Masterful re-imagining of the tale of Huck Finn's pap. Clinch uses Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer to flesh out the vile Pap Finn. And Clinch really characterizes Finn as the vilest! He expertly uses every reference to Finn by Twain to weave a tale of Finn's life on the banks of the Mississippi, his addiction to alcohol, and his love/hate relationship with blacks. Probably the most daring aspect of the novel was making Huck Finn a mulatto. Although this was never hinted at by Twain, it is a reasonable alternative to Huck's history. Overall, I would definitely recommend this one to anyone wanting to read a slightly different approach to Twain's masterpiece. I haven't read Huckleberry Finn since college (over 40 years ago) -- I definitely need to reread this classic!

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Jon Clinch takes us on a journey into the history and heart of one of American literatures most brutal and mysterious figures: Huckleberry Finns father.

I liked this book Clinch is an eloquent writer. The out of sequence story-telling was a bit distracting for me.

Clinch takes information for Huckleberry Finn and creates a backstory of Finn's father. Finn was a hard to like guy most of the time.

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