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The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing Traitor to the Nation Vol 1 The Pox Party MT Anderson Books

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The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing Traitor to the Nation Vol 1 The Pox Party MT Anderson Books

I purchased this book for my young teen. Fortunately I started reading it before she did. Not only is the language much too complex for a teen, but the content is dark and disturbing. This book will make good firewood.


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The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing Traitor to the Nation Vol 1 The Pox Party MT Anderson Books Reviews

"The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I, The Pox Party" by M. T. Anderson is extraordinary--certainly one of the most unique, creative, and ultimately take-your-breath-away astonishing works of fiction that I've ever read. I was so impressed--no, mesmerized--by the depth and scope of this work that I read it through twice in three days. The second reading took longer than the first because I found myself pausing repeatedly either to savor the beauty of the language or to ponder universal questions of philosophy, psychology, science, and history that pop up everywhere throughout the telling.

"Octavian Nothing" is a coming-of-age saga like no other you may ever encounter. The story concerns the life of the young slave, Octavian, from his earliest memories, until the age of 16. For the first half of his life, the child does not realize that he is the object of a scientific experiment to determine "whether homo africanus is a separate species from homo europaeus." The child is dressed in fine silks and given a comprehensive and exhaustive classical literary and musical education. He is told that he is an African prince and his mother an African princess. He is raised in virtual isolation by a household of scientists, philosophers, artists, and merchant investors calling themselves The Novanglian College of Lucidity. These men make sure that the child is kept at great emotional distance from his mother, the Princess Cassiopeia. Octavian is given every luxury, except the luxury to behave like a normal human child.

Despite the fact that Octavian is raised as a zoological experiment by inhumanly rational, and monstrously nonempathetic scientists, we see him mature into a virtuous, empathetic, whole human being. The transformation is slow and gut-wrenching. Three men unknowingly play significant roles as mentors Dr. Trefusis, the slave Bono, and the soldier Evidence Goring. But there is a one very significant additional source providing him with the raw building blocks necessary to reinvent himself as a fully realized emotional human being, namely the wealth of pseudo life experience provided to him by his extraordinary classical literature and music education. In great part, this is the story of a child saved by his exposure to Ovid, Homer, Socrates, Aristotle, Shakespeare, Pope, Mozart, Handel, Corelli, and the like.

The book takes place in Boston between 1760 and 1775. Well-known events in the American Revolution form the historical framework and provide the story with many of its most thought-provoking themes. The story is revealed primarily from the manuscript testimony of the boy, Octavian.This manuscript is written sometime after the close of volume one when Octavian presumably becomes a "Traitor to the Nation." Toward the end, it is suggested how Octavian might become a traitor, but the Volume I ends before that event occurs. The book contains no direct narration; rather, it is told entirely through fictional primary resources--Octavian's own manuscript testimony, newspaper clippings, letters, scientific papers, and the like. Because the story is told completely from period documents, the language is, throughout, lovingly realistic 18th-century prose. As a reader, I was positively dazzled by the authenticity of the period language. How Anderson was able to accomplish this feat, and maintain it though countless different narrative voices is astounding--in my opinion, an unparalleled modern literary tour de force.

Anderson immersed himself in extensive historical research in order to develop the story accurately within an authentic American Revolutionary historical framework. This book is all the more horrifying because it could have been possible. Similar experimentation did, in fact, occur during this period. This is no "Dracula." This is no mere gothic fantasy; this is more. The terror at the core of this tale is real, and the implications of this terror resonate through many social, governmental, and political issues past and present.

The book deals with an amazing complexity of controversial issues racism; the ethics of scientific inquiry funded by commercial interests; the importance of virtue; the nature of altruism; the meaning of freedom; the meaning of being human; the ethics of human and animal experimentation; the ethics of ends justifying means; whether civilization is predicated upon commerce; the importance of forgiveness--to name but a few.

In my estimation, a five-star rating is not enough. No wonder it was the 2006 National Book Award Winner in Young People's Literature.

But I have two very serious bones to pick with the author, editors, and publisher. First, this extraordinary work is no more a young-adult book than "Billy Budd" or "Daisy Miller!" Naturally, it can be read and appreciated by high school students, but there is a much larger market of adults thirsting for new, outstanding fiction that might overlook this title because is being marketed too narrowly. Second, a decision (probably motivated by commerce) was made to market this book in parts. "Volume I, The Pox Party" is not a complete work. Yes, it is a very satisfying book as it stands, but it is still only half a story. I hope the wait for Volume II will not be long, but if it is, I trust it will be worth the wait. Please, let's all be patient! The author should not be pressed to hurry and complete volume two by any artificial or commercial deadline. Anderson should be allowed to take whatever time is necessary to complete this magnus opus at its existing extremely high standards. After all, this book could become a classic.
This is a historical fiction book that tells the story of a boy named Octavian; the story is set during pre-revolutionary America and evolves into the Revolutionary war. Octavian is a slave, who is bought alongside with his mom, and is raised in a philosophical college, he is raised as a prince and is given a classic education as part of a scientific experiment to prove that African Americans can be just as smart as white people if given the means; his classical education goes on until the college's funder dies and they have to rely on another man to get their funds. The new funder, Mr. Sharpe cutts Octavian off from his education and only allows him to study very dull topics - he's trying to boycott the experiment- and makes him serve in the house with his mom; because of the violence in Boston due to the taxation on goods, the college is moved to the countryside- there is also fear of slave rebellion, so they are trying to maintain the slaves away from influences-, in the country house they hold a pox party, where they infect people with smallpox and maintain them in safe environments to prove that there can be cure for smallpox. They also infect the slaves to maintain them weak so they don't rebel, Octavian's mom doesn't recover from the disease and dies and Octavian has to watch them dissect her; after this, he runs away and joins a band of the Patriots in the fight against the British until Mr. Sharpe manages to find and catch him again. After getting caught and sent back to the college, he is shackled and masked and tortured by Mr. Sharpe, he is held in torture until one of his former tutors manages to drug Mr. Sharpe and him and Octavian run away and try to find a place where Octavian will be safe.
I thought the book was really good and it is definitely a book that leads you to think- which I really enjoyed. I liked the way that the book was divided into parts and that it wasn't only from one point of view, specially in part III where it is only told through other documents and letters. One thing that the author could have done better was make the part where Octavian finds out about his life being an experiment and that he is actually a slave a bigger deal, he revealed it too early in the plot and without much rising action.
I learned that sometimes we can put ourselves in realities that aren't actually ours, and we can be oblivious to what is happening around us just as Octavian was oblivious to slavery even though he was a slave himself. I learned that there is a lot of hypocrisy concerning the Revolutionary War- the Patriots were fighting against the British because the British were enslaving them and forcing them to be submissive, but at the same time, they were enslaving other people and forcing them to be ruled without question. I learned that it is important to question our realities and other people, the philosophers were trying to raise Octavian to be submissive and tried to supress him having his own ideas, but it is important to question our roots, and to develop our own personalities and ideas about situations.
I definitely recommend this book to anyone that wants to look at slavery from a completely different perspective, the books is amazingly written and it keeps you turning the pages and trying to guess what is going to happen next. It is food for thought.
I am an author of young adult novels. I also do school presentations, and am in constant contact with teachers. This book should be marketed as an adult reading level book, not YA. Its language is extremely technical/scientific, with extremely long words and long sentences. I can not see any young people enjoying, or even completing this book if their teacher assigns it as required reading.
I purchased this book for my young teen. Fortunately I started reading it before she did. Not only is the language much too complex for a teen, but the content is dark and disturbing. This book will make good firewood.