humorous, suspenseful and with a message

The first time I started to read Huck Finn, I put it down after a few chapters because of the annoying dialect used by the slave, Jim. The second time around I neglected a paper I had due the next day because I couldn't put the book down. The book read so smoothly with suspense and humor around ever corner that I finished half the book in just a few hours.

Mark Twain blends satire and sharp criticism in a hilarious novel analyzing Southern life and gentility as well as the internal conflicts of a naive and relatively innocent child. Huck Finn examines the struggle between one's moral conscience and what is accepted by society using the topic of slavery.

There was a break of several years when Twain had stopped work on Huck Finn, I believe due to a personal tragedy. After continuing his novel, Twain had assumed a more grim outlook on life and the novel reflects this in its representation of the Southern gentility and in some of the experiences that Huckleberry comes across. However, Huck Finn is still a light read with deep implications and meanings. It can be read purely for entertainment or for analytical review. Either way, Huck Finn will not disappoint.

I must warn that this book does contain racial epithets, but they are not intended to be offensive in nature. Twain simply represented the Southern dialect as accurate as he could.