"In addition to addressing language and identity, James is very convincingly and movingly a book about two runaways' quest for freedom and the relationship between human beings that society says should not have any connection. James works shockingly well in all those dimensions. America's original sin and contradictions are his subject, and this riveting riff on a similarly complex American classic that even Toni Morrison called "this amazing troubling book" is his most challenging and maybe even his best canvas. With the previous high water marks of Telephone, The Trees, and Erasure, Everett has long been an American literary icon. But in the wake of an Oscar-winning adaptation, this time the world is watching. James expands the Everett canon in a way that will have to be reckoned with come award season."