M.T. Anderson's Octavian Nothing

Before I had ever heard of M.T. Anderson, author of Feed, of which I wrote previously, I picked up a copy of Octavian Nothing because I liked the cover. (Yes, I admit it and remind you that I had originally planned to call this blog "Book By Its Cover.")

The golden National Book Award Winner seal on the cover may have had something to do with it. I glanced at the jacket flap and thought it was a fantasy novel. Its full, fanciful title did nothing to dissuade me from that thought: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume I The Pox Party.

Well, last week I finally read it. As its lengthy title has perhaps alerted you, it is not fantasy, but rather historical fiction set just before and during the early years of the American Revolution. And the rest of this blog entry is one big spoiler, so if you like to be surprised by your reading and you want to read this book, stop now.

Octavian is a young Boston boy who is an enslaved African, but he doesn't know his status in the early part of the book. He is an experimental subject -- watched, measured and weighed by a bunch of 18th century scientists intent on discovering whether Africans are equal to Europeans if given the same upbringing. That's bad enough, but as the book unfolds, the experiment is hijacked to force its outcome to support one conclusion (it's not hard to guess which one).

As in Feed, but in a completely different way, Anderson captures the language of the time. This is a book that would be incredible to read aloud, if you could keep from crying at its harshest points.

And it's all the more startling because the context established by other juvenile and young adult novels set in the same time does not inoculate you at all. Newbery books like Johnny Tremain or My Brother Sam Is Dead, for instance, deal with pain and death, but leave the reader unprepared for the unflinching reality in Octavian Nothing.

This book would be a wonderful addition to high school classes on the American Revolution or the slave trade. It makes accessible a terrible part of American history that many do not know exists, and it highlights the irony (and hypocrisy) of our nation's struggle to achieve freedom while humans remained property.

For a young person, it could be a life-changing read. Even at my age, it has haunted my thoughts.

(According to the Wikipedia, Volume II is due out October 14.)

----------------

One final note. Before the story reaches its grim heights, Anderson includes an insider's reference for the readers of Feed. One of the scientists is observing young people dancing at a party, and he says:

"When I peer into the reaches of the most distant futurity, I fear that even in some unseen epoch when there are colonies even upon the moon itself, there shall still be gatherings like this, where the young, blinded by privilege, shall dance and giggle and compare their poxy lesions."

If you've read Feed, you know what future that scientist was foreseeing.