of life under a totalitarian regime. Powerful and unforgettable, this still-relevant novel explores the obliteration of truth, individuality and liberty in a world where the ruling power seeks to control everything, from information to thought and memory.

1949
348 pages

suggested by John