Huck and Jim and Ron and Sally

This last week rolling along parts of the Mississippi we have been listening to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. They are rollicky adventures that bring the mighty Mississippi and that bygone riverboat era to life in a most engaging way. Mark Twain knew the river and he was familiar with its rhythms, its language, and the dangers that early travelers faced.

So Twain contrived to bring together a most unlikely couple of adventurers, a twelve year old runaway named Huck Finn and a local black slave he knew well, Jim. Both turn out to be endearing characters. Jim is easygoing, gentle snd kind. He would love to have been with his owner, Aunt Polly, but he overhears her say she may have to sell him and so he takes to the river. Huck is a boy of great imagination, capable of making up audacious tales to escape most any predicament. He fakes his own demise to be rid of an abusive Pappy and happens on Jim as they both hideout on a nearby island. They find a derelict raft and off they go downriver. Their life is never the same and neither is the reader's.

We both have read Huck Finn when we were young and we each remembered some bits. But what is so powerful about the book is the way the language draws you along. The pictures that Twain draws of the river at first light, the way Huck and Jim reason out problems of the world, the superstitions so much a part of Jim's slave upbringing- and finally the bond that builds between them. All of this is quite masterful.

Of course the pace of the book is propelled along with a series of hair-raising adventures and seemingly impossible situations. The chapters just just flew by with the help of a wonderful reader who seemed to be three or four characters at once, and we were felt right there with them. Amazing to think that this is a book for adolescents. They really aren't old enough to appreciate it.

Now as we start our own new chapter leaving the Mississippi behind and heading North to Arkansas and West.via Oklahoma and New Mexico, we will fondly remember this stretch. We won't forget Huck and Jim.