My first dislike

I feel oddly guilty admitting I don't like a book, or not just that I don't like it, rather that I don't think young adults should read it. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation; vol. 1: The Pox Party is a good novel. It has all the elements of a good novel. Good novel--yes, good storyline--sure, good read...no. This is probably more of a personal opinion than anything, although I would like to note that when discussing this book with my classmates who all have read it, everyone seemed to be on the same page as me. The book was difficult to read (even the title is a confusing mouthful), hard to get through, and very hard to relate to. As you know from my earlier posts, I believe a major tenet of YA Literature is relatability. A STUDENT MUST RELATE! I found this book the hardest to relate to of all the YA lit I've read thus far. The book has won numerous prestigious awards, please keep that in mind as I babble on about my dislike for this renowned book. I say this because, although I am not a fan, doesn't mean everyone is not a fan--and obviously a lot of people, powerful people, are a fan of this book.



***SPOILER ALERT***



Being a slave in 18th century Boston and living under the false pretense that you are royalty when actually you are part of a racial human experiment and held captive with no freedom or power is probably what every young boy goes through, right? Wrong. This is the story of Octavian, one that a young adult is supposed to relate with. When Octavian grows up in a beautiful estate, receiving the finest of education, with his mother, a princess, and a household of people who wait on them, he thinks he lives a blessed life. That all changes when he realizes he is actually a part of a social experiment, the people serving him weren't the slaves-he was! He now feels like he's lost all sense of life. After his mother's death, he wonders...did she know all the time? Or was she as ignorant as myself? He flees- joins the army and the only information we get from Octavian is now through letters he writes his sister. Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts tell us of his life throughout the novel. The Gothic novel places the reader in the mind of a highly a young man in a scientific experiment. Only this mind thinks through a highly elaborate vocabulary and language of the 18th century. Highly complex. I, as a 20-year-old upper-level college student, who mind you took a class on 18th century literature, found this book highly complex. Giving this to a 16-year-old, let alone a 12-year-old, would be crazy in my mind. Without an extremely slow crawl through and analysis of this text in a classroom setting would it be possible, even then it would be difficult and the students would be (again, in my opinion) distant and disinterested.

More than anything, I am just surprised that it is even geared, or should I say marketed, toward young readers? Besides the fact that the character is young, and grows throughout the novel, discovering information about himself along the way, this book really has no young adult appeal. The themes focus on power, freedom, racism, and within the context of the language, they are pretty much adult themes. I just wonder if this is due to the fact that Anderson is already successful in the YA field, and the publishers decided to stick to what they know.

In a twisted effort to make myself feel a little better about hating this novel, I would like to recommend another novel. Despite the fact I tend to study more modern texts, there is one book that deals with issue of slavery, power, and freedom, that I read when I was younger that I absolutely adored. Its Octavia Butler's novel, Kindred. It is a science fiction novel that deals with slavery, and although there are no young characters, or even much relatability at all, (even I would discredit it as young adult literature) I still loved it as a child, and the science fiction helped to draw me in I believe. Here is a link to the wikepdia page (come on, I'm a student) on the novel that includes a short summary. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindred_(novel).

I feel that this post was more of me rambling, so I apologize. My main message in this mess is simple: I don't recommend teaching M. T. Anderson's The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party to a young adult classroom. Good day.