Review: Dr. No and James by Percival Everett

by Gary Romeo

About two weeks ago, I was rushing through a Barnes & Noble bookstore towards the restroom. I noticed a display rack and two titles caught my eye: Dr. No and James. As I am an Ian Fleming fan I immediately thought of James Bond. I took a quick look at the author’s name, Percival Everett, and thought to myself, “some British author must be writing new Bond novels?” As my need was immediate I moved on.

I left the store without going back to the display rack. I had read Kingsley Amis’s James Bond novel, most of John Gardner’s, some of Raymond Benson’s, and one by Anthony Horowitz. I had no interest in reading an endless stream of new James Bond pastiches. I’m too busy reading an endless stream of Conan the Barbarian pastiches. 🙂

Somehow, the books lingered in my brain, and I googled the author. I then realized my mistake. Percival Everett is an award-winning American author. I had just recently seen the movie American Fiction based on his book Erasure. I thought the movie started well but lost its way by the end. I took no special note of any names associated with the movie.

I went back to the bookstore more informed and bought Dr. No. It tells the story of a professor of mathematics, Wala Kitu, who is an expert on “nothing.” John Sill, a billionaire, vowed to become a “James Bond villain” after his parents were murdered in a conspiracy connected to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Sill hires Kitu.

“Nothing” is “something.” The power of nothing is shown when a city is erased from existence. Something happened but nothing happened. Or nothing happened and something happened. In any event, no one remembers anything about that city.

There are “James Bondian” things in the novel. Exotic locales, villainous characters, traps, pursuits, chases, and a plan to do “nothing” to Fort Knox. The book is an easy read full of puns and wit. Like the movie, American Fiction, (I haven’t read Erasure) it falters toward the end. Mr. Everett gets a little too cute making Father Damien Karras from the Exorcist book (and movie) a character. And the finale doesn’t quite work for me (especially since the novel is written in the first person.) But it was mostly entertaining and a very quick read.

So… I hesitated a bit to purchase James. Would Percival Everett disappoint me in the conclusion once again? Maybe, but a reworking of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn where the slave Jim is an educated man, and the story is told from his view intrigued me.

Percival Everett appears to be a Mark Twain fan. Dr. No has a quote from Twain preceding the story. “Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.”

James is a page-turner. Just like Huckleberry Finn. I read both books in one sitting. I don’t have a whole lot to say about this book other than I thought it great. Like in Twain’s novel the relationship between Huck and Jim grows and it is marvelous to experience. Everett details the horrors of slavery far more that Twain did, of course. But both authors get the essence of the goodness and badness inherit in mankind.

I’m not in a position to say whether Everett (through his version of James, rather than Jim) comes across as angry or revengeful or any other word that describes how everyone feels from time to time (but is usually considered a bad thing.) I will say I believe I honestly felt every emotion that the author wanted me to feel, and that it was enjoyable. This is a great book, well worth reading. The ending was perfect in this one.