Even though the novel takes place more than three decades ago, on the eve of the Rodney King riots, its debates about bigotry match today’s: the use of racial slurs in art, pervasive antisemitism, and ignorance as a denial tactic, to name a few. Considering the frequent bans of Huckleberry Finn, from the right and the left, since its first publication and Trump-era elimination of Black history education in many US school curricula, Huckleberry Jim feels especially well-timed—but, sadly, wouldn’t it always? Nelson honors the fathoms-deep American divisions that Twain marked and urges us to look closer rather than away.
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