Finn: A Novel

Clinch's consisant, unique style is definately not for the sleepy reader, but lend themselves beautifully to the era and become more and more comfortable as the story goes forward. All the pieces exist to explain Finn's constitution, but very little is obviously stated, making this book a refreshingly challenging read that pays off in spades.

It takes guts to co-opt a character from Mark Twain. It takes skill to do it brilliantly. Drawing inspiration from a few brief scenes in Twain's HUCKLEBERRY FINN, Clinch tells the story of Finn Sr., Huck's father, as lost a soul as ever wandered literature. Disenfranchised by white society, filled with both lust and hatred for black, he's a cruel and violent drunk that destroys everything he might love. Yet Clinch writes him with a subtle empathy that balances scenes of horror and desperation against moments when Finn earns our pity and even our respect. As deft as the character development is, more inspiring still is the language -- evocative, elegiac, and hypnotic, it brings to mind the work of Cormac McCarthy, yet strikes a path all its own. Highly recommended.

If you're a Mark Twain fan like me, then Jon Clinch's auspicious debut, FINN, is a must-read. The novel takes a small character who looms large in Twain's original, THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, and makes of him a full-fledged protagonist. This is where we remind everyone that a "protagonist" by definition is a "lead character" and not necessarily "the good guy." In other words, Pap Finn makes for a most antagonistic protagonist, and readers will be so compelled by his dark thoughts -- and darker deeds -- that they will continue turning pages until they arrive "down river" (morally, I mean). I like how Clinch wove in actual scenes from the master's original, then provided the point of view missing from Twain's book. For instance, we get to hear the thoughts of Finn when he finds his cabin empty and his erstwhile captive son gone with blood strewn all over the premises. In the 19th-century work, we follow Huck and admire his young ingenuity in using pig's blood to simulate a murder. Here, we stay with Finn who knows a thing or two about deception himself, and watch the terrible wheels begin to turn as he plots the inevitable recapturing of his son. The book does take a few jumps in time and includes two black women who must be kept careful track of (Clinch joyfully jumps in when it comes to Twain's well-known fascination with "doubles"), so you must proceed with care. The narrative, almost regal in its omniscient choice of diction, is a stark contrast to Finn's own words as presented in his dialogue and his thoughts; this juxtaposition proves not only effective but almost necessary, given the graphic brutality of some of the scenes depicted. All in all, this is quite a coup. Clinch creates an old-fashioned feel to a modern-day work and the reader buys in. Of specific interest is the Author's Note at the end, which anticipates any lingering worries and complaints, most specifically about Huck's bloodlines. I don't agree with it, but I certainly respect Clinch's artistic right to play this riff on a theory first put forward by Shelley Fisher Fishkin in the monograph entitled "Was Huck Black?" Hats off, then (and why not -- a hat proves an important prop at this novel's end), to Mr. Clinch. This book will satisfy Twain scholars and everyday readers alike. Mark (sic) my words.

I love historical novels, and was drawn to this book by the good early reviews. Also, the author's daring attempt to write this backstory to an American classic was equally intriguing. What I wasn't ready for was my reaction to the book's main character, Pap Finn. I found myself repelled by Pap like no other character, save perhaps Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs. I really hated this guy! I've read a few of the reviews that rated this book poorly, perhaps because those readers were also aghast at Pap's portrayal, and some of the unsavory events that inevitably occur. I would suggest to the prospective reader that they look beyond Pap's evil, to the times that this book represented, and consider perhaps a world that Twain understood but could only suggest. This is the best historical novel I've read since Cold Mountain.

Exodus 1:22 It is hard for me to imagine the audacity it must take for a novelist to choose possibly the greatest novel in American literature as the starting off point for his first novel. It was even harder for me to imagine that such a book could be anything other than a derivative effort that diminished both the original work and the contemporary author. I imagined wrong. Jon Clinch's first novel "Finn" is an immensely entertaining and thoughtful novel that takes Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and creates a back-story that takes us into the world of Huck's father, known to the world as Finn. "Finn" begins and ends with a body floating slowly down the Mississippi. In between, Clinch tells us the story of Finn's life on and near the river. Finn is not a likeable man. For Finn, his life along the Mississippi River is one akin to that portrayed by Hobbes in his treatise "Leviathan". Finn lives in a state of nature and in that state there is "continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Finn, a ne'er do well almost since birth has been cast out "into the river" of life by his father (Huck's grandfather), Judge Finn who, although less physically violent than Finn, is as loathsome a character (to me) as you may ever meet in a piece of fiction. Finn has been cast out because he has fallen into a relationship with a runaway slave girl, Mary. Mary provides Finn with the only real sense of belonging and longing he is ever likely to know. She also provides him with a son, Huck. (Clinch acknowledges Shelley Fisher Fishkin's monograph "Was Huck Black?" in his Author's Note.) Finn's life consists of catching fish, drinking cheap whiskey and moonshine, and struggling with whatever demons a person such as this can conjure. His hatred of slaves, one inherited from his father, cannot rationally coexist with his love (to the extent Finn is capable of that emotion) for Mary. As the story progresses we are provided with snapshots of characters first brought to us in Huck Finn, such as the widow Douglas and Judge Thatcher. Readers familiar with Huck Finn will see the inception of events that arise in Huck Finn. At the same time, the nature of the relationship between Finn and Mary allows Clinch to discuss some of the same issues Twain did in Huck Finn, the stain of slavery on America's soul and the emotional burden of that stain on those who were touched by it. It seems inevitable that "Finn" and Clinch will have to bear the ongoing comparison to Huck and Twain. No one can match Twain for his extraordinary feel for idiomatic English or for his ability to tell a story. Clinch is not quite Twain but "Finn" still stands on its own as a terrific first novel. Christopher Hitchens once noted, in connection with an author he had compared to Tolstoy, that even to be compared to Tolstoy with a straight face is a tremendous achievement on its own. Clinch's prose is cri