The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Title: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Author: Mark Twain
Real Name: Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Originally published: 1884
Page count: 220


Dates read: 7/11/2020-7/19/2020




Read my other book reviews for my 2020 goal HERE.



Description on back of book:
The novel is a wonderfully imaginative re-creation of boyhood adventures along the Mississippi River. It has inspired characterization, remarkable dialogue, and the development of serious underlying themes.

First sentence:
"You don't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," but that ain't no matter."

Review:

I was planning to read this as a classic "adaptation" for the Back to the Classics reading challenge. It also was going to be my July 2020 category for "American / Patriotic." I got about 40% through the book and realized I just was NOT enjoying it. I do not like Huck as a character... and I realized I haven't liked ANY character in the book so far. I find the "adventures" gruesome and unnecessarily violent, annoying and idiotic, and/or borderline offensive. I found myself saying, "I have to read this - it's a well known classic that a lot of people really enjoy." But I'm just not one of those people who enjoy the story. I'm reading the story just for fun, but, since it's not a "fun" read, I'm not going to finish it. Maybe one day I'll give it another try.

But... why didn't you finish the book?!

Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Mark Twain have the last words (which also happen to be the last words I read from the book):

"We said there warn't no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft."