The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing Traitor to the Nation Volume I: The Pox Party
M.T. Anderson
Massachusetts: Candlewick Press, 2006
Genre: Historical Fiction
Awards and Recognition: 2007 Michael L. Printz Honor
Read if: You want to find out what a Pox Party is.
Best for: High School students who are interested in history, post-colonialism and really good storytelling. This book contains mature themes of violence and oppression.
If you like it try:
Rating: 5/5
In a sprawling house in Massachusetts, a clandestine group of academics known as the Novanglian College of Lucidity are undertaking experiments to prove the truths of the world. Growing up in their midst is a boy named Octavian, who spends his days being tutored in Latin and Greek, learning the classics, playing the violin, and being doted on by his mother Cassiopeia, an African Princess far from home. Octavian leads an odd but peaceful existence inside the College walls, until the day he wanders through a forbidden door and learns a sinister secret about the College's experiments. As Octavian learns more about his past and his intended future, he begins a journey that will take him from the safe walls of the College into the changing world of late 18th Century America.
I have never read anything quite like this book. Octavian Nothing is a difficult book to describe in a lot of ways, because it is so unique. It fits most readily into the category of historical fiction, although it goes much beyond that description. Drawing strongly on 18th century literary traditions (even going so far as having the first and last pages of the novel look like an 18th century folio), the novel is written in the prose of the time. This may make it challenging at first if you are unused to the language, although Anderson's writing is so skilled that I easily fell into the rhythm of the writing. Told in a multi-media format, through letters, notices and first person accounts, Octavian's story is woven together from a complex array of voices.Anderson has said that he wanted the novel to have a gothic feel
and it certainly does. Octavian's trials are dark and harrowing; Anderson uses each episode to explore what it means to be free.
The teenage years are often filled with searching for truths and questioning the meaning of the the status quo ( I know mine were). Octavian Nothing goes right to the heart of that search, and that is perhaps its greatest strength; readers will connect with Octavian's struggle against the world he was born into, as he seeks to find his own identity.
This novel is rich in ideas; it challenges and expects much from the reader. There has been discussion since itl came out about whether it is too challenging for a teen audience
Others argue that the novel defines the best of contemporary teen fiction
This novel certainly is challenging, and it could definitely be considered cross-over fiction. My hope is that this book, and its sequel (see above), fall into the hands of many readers, so that they can experience this unique and astonishing book for themselves.
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