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Loading... The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I:…by M. T. Anderson
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. This book lives up to its title: it really is an astonishing, passionate, beautifully written novel. To talk of the plotline would be, I think, to spoil it: not because much of it is not readily apparent to the reader as it progresses, but because how Anderson unfolds the tale, how he shows the depths of Octavian's repressed trauma and reveals the hypocrisy of those around him, the blindness of racial and gender privilege. It's a fantastic, fantastic reworking of the familiar narrative of the American Revolution, and highly recommended reading; I read it through in one fell swoop, for all that it made my heart ache. I'm definitely going to pick up the second volume, should I ever be able to lay my hands on a copy. I'm terribly curious to see how Octavian becomes that eponymous 'traitor to the nation'—and of course, which nation? (  )siriaeve | Jun 12, 2009 |   Octavian, a slave owned by Mr. Gitney (aka 03-01) of Boston, and son of an African princess, doesn't realize that his childhood - consisting of Latin and violin lessons, experiments and the measuring of his waste - is odd. His narrative begins with impressions from his younger days and gradually follows a more chronological path as he becomes older and more aware of the revolutionary world beyond the College of Lucidity. This exceptional historical fiction received the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2006. The plot took awhile to get going, especially with the short, impressionistic glimpses we get of Octavian's earliest memories, but the writing is superb and the characters so well-drawn and sympathetic that I couldn't help but read on. In the end, I was ready to start the second book as soon as possible. (  )bell7 | Jun 10, 2009 | Stunning historical fiction, unforgettable characters, heartaching, incredibly written. A challenging young adult read, a mesmerizing adult read. Highly recommended. ( )readaholic12 | Jun 5, 2009 | In pre-Revolutionary America, Octavian is raised by a group of natural philosophers. I have no idea whether I'd have liked this as a teenager; I love it now. It is one of the most devastating critiques of racial politics in US history I've ever read, and one of the clearest depictions of personal trauma. I've read reviews that criticized it for Octavian's distant, impersonal tone, but I think the reviewers are missing the forest for the trees: science is both the instrument of Octavian's torment and means of his escape. It's not emotionlessness; it's repression. ( )coffeeandink | Jun 5, 2009 | It has an interesting plot; I just had a hard time getting past the language. If you can handle a challenging book and like historical fiction, go for it. (  )jilnicw | May 31, 2009 | 0.036 seconds to build listing  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0763624020, Hardcover)A gothic tale becomes all too shockingly real in this mesmerizing magnum opus by the acclaimed author of FEED.It sounds like a fairy tale. He is a boy dressed in silks and white wigs and given the finest of classical educations. Raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers, the boy and his mother — a princess in exile from a faraway land — are the only persons in their household assigned names. As the boy's regal mother, Cassiopeia, entertains the house scholars with her beauty and wit, young Octavian begins to question the purpose behind his guardians' fanatical studies. Only after he dares to open a forbidden door does he learn the hideous nature of their experiments — and his own chilling role in them. Set against the disquiet of Revolutionary Boston, M. T. Anderson's extraordinary novel takes place at a time when American Patriots rioted and battled to win liberty while African slaves were entreated to risk their lives for a freedom they would never claim. The first of two parts, this deeply provocative novel reimagines the past as an eerie place that has startling resonance for readers today. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:12 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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