Feldman's Faves: July 28, 2025

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE

I am shocked (and somewhat horrified) to be looking forward to the upcoming August long weekend already. This summer has been spectacular so far and I hope you all get a chance to enjoy some time off with the important people in your lives over the weekend.

As you are all aware, we are upgrading our 3E Workplace system over the weekend (and it will be purple once it is back online – apparently the most significant change) so you are all free to NOT docket during this time. I had to go to therapy to be able to write this but I feel that I am stronger for it…..

I have to say that if Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods had a baby then I think it would be Tadej Pogacar.  IF anyone was following the Tour de France this year (and last year for that matter), Tadej was a man among very small boys. I think the race was over almost two weeks ago – a level of dominance that is rare to see. I hope this dominance is not a function of “external factors” but time will tell.

Finally, please join me in wishing each of Diarra and Janice (both on Thursday) a very happy birthday!!

This week continues my recent obsession with the work and ideas of both Mark Twain and Ron Chernow.

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN By: Mark Twain – It’s been over 40 years since I first read this book (and over 30 years since last first read this book) – but after finishing Ron Chernow’s epic biography of Mark Twain I felt compelled to go down the Twain rabbit hole and reread this classic.  I remember being shocked by its language and horrified by its story the first time I read it. But at the same time, Twain’s classic story and characters made me want to find a river and seek out an adventure of my own. I don’t exactly feel the same way today but I do appreciate what it is and what it represents. It’s a great book and to some extent it stands up the test of time in the sense that it is a snapshot of a moment in time written by someone who was way ahead of his time.

As one reviewer notes, “I had an office friend who used to sit in the food court at lunch time, alone, reading a book, while having his lunch. Once I went and sat with him and chitchatted with him and disturbed his tranquility. Then I asked him about his favourite books and he said he loved classics. I asked him about his favourite classics, and he said there were three that he loved and he’d recommend all three. The three were The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, and Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Don Quixote and Moby Dick were thick 1000-page chunksters and so looked very challenging, but The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn looked very accessible. I’d read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer when I was a kid and I loved it and it was one of my favourite books, but I’d never read the book on Huckleberry Finn. I told this to my friend and asked him whether it was a similar kind of book, written for children, with lots of adventures, but from Huckleberry Finn’s perspective. My friend said that it was very different when compared to Tom Sawyer and it was not a children’s book. I told myself that I’ll read it sometime, but never got around to it. Recently, I discovered that Percival Everett’s new book ‘James’ is making the waves. And the reason for that is that the main character James is based on the character of Jim from Huckleberry Finn, and Everett has tried telling the story from Jim’s perspective. I found that very fascinating. So I thought that it was time for me to read Mark Twain’s original before attempting to read Percival Everett’s book. So I took out my copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, wiped the dust off the cover with a clean cloth, and sat down to read. Two days later, I was done. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The story is narrated by Huck Finn. He tells us what happened after the events described in Tom Sawyer ended. Huck Finn is adopted by an old woman who tries to change him and make him civilized (or ‘sivilized’ as he says 😊). He is made to wear clean clothes, goes to school and goes to the church on Sundays. Huck Finn tries to conform and fit in, but it is hard for him. He misses wearing rags and living in the forest, catching fish in the river and frying it and savouring it, and then enjoying a smoke and looking at the blue sky without a care in the world. All this wearing clean clothes and going to school and learning to read and write and praying to a God that he doesn’t believe in is not working for him. One day his dad who is a drunk and who has gone missing turns up again and at some point kidnaps him and takes him to a cabin in the forest. There Huck Finn cooks and cleans and smokes and lives a carefree life with his dad. But his dad beats him up whenever he is drunk. And so Huck Finn decides to escape and after careful planning, manages to do that. He find a small canoe and drifts into the river and reaches an island and stays there. He catches fish, lies down and looks at the sky, and enjoys his freedom. One day, he discovers that there is one more person in the island. He discovers that it is Jim, who is the slave at the home of Huck Finn’s adopted mom. Jim tells him that his mistress was planning to sell him away and so he decided to run away. Huck Finn decides to help Jim and get him to safety so that he can be a free man. What happens after that forms the rest of the story.

