James Has VERY SHORT Chapters, Here's Why
Artistically, short chapters make the most sense in Percival Everett's James.
James by Percival Everett has short chapters by design. The main character’s voice is constrained by (1) the form he writes in; (2) his writing experience; and (3) his limited resources.
Form
To read James earnestly and to understand its short chapters, there’s a gambit to buy into. First, James is not a polished manuscript. James is the published journal of a first-time writer, a man who is documenting his escape. Short, raw chapters (that echo journal entry lengths and styles) make sense in this literary setup.
Experience
As far as writing experience goes, James is an enslaved man. He didn’t own any writing materials until he started writing James. Short chapters—again—make a lot of sense, as writing is a brand new practice for him.
By no means is James unqualified to write. It was pretty easy for me to imagine him being more than adept at recording his life experiences on the page. James is literate and well read. He is already good at crafting narratives and working with language: his resumé is full of oral storytelling1 and teaching experiences2.
Hierarchy of Needs
I think James would be capable of fleshing out longer chapters, too, if…
if he had a good meal
if it wasn’t freezing
if he wasn’t writing in damp caves
(so many ifs)
—basically, if he wasn’t in constant survival mode
Plus, the pencil James is working with. It is a stub, and that’s important.
Reading between the lines, or using Toni Morrison’s concept of “invisible ink,” I firmly believe James aimed to conserve and treasure the little bit of lead he possessed. If he could help it, he wouldn’t even dream of wasting that pencil, knowing that its cost was so great. This is one of the biggest reasons, IMO, that James’ short, careful journal entries make sense.
Some Literary Reasons
From a literary perspective, there might be one or two more compelling reasons why Everett wrote short chapters for James. First, the two texts that shape James—Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and Candide by Voltaire—have super short chapters. What if Percival Everett is just matching their energy?
I know I don’t need to say much about Huckleberry Finn’s impact on James. But let’s compare chapter lengths between the two books.
Huckleberry Finn has 43 chapters with an average chapter length of 7-8 pages. (There’s also 174 illustrations inflating that average.)
James has 53 chapters with an average chapter length of 5-6 pages. (There’s zero illustrations.)
Candide is very present and influential in James, and it’s a text with comically short chapters. (🧐 Could James may be modeling his entry lengths off the fast-paced writing in Candide?) My copy of the Candide is 119 pages long (with illustrations). With 30 chapters, that’s an average chapter length of 3-4 pages.
Candide gets referenced directly at least three times in James. James dreams about Candide (and Voltaire), and it’s the first novel he ever reads. The opening lines3 and the final lines4 of Candide are directly quoted in James in English and French, respectively.
Lastly, from a literary perspective, I hypothesize that short chapters are simply Percival Everett’s style and method. I’m working my way through his oeuvre of novels (and poetry!) and so far in my journey, he writes short chapters across the board.
Everett novels I’ve read and their chapter lengths 👇🏻
The Trees: 108 chapters with an average chapter length of 2-3 pages.
DR. NO: 51 chapters with an average chapter length of 5-6 pages.
Erasure: 28 chapters with an average chapter length of 9-10 pages BUT, like James, this book is presented as a writer’s journal, and the chapters are frequently segmented. Within chapters, Monk scribbles “XXX” between short sections of text to delineate his frequent topic shifts.
That’s it, from me, but below I’m sharing the three critical reviews of James that inspired me to post about chapter length. Writing in response to them was energizing. Those reviews made me think.5
1. The review in the Los Angeles Review of Books
Ok, I really like Evan Grillon’s critical review of James for the Los Angeles Review of Books. You should read it too, and then let’s chat!
Here’s what he said about the chapter length.
“Since the book races through so many of these scenes and doesn’t give James the room to ruminate—the typeface is enormous, the chapters often less than five pages and mostly dialogue—there’s barely room to let these ideas percolate.”
Evan Grillon reviewing James for the Los Angeles Review of Books
Even though I don’t agree with everything above, it’s a super interesting angle. Specifically, I don’t think James has “enormous typeface.” When I put it side by side with other 2024 hard covers in my library, it doesn’t really stand out as huge. I also think the “mostly dialogue” point is a style choice that aligns with the type of writing found in journals. James is recording interactions and events with a lot of people.
2. This review on Substack.
Ok, so this post by Jan Hayarda on Substack called “Why I quit reading Percival Everett's 'James’” irked me to no end, and I’m still kind of stewing about it. Here’s what was said about the chapter lengths.
“There was also a whiff pandering in the faddishly short, large-font chapters of Everett’s book, a James Patterson-influenced trend that—to judge by comments I’ve seen from critics—has inspired its own pushback. There’s an irony in that format: Everett aims to show that enslaved people had more intelligence than their white owners imagined, but the brevity of the chapters at times leaves the impression James had no longer thoughts.”
3. This review in the The Metropolitan Review.
This review titled “Great American Misfire” doesn’t specifically complain about the chapter formatting or lengths, but it was on my mind because it’s a really frustrating negative review of James.
Some silliness.
An angel loses its wings every time a critical review of James complains about Percival Everett’s short chapters.
Teacher says!
Part One, Chapter 1, page 14. “They were waiting for me to tell them a story. I was apparently good at that, telling stories.
Part One, Chapter 2, page 21-23.
Part One, Chapter 11, p 73 Candide is what James reads while Huck is asleep, and the translated opening lines of Candide are quoted: “In the country of Westfalia...”
Part Three, Chapter 6, p 276-277 Cunégonde, Candide’s love interest, appears in James’ dream. The untranslated final lines of Candide are quoted: “Nous devons cultiver notre jardin.”
Oh this is really good insight!! Especially since he was so influenced by Twain and by Candide, it fits right in line. (You also brought up the substack review that irked me to no end lol)