Finn: A Novel

Finn: A Novel

In this masterful debut by a major new voice in fiction, Jon Clinch takes us on a journey into the history and heart of one of American literatureâ€™s most brutal and mysterious figures: Huckleberry Finnâ€™s father. The result is a deeply original tour de force that springs from Twainâ€™s classic novel but takes on a fully realized life of its own.

Finn sets a tragic figure loose in a landscape at once familiar and mythic. It begins and ends with a lifeless bodyâ€“flayed and stripped of all identifying marksâ€“drifting down the Mississippi. The circumstances of the murder, and the secret of the victimâ€™s identity, shape Finnâ€™s story as they will shape his life and his death.

Along the way Clinch introduces a cast of unforgettable characters: Finnâ€™s terrifying father, known only as the Judge; his sickly, sycophantic brother, Will; blind Bliss, a secretive moonshiner; the strong and quick-witted Mary, a stolen slave who becomes Finnâ€™s mistress; and of course young Huck himself. In daring to re-create Huck for a new generation, Clinch gives us a living boy in all his human complexityâ€“not an icon, not a myth, but a real child facing vast possibilities in a world alternately dangerous and bright.

Finn is a novel about race; about paternity in its many guises; about the shame of a nation recapitulated by the shame of one absolutely unforgettable family. Above all, Finn reaches back into the darkest waters of Americaâ€™s past to fashion something compelling, fearless, and new.

Praise for Finn
â€œA brave and ambitious debut novelâ€¦ It stands on its own while giving new life and meaning to Twainâ€™s novel, which has been stirring passions and debates since 1885â€¦ triumph of imagination and graceful writingâ€¦. Bookstores and libraries shelve novels alphabetically by authorsâ€™ names. That leaves Clinch a long way from Twain. But on my bookshelves, they'll lean against each other. Iâ€™d like to think that the cantankerous Twain would welcome the company.â€
â€“USA TODAY

â€œRavishingâ€¦In the saga of this tormented human being, Clinch brings us a radical (and endlessly debatable) new take on Twainâ€™s classic, and a stand-alone marvel of a novel. Grade: A.â€
â€“ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

â€œA fascinating, original read.â€
â€“people

â€œHauntingâ€¦Clinch reimagines Finn in a strikingly original way, replacing Huckâ€™s voice with his own magisterial visionâ€“one thatâ€™s nothing short of revelatoryâ€¦Spellbinding.â€
â€“WASHINGTON POST

â€œMeticulously craftedâ€¦Marvelous imaginationâ€¦The Finn of Clinchâ€™s novel is certainly a racist villain but also psychologically disturbed and disconcertingly compelling.â€
â€“SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

â€œFrom the barest of hints in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Clinch has created a fully believable world inhabited by fully realized characters. Clinch treads dangerous ground in making one of Americaâ€™s greatest novels his jumping-off point, but he brings it off magnificentlyâ€¦The language of this book is one of its great beautiesâ€¦Finn is far from one-dimensional, and that is another beauty of the book. Clinch has a knack for putting us squarely inside the heads of his charactersâ€¦.Clinch draws as compelling and realistic a picture as any weâ€™re likely to findâ€¦Finn stands on its own. The richness of its language, the depth of its characters, the emotional and societal tangles through which they struggle to navigate add up to a portrait of life on the Mississippi as weâ€™ve never before experienced it.â€
â€“dallas morning news

â€œHis models may include Cormac McCarthy, and Charles Frazier, whose Cold Mountain also has a voice that sounds like 19th-century American (both formal and colloquial) but has a contemporary terseness and spikiness. This voice couldnâ€™t be better suited to a historical novel with a modernist sensibility: Clinchâ€™s riverbank Missouri feels postapocalyptic, and his Pap Finn is a crazed yet wily survivor in a polluted landscapeâ€¦Clinchâ€™s Pap is a convincingly nightmarish extrapolation of Twainâ€™s. Heâ€™s the mad, lost and dangerous center of a world weâ€™d hate to live inâ€“or do we still live there?â€“and crave to revisit as soon as we close the book.â€
â€“newsweek

â€œI havenâ€™t been swallowed whole by a work of fiction in some time. Jon Clinchâ€™s first novel has done it: sucked me under like I was a rag doll thrown into the wake of a Mississippi steamboatâ€¦Jon Clinch has turned in a nearly perfect first book, a creative response that matches The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in intensity and tenacious soul-searching about racism. I wish I could write well enough to construct a dramatic, subtle and mysterious story out of careful, plodding and unromantic prose, but for now Iâ€™m just happy to have an alchemist like Jon Clinch do it for me.â€
â€“BOOKSLUT

â€œFinn strikes its most original chords in its bold imagining of possibilities left unexplored by Huckleberry Finn.â€
â€“austin american-statesman

â€œAn inspired riff on one of literatureâ€™s all-time great villainsâ€¦This tale of fathers and sons, slavery and freedom, better angels at war with dark demons, is filled with passages of brilliant description, violence that is close-up and terrifyingâ€¦Everything in this novel could have happened, and we believe itâ€¦ so the great river of stories is too, twisting and turning, inspiring such surprising and inspired riffs and tributes as Finn.â€
â€“new orleans times-picayune

â€œA triumph of succesful plotting, convincing characterization and lyrical prose.â€
â€“ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

â€œShocking and charming. Clinch creates a folk-art masterpiece that will delight, beguile and entertain as it does justice to its predecessorâ€¦In Finn, Clinch expands the bloodlines and scope of the original story and casts new light on the troubled legacy of our countryâ€™s infamous past.â€
â€“new york post

â€œIn Clinchâ€™s retelling, Pap Finn comes vibrantly to life as a complex, mysterious, strangely likable figureâ€¦Clinch includes many sharply realized, sometimes harrowing, even gruesome scenesâ€¦Finn should appeal not only to scholars of 19th century literature but to anyone who cares to sample a forceful debut novel inspired by a now-mythic American story.â€
â€“atlanta journal-consitution

â€œWhat makes bearable this river voyage that never ventures far beyond the banks is the compelling narrative Clinch has created. He writes exceedingly well, not with the immediacy Twain imbued to Huck's voice, but with an impersonal narratorâ€™s voice that almost perversely refuses to take sides. And the plot is masterful.â€
â€“fredericksburg freelance-star

â€œDisturbing and darkly compellingâ€¦Clinch displays impressive imagination and descriptivenessâ€¦anyone who encounters Finn will long be hautned by this dark and bloody tale.â€
â€“hartford courant

â€œJon Clinch pulls off the near impossible in his new novel, Finn, which brings Huck's dad to life in all his terrible humannessâ€¦Clinch vividly paints the origins of the amazing Huck...powerfully told.â€
â€“winston-salem journal

â€œGrippingâ€¦he inventively remaps known literary territoryâ€¦the descriptive riffs are lucent.â€
â€“chicago tribune

â€œThe best debut so far of 2007.â€
â€“menâ€™s journal

â€œInventing Huckleberry Finnâ€™s father using only the thin scraps of information that Mark Twain provided is a pretty admirable feat, and reading Jon Clinchâ€™s first novel provides an almost tactile pleasureâ€¦Clinch clearly respects Twain, but he doesnâ€™t feel especially cowed by his inspiration, and some of his inventions qualify as genuine improvements on the original text.â€
â€“washington city paper

â€œIn this darkly luminous debutâ€¦Clinch lyrically renders the Mississippi Riverâ€™s ceaseless flow, while revealing Finnâ€™s brutal contradictions, his violence, arrogance and self-reproach.â€
â€“Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

â€œBold and deeply disturbing. . . A few incidents duplicate those in Twain,
but the novels could not be more different; instead of Huckâ€™s unlettered childâ€™s voice,
we have an omniscient narrative, grave, erudite and rich in the secretions of adult knowledge;
terse dialogue acts as an effective counterpoint. All along, Clinchâ€™s intent
is to probe the nature of evil . . . a memorable debut, likely to make waves.â€
â€“KIRKUS REVIEWS, STARRED review

â€œEvery fan of Twainâ€™s masterpiece will want to read this inspired spin-off, which could become an unofficial companion volume.â€
â€“LIBRARY JOURNAL, STARRED review

â€œThis is a bold debut that takes a few tentative steps in tandem with the familiar Twain,
but then veers off dexterously down a much more insidious, harrowing path.â€
â€“BOOKLIST

â€œJon Clinchâ€™s first novel Finnâ€¦succeeds wonderfully because its gritty lyricism is at once authentic and originalâ€¦reminiscent at times of Cormac McCarthyâ€¦the eloquence of the telling will never make the courageous reader wish for a gentler touch. Like any appealing novel, Finn achieves the force of a dream with fascinating actions, indelible characters and spellbinding language. Its author is wily, astute and wiseâ€¦ Finn is a challenging and rewarding exploration of the suffering human heart. From the ominous shadow that was Pap Finn, Clinch has fashioned an unforgettable, twisted man and a marvelous novel.â€
â€“ROANOKE TIMES

â€œNext month Clinch makes his publishing debut with Finn, taking up where Mark Twain left Mr. Finn 120 years ago: dead in a room surrounded by such mysterious oddities as a wooden leg, women's underclothing, and two black cloth masks. Itâ€™s a great read.â€
â€“Knoxville News Sentinel

From the Hardcover edition.

Country	USA
Author	Jon Clinch
Binding	Paperback
Brand	Clinch, Jon
EAN	9780812977141
Edition	Reprint
ISBN	0812977149
Label	Random House Trade Paperbacks
Manufacturer	Random House Trade Paperbacks
MPN	9780812977141
NumberOfItems	1
NumberOfPages	320
PartNumber	9780812977141
PublicationDate	2008-03-11
Publisher	Random House Trade Paperbacks
ReleaseDate	2008-03-11
Studio	Random House Trade Paperbacks

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