There were many interesting things about the story. I expected Huck Finn and Jim to be the same age. I don’t exactly know why, but somehow I expected that – a black boy and a white boy having adventures while sailing on the Mississippi. But Jim is a grown up man and Huck Finn is in his early teens. At some point, it feels like Jim is almost like a father figure to Huck Finn. Another very interesting thing in the story is the dialects. Huck Finn speaks a particular dialect which is very distinctive. Jim speaks a different dialect which is strong and heavy. I’d have struggled to understand Jim’s dialect, if I’d read this book when I was younger. I’m glad I read this book at the right time. But once you get the flow, Jim’s dialect is beautiful, and his voice is unique. Huck Finn’s observations are sharp and his sense of humour is wonderful that it makes us laugh in many places. I expected the story to move slowly and I expected that I’d struggle, but the pages just flew by. Once I got comfortable with the dialect and the accent, Huck Finn’s narrative style, Jim’s unique way of describing things and his unusual insights, and the exciting events and new adventures move the story at a rapid pace. Huck Finn frequently gets caught in a pickle and lies smoothly and gets himself and Jim out of trouble, but at one point, he is caught in a situation which is a real pickle and something really surprising happens and he is bailed out of it. It was like our favourite hobbits are chased by the bad guys and they are at the edge of the cliff and behind them the bad guys are coming at them and in front of them is the abyss and it is like being between the devil and the deep sea, and suddenly Tolkien’s famous eagle swoops down and carries our hobbits away to safety 😊 It was like that 😊  I loved many of the characters that Huck Finn and Jim meet during their adventures. My favourites were Colonel Grangerford and his family and Mary Jane, who is a beautiful soul, and Mary Jane’s youngest sister, who is sharp like Huck Finn, and catches him napping many times. There is an interesting conversation that Huck Finn has with Buck, Colonel Grangerford’s son. It goes like this –

‘Did you want to kill him, Buck?’

‘Well, I bet I did.’

‘What did he do to you?’

‘Him? He never done nothing to me.’

‘Well, then, what did you want to kill him for?’

‘Why, nothing – only it’s on account of the feud.’

‘What’s a feud?’

‘Why, where was you raised? Don’t you know what a feud is?’

‘Never heard of it before – tell me about it.’

‘Well,’ says Buck, ‘a feud is this way. A man has a quarrel with another man, and kills him; then that other man’s brother kills him; then the other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the cousins chip in – and by-and-by everybody’s killed off, and there ain’t no more feud. But it’s kind of slow, and takes a long time.’

‘Has this one been going on long, Buck?’

‘Well, I should reckon! It started thirty year ago, or som’ers along there.’

There is some bad news too. Three-fourths of the book was wonderful. But at that point, Mark Twain decides to make it into a children’s book, and the book’s tone and content changes, and it is not the same book any more. That last part was, for me, hard to read. It was like suddenly the tension was all gone, and the adventures were over, and someone just pricked the balloon. But I ploughed through it and there were some memorable scenes in the end. I expected the ending of the book to be dramatic. That Huck Finn and Jim would somehow brave all the challenges and would somehow be able to get their raft across the border into a state where slavery was banned and Huck Finn will ask Jim to go and live his life as a free person, and there’ll be a moving scene and a tearful farewell as the two friends part, and Jim will get off the raft and walk across the river bank into the forest, never to be seen again. I somehow expected this to be the ending. But the actual ending of the story was different. It was gentle, simple, and straightforward and realistic. I liked the ending, but I also felt that Mark Twain missed a trick here – the dramatic ending of my imagination looked much better.

I loved reading ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’. I’m glad I finally read it. I think that the first three-fourths of the book is not a children’s book, though the story is told by a child. Huck Finn navigates the world of adults with aplomb, and the way he sees through them and handles them in style is a pleasure to see. We see the grown-up’s world through a child’s eyes, and it is a fascinating view. So would I recommend it? This is a tricky question. The reason is this. The book has a liberal sprinkling of the n-word. It comes throughout the book. It was probably commonly used during Mark Twain’s times, and so its frequent usage in the book probably accurately depicts those times. But it grates against our modern 21st century sensibilities and it might offend some readers or even many readers. So if you’re going to be offended if you see the n-word in a book, this book is not for you. But if you’re ready to let that slide and look past that, and you’d like to see what there is in the book, do give it a try.” If somehow you have never read Huck Finn you should (and then read James for a different version of the same story). Here’s a good review from Patrick Reardon - https://patricktreardon.com/book-review-the-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn-by-mark-twain/

WORKLIFE WITH ADAM GRANT - What motivates great Americans with Ron Chernow – I feel that Ron Chernow should be paying me some kind of promotion fee.  But just like my time at Goodmans I would do this job for free….. Chernow has done such a great job researching and writing about some of the most interesting and influential people in American history.  In this PODCAST he and Adam Grant have a fascinating discussion about some of his subjects and the process he undertakes to make his Pulitzer Prize winning books. I wonder if there will be another musical in the works??? Here’s an excerpt from the PODCAST itself, “Ron Chernow is a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer whose work has deepened our understanding of the men who made history in America, and even inspired Lin Manuel Miranda to write his musical about Alexander Hamilton. In this episode, he and Adam discuss Ron’s new book on Mark Twain, analyze what fuels outsized accomplishments, and dig into what it takes to uncover new insights into the lives of historical figures.” - https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/worklife-with-adam-grant/id1346314086?i=1000716269488

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and participation.

And remember to stay safe, stay healthy and to docket daily.

Jon