The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (The Great American Novel?)

I am so far behind on my book reviews and I have been reading some interesting novels and a couple of short stories in between. I have also been purchasing more books (surprise, surprise). But to get back into it, I read the AMERICAN NOVEL, the one that put American authors in competition with their European peers, none other than by Samuel Clemens himself, Mark Twain.
Mark Twain is quite the celebrated author, writing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court among others. However, I will confess that this is the first novel of his that I have read. I am pretty sure I read short stories of his in grade school but never a novel. I did watch the Wishbone episode on PBS when they did Tom Sawyer, but I am pretty sure that doesn't count, neither does the Disney film, A Kid in King Arthur's Court count either. So, I have owned both Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn for over a year now, one of the spoils that I got when Borders went out of business. I never read it, but since I have been on a Brit Lit kick, I figured my next book would be, what literary scholars deem it, The GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL.

My Take: Meh, after getting used to the language (I guess the old Missouri back woods talk), you can see the novel evolve from a Tom Sawyer sequel (which was the intention of the book until Twain saw it was becoming something much more than that) to a novel with it's own voice. Now, I am drawing from my experience from watching the Wishbone episode, but Sawyer was the ring leader and main mischief maker. There is less Tom Sawyer in this novel because Huck Finn sails down the Mississippi with Jim, the slave that ran away from Huck Finn's caretaker.

The book is fun and far fetched but I don't see why this book is always on the banned list (I mean, yes the use the n word a lot but Twain was writing in the style of the times). I laughed in a couple of places but this book never stood out as the novel that all others are derived from. The message was different but I never quite understood why Twain sent Jim and Huck down the Mississippi and not north to obtain Jim's freedom.

I gave this book 4/5 stars mainly because I laughed and I always like a book that can make me laugh.

Next review will be on Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell!

Until next time, happy reading!