Octavian Nothing

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson

Category: Young Adult Fiction Grade: C+

This is an interesting one. Ultimately not very good, but interesting. First, I found it in the teen/young adult section of the book store where I tend to shop for good fantasy. This sounded like a serious, but different, fantasy. The opening premise is that the lead character, Octavian, and his mother live a pampered life in the "Novanglian College of Lucidity". They're the only occupants who have names; everyone else is known by their number. Octavian spends his days being classically educated and his evenings entertaining guests with his beautiful mother. Great start - now what?

(Spoiler alert -- since I'm not particularly recommending this book, I'm giving away the plot below so if there's any chance you'll read it, just go read it.)

As the story develops, it becomes more real-world as it tries to teach lessons about slavery and capitalism. As it turns out, Octavian is a slave living a pre-revolutionary Massachusetts. He is the subject of an experiment to determine if a classically educated black can reach the same levels of "intellectual sophistication" as similarly educated white children. About half-way through the book, the college's patron dies and his family brings in "investors" who want to change the experiments to produce products and answers that will serve them economically. With a very heavy hand, the author then proceeds to show that, capitalism screws up everything. The experiment with Octavian changes in to "let's prove a black can't be educated". The head moneyman comes in a makes a pass at Octavian's mother. When she refuses, she and Octavian are basically turned back in to house-slaves. At this point, the author gets to show the brutality of slavery and the hypocrisy of the revolution against England while maintaining slavery.

The book is also written in the languages styles of the 18th century and about of a third of it is told in the form of letters home from soliders - both things I don't really like in a book. It's also the first volume of a pair of books but I probably won't bother with the next one.