Nov

12

Octavian Nothing is Just the Best Thing Ever.

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I have been a very bad reader.  I’ve seen other readers blame their lack of reading on the election and that sounds like a decent excuse so I’ll use it.  I think I’ve just been a little distracted and so TV has been easier.  But, I finally finished both Octavian Nothing books and there is no way you can go without commenting on them.

It’s funny to me because what initially intrigued me about the first book was the disorientation of the first 50 pages or so.  I didn’t know when it was, if we were based in a fantasy world or the real one, and it was unclear just what was going on.  It felt more like a fantasy book even though it eventually turned out to be a historical novel.  Volume I is very much a book of action.  Things are constantly changing, something new is always happening.  It’s about self-discovery but on a very basic level.  It in no way prepared me for Volume II.  The second book is longer and slower and infinitely deeper.  A fancy reviewer may call it “dark,” but I prefer to call it as I see it: depressing.  It’s perhaps the saddest book I’ve read all year.  This isn’t a bad thing.  It’s the kind of sad book that envelopes you, and that’s not an easy thing.  (I’m currently in the middle of a book with a character in an Iranian prison.  It is trying to be sad and isn’t.  Which is why I can’t finish it.  A sad subject does not make you sad.)

I definitely see why the first book is YA, though it’s good reading for anyone.  With the second book, it’s a harder line to draw.  The complex moral universe is so full that I think even the most particular adult reader would find their time well-spent.

What follows will involve spoilers, involving the setting and main character, and which may ruin your reading of the first book if you haven’t read it yet.  So you may want to leave now.  (But you should leave and go read it!!!)

In the first book, Octavian’s discovery that he is really a slave is a gradual thing that culminates in truly inhuman treatment.  In the second book, also set in the American Revolution, you enter feeling like Octavian has a truly sad lot in life.  Despite his escape, he does not have anywhere where he may really be safe.  He finds inspiration in the British army, who will accept any escaped slaves who agree to enlist as free men.  It’s a great use of plot for many reasons.  It lets Octavian consider a life of freedom, it turns the traditional view of the Revolution with the British as villain on its head, and you get to learn about something you probably didn’t know about before, which is a great trick for any historical novel.  But I had no idea what I’d be getting into.  I figured the basic war stuff, and there certainly is that, but I hadn’t given much thought to what kind of social experiences Octavian would be in for.

Finding himself surrounded by his fellow slaves, he is finally around people who should be his equals.  And yet he realizes that his life has been a charmed one and that he really doesn’t fit in with the slaves at all.  The terrible trials he’s endured are nothing compared to what others have experienced.  And then there’s the treatment of the soldiers by their British superiors, which starts badly and doesn’t get better.

It’s a much longer book and it feels long.  It took me weeks to read because it’s hard to go through in one sitting.  There’s little levity, and as bad goes to worse, you feel the need to get a little break.  But none of this is a reason to skip it.  Rather, I think it may be the single-best YA book I have ever read.  And it ranks right up there with my favorite regular fiction.  There is no doubt it’ll be in my 2008 Top Ten.  (Which is saying something, since despite a lot of crap, it’s actually been a year with a lot of excellent books.)  It’s a book that regularly resonated in my thoughts, and that’s high praise.

Mostly, I hope it gets lots of attention.  I know Volume I got the National Book Award, and it was well-deserved.  But I never saw a lot of critical attention.  This may just be me being somewhat out of touch.  I really hope the second book can attract new readers.  M. T. Anderson is definitely one of our most impressive current authors, and I’m very interested to see where he’ll go next.  This was also a timely read, picking it up last Tuesday night was a special experience.

In other reading news, I have decided to get on the ball and start reading already.  I’m hoping to finish some of the books I’ve been stuck in.  Plus I have some new ones and just put a new batch on reserve at the library.  Of note is The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano.  His new book, 2666, just came out, but I never read the last one so I’m getting on the ball.  Not sure how I’m going to feel about it since I’m hearing all kinds of things.  Also in the middle of The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, which I am confident I’ll finish in the next week or so.

Btw, you probably know I’m big on lists and out of Amazon’s Top 100 of 2008, I have read 8 of them.  Which doesn’t sound like much, but much of the list is nonfiction, which I don’t read.  I have 2 more currently on hold.  Plus I’m limited since my library doesn’t carry many of the ones I want to read, so I think I’ve done well.  Especially since most of mine were up near the top.  Their list is quite weird (Stephen King above David Benioff?  Maybe, but not by 79 spots.) but that’s to be expected, I suppose.

There’s no way I’ll break 150 this year, which I was thinking very possible just a couple months ago.  But I think I should break 125 and we’ll go from there.