WHAT THE HUCK!
Author Gregory Fletcher has had a bit of fun with Mark Twain’s classic tales of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn and readers are likely to share in the romp. Fletcher has repurposed many of the characters and situations from Twain’s original: the characters are a little older, and some of the situations are reversed (e.g., Becky takes the punishment for ripping the schoolmaster’s book to spare Tom, rather than the reverse). Much is the same however: Tom lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother Sid; Huck’s father is an abusive alcoholic; and they all live in the town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. Like his inspiration Mark Twain, Fletcher has combined farce with social criticism in this clever reimagining of an American classic.
Some of the problematic elements of Twain’s novels have been eliminated in Tom and Huck Sitting in a Tree—Fletcher has removed the “villain” named Injun Joe from his rendition. The most significant changes to the characterization and plot have to do with Huck’s attraction to Tom and Tom finally coming to recognize and accept his own attraction and love for Huck. There is a lot of word play—at the beginning of the novel Tom is teasing Aunt Polly by hiding in the closet, and there are a lot of references to people being queer as well as numerous double entendres, all of it offered, as stated on the copyright page, as “an inclusive, loving entertainment and tribute to Mr. Twain and his novel.”
Half-brother Sid is portrayed as having numerous domestic skills—he’s a terrific cook and a skilled seamstress. Aunt Polly is something of a glutton in Fletcher’s account, but ultimately good-hearted. As in the original in which Aunt Polly finds some affection for Huck, whom she originally regards as a bad influence on Tom, in Fletcher’s novella she learns to appreciate the love the two boys have for one another.
“All my life, the only times I seen two men together is when they’re fighting. I’m so sick of seeing men in combat,” Polly says when she sees Huck and Tom kissing at the end of the book. “Seein’ romance and affection should be a pleasant change.”
Sid also appreciates the way the two young men care for one another, listen to one another, and laugh at each other’s jokes. Sid even goes so far to suggest that their love story might make a great novel someday, “or perhaps a novella.” When Aunt Polly expresses her doubts about this possibility, Sid suggests that it might be the next century before the tales of Tom and Huck, originally published in the late 19th century, could be told. Even then, Aunt Polly is dubious.
“A century after that?” the narrator wonders, and tells us that “Tom, Huck, and Sid knew in their hearts that it would come sooner or later. And once out, time would only be able to move forward from there.”
Tom and Huck Sitting in a Tree: A Novella
Gregory Fletcher
Inclusive Bedtime Stories
published January 6, 2024 | English | 164 pages
available at Amazon and Better World Books
