Percival Everett, the acclaimed American novelist, has never been one to shy away from bold literary endeavours. His latest novel, James, a retelling of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim, Huck’s enslaved companion, has cemented his place as one of the most innovative voices in contemporary fiction. Winner of the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction and shortlisted for the Booker Prize, James has been hailed as a masterpiece. Yet, when asked about the book’s success, Everett remains characteristically modest—and a little weary.
“Deciding to write a book never feels like a great idea,” Everett quipped during a Guardian interview in his Los Angeles workshop, where he writes and repairs guitars. “It’s like knowingly entering a bad marriage. If you had any sense, you wouldn’t do it, but you know you’re going to do it.”
The idea for James came with the encouragement of his wife, novelist Danzy Senna, who immediately recognised its potential. “She’s smarter than I am,” Everett admitted. “She said, ‘This is a great idea.’ She was behind the book from the beginning, but I’m still not so sure about it.”
Despite his self-deprecating humour, Everett is acutely aware of the cultural significance of James. “That a literary novel is getting this much attention—I don’t even care that it’s my book—makes me really happy for the culture,” he said. Yet, he remains detached from the accolades. “My self-worth is not invested in this. Am I proud of it? I don’t think so. But it’s interesting to watch.”
To prepare for James, Everett read Huckleberry Finn 15 times, an exercise he described as both enlightening and exhausting. “I wanted to blur the story, to refer to it from memory of that world, not the text,” he explained. “The most brutal realisation after 15 readings was that I probably could have gotten away with 10. I ended up hating the novel, but the world remained.”
Everett is no stranger to challenging literary sacred cows. He once famously dismissed Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird as “poorly written,” a critique he stands by. “It was a really pretty badly written novel that made a great movie,” he said. “Someone could probably make the same claim about me.”
The success of James has sparked Hollywood’s interest, with Steven Spielberg attached as a producer and Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit, What We Do in the Shadows) in talks to direct. Everett is intrigued by the pairing. “Spielberg might be too earnest for me, and Waititi might be too crazy, but together they seem a perfect match,” he said.
Everett’s previous novel, Erasure, was adapted into the Oscar-winning film American Fiction, which earned him a trip to the Academy Awards. “That’s all silliness,” he said of the experience. “My wife and I went, and we thought it was kind of ridiculous. The weirdest thing was looking across the street and seeing a protest while we were dressed in that silly way. We felt like we were on the wrong side of the street.”
When he’s not writing, Everett indulges in a variety of hobbies, from repairing guitars to growing roses. “I like working with my hands,” he said, recalling his days training horses on a ranch outside Los Angeles. “I learned guitar repair on YouTube from a guy in Arkansas named Jerry Rosa. I’d probably never agree with him about anything, but I watched him fix guitars and learned how to do it.”
As for his prolific output, Everett credits his ability to procrastinate creatively. “I usually put my procrastination off until tomorrow,” he joked. “That way, I get some things done. But if you came into my house and said, ‘Let’s go to a movie,’ we’d be on our way to a movie.”
James is out in paperback on 27 February, and with Spielberg and Waititi at the helm, its journey to the screen seems inevitable. For Everett, however, the real joy lies in the act of creation itself—even if it feels like entering a bad marriage.
- Featured image: Percival Everett/Dylan Coulter
