Finn
Finn
A novel by: John Clinch
Random House
John Clinch flirts with the proverbial third rail of literature by writing at the coat tails of the great American novelist, Mark Twain.
This is not what I would call a ‘companion’ book or a ’sequel’ to go along with “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. This is a dark and sometimes perverse book. It is the story of Huckleberry Finn’s father. I’ve always been curious about the man. He only covers a few pages in Mark Twain’s book but he is a character that is not easily forgotten. The Author took up the task of telling his version of how Finn became the person he was. Much of the book covers the time from Hucks birth onward. I suppose you could look at “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” as a telling of a story from a child who does not have all the facts. “Finn” is a story that tells of the brutal, selfish man that is his father.
Clinch does a good job of staying true to the time lines of the original classic. Few of the original characters are mentioned. The Widow Douglas is brought into the story because it is there that Finn visits Huckleberry. The carpetbagger called The King (or someone much like him) makes a cameo appearance in the one of the most disturbing scenes of the book.
It is hard to buy into the question of Huckleberry’s lineage. Although his mother doesn’t appear to be mentioned in Twain’s book, Clinch boldly brings Huck’s mother to life and describes the family life before Huck arrives at St. Petersburg.
Finn is the anti-hero. As his dead body lays in the house floating down the river it is hard to have much pity for him.
The book is a good read which could stand on it’s own merits had we never known Huckleberry Finn.