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

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.To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookofthedayLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy