Jon Clinch takes us on a journey into the history and heart of one of American literature’s most brutal and mysterious figures: Huckleberry Finn’s 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.

Finn and his brother Will are a study of contrasts. One son is subversive; the other son is loyal to the father. Finn is attracted to black women but Clinch does not give us any indication of Will’s attitude toward them.

I had mixed feelings about Finn denouncing Huck’s true mother. It made me sad that Huck was cheated of a good mother, but he was ultimately getting out from under possible future slavery.