(no subject)

[skygiants]

I read M.T. Anderson's The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party about two years ago, in the bookstore, in a single sitting. The sequel, The Kingdom on the Waves, came out recently, and I just finished a back-to-back read of both. I finished each in about a day because I could not put them down, and they are pretty much hovering around the top of list of books of this year.

In other words, this is not just a booklogging post; this is a hardcore book rec, of the 'READ, READ IT NOW!' variety.


The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing is an amazingly original story set during the Revolutionary War, written in a first-person eighteenth-century style that reads almost fantastical - Gothic, or dystopian science fiction, or dark adventure in a made-up land - and is all the more powerful because it isn't. If you are a Revolutionary War buff, read it; if you don't care at all or are completely sick of the Revolutionary War and think you have read everything there is to read about it, trust me, read it! It's hard to describe these book without making them sound less intense or dryer or harder to get through than they are. They are difficult reads in many ways; the language is rich and complex and very accurately stylized for the period, and, more importantly, many of the scenes in the novels are fundamentally harrowing. But this is a story that wraps you up in it and moves you along rapidly with it. The books are also savagely funny at times, and the characters and the dialogue are pretty much too awesome for words.

One of my favorite characters is Pro Bono, a slave who is a valet in Octavian's household as he grows up. (By 'favorite characters', I basically mean 'oh my god marry me'; this is not frivolous to say because, at one point when Bono has been exceptionally awesome, a super-cynical elderly philosopher says exactly the same thing!)



"What are these papers?" asked Mr. Sharpe.

"I am a fashionable man," said Bono. "It's a catalogue of fashions."

Mr. Sharpe held out his hand.

Bono handed over the sheaf. "There ain't nothing illegal," he said, "about being devilish handsome."

Mr. Sharpe flipped through the pages. I stood behind him, but could not see Bono's miscellany. I could perceive, however, Mr. Sharpe's agitation. "For what purpose do you collect these?" he demanded.

"I'm part of the bo mond. I fancy seeing what your man on the street is wearing."

"Do you know where Mr. Gitney is?"

"I believe he is in the garden, sir."

"Let's go and fetch him."

"Yes, sir."

"To authorize your whipping. You," he said to me, "go call one of the grooms. Tell him to bring a riding crop and meet us in the garden."

Bono walked out of the kitchen, slamming the door behind him. Mr. Sharpe followed, saying, "Three more lashes for the slam."

I went to the table where the papers had been left. I lifted up the first, blank, page, and surveyed those beneath, to see, as Bono quoth, what the man on the street was wearing.

It was a catalogue of horrors. Page after page of Negroes in bridles, strapped to walls, advertisements for shackles, reports of hangings of slaves for theft or insubordination. He had, those many months, been collecting offers for children sold cheap, requests for aid in running down families who had fled their masters. For the first time, I saw masks of iron with metal mouth-bits for the slave to suck to enforce absolute silence. I saw razored necklaces, collars of spikes that supported the head. I saw women chained in coffles, bent over the wharves.

Mr. Gitney burned Bono's fashion catalogue an hour later.

"Let us rid ourselves," he said, "of this noisome object."

But I could not rid myself of it. It was the common property of us all.

Also amazing is Octavian's mother, Casseiopeia, and of course Octavian himself, whose narration pulls the book together (though there are other 'primary source' documents interspersed as well.)

This is the sort of book where no one is let off the hook; no one and nothing escapes. And yes, it's very dark - but I wouldn't call it bleak. The text is too rich for that.

So basically, go out, find these books, and read them. And then come back and talk to me about them! Because oh man.

Comments

[newredshoes]

This is just a drive-by comment to say that I've been wanting to read Octavian Nothing forever, and your endorsement is definitely ringing enough that I think I'm doomed to do it soon!

[skygiants]

Do it do it! And tell me when you do so I can babble at you!

[shati.livejournal.com]

... :O Thank you for reminding me! I started it last summer and had to give it back to the library before I finished -- either it was the end of the summer, or it was before one of my trips, I can't remember. But now I will be back in library territory again!

[skygiants]

Yes! Yes you will and you should get it out and finish it. And now you can read it back-to-back with the sequel too, which you will want to do!

(I actually ended up returning the sequel to the library two days past when it was due. >.> But I could not give it up now!)

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

The library has a copy of volume I, but I'm going to have to buy the set, aren't I?

[skygiants]

I suspect you are. :O Amazon sells them together for around $28, which is not terrible. I actually got them out of the library this time but I will probably end up buying them, for the purposes of lending them out!

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

OMG.

So, despite minor irritation at the tall s -- I can ignore it most of the time, but it drives me nuts when I have to stop and think about whether Mr. Coſſ's name is Coss or Coff -- AS ADVERTISED, BECCA, AS ADVERTISED. Also, WHY DIDN'T YOU ADVERTISE IT BEFORE?

*hearts Bono, and Dr. Trefusis, and Octavian OMG, and that letter from Dr. Trefusis to his friend Matthias? OMG SHINY HEARTS and OW.*

(I just finished Part II of Vol I.)

[skygiants]

I KNOW I SHOULD HAVE! But I was not booklogging properly two years ago or using my LJ terribly much, so I did not think to, mea culpa!

Oh my god, that letter. Dr. Trefusis. His level of scathing cynicism is a necessity and a joy, under the circumstances! (You are talking about the part I think you are, right? Just after the Pox Party? Which: one of the best dramatic setups in fiction, no lie!) AND NOW YOU SEE WHY I AM 100% IN LOVE WITH BONO.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Come on AIM so I can flail at you faster! (Yes, that's where I am.)

[skygiants]

I cannot sign on yet, I am waiting for my couch to arrive! It is already 45 minutes past the end of my delivery window but I am assured it is coming. :O

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

The couch will come! *cheers on the Bringers of the Couch*

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

oh man oh man oh man! The next book is out! Is it as awesome? Oh do not tell me, I could not bear if it was not as awesome. OH MAN

I was recommending Octavian Nothing to somebody the other day on LJ and she was like, is it a Serious Book 'cos I don't tend to read those even when I know I should, and I was like, no! No, don't deprive yourself of Octavian Nothing! It's not a serious book -- that is, it is -- that is, come baaack!

OH MAN, CASSEIOPEIA. You know the thing that struck me about her when I was reading the book was that she reminded me very strongly of Diana Villiers in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series (I do not recall if you have read this?) and it's just -- you so rarely get mothers in fiction like that. And that's not even mentioning mothers in fiction who happen not to be white! It's just. AMAZING.

[skygiants]

IT IS AS AWESOME I THINK. Um well I think personally I like the first one a little bit better just because of personal buttons, but that is not because the second one is not as awesome, because it is!

Yes I know that is exactly my trouble with how to describe it! Because I want to say, no, it is fun to read . . . why yes it is kind of depressing in places . . . no I do not want to diminish the seriousness of it and I do not enjoy reading about human suffering particularly, but! But!

- you know, I think that is an apt comparison! Though I would not have thought of it myself (because I like her much more than I liked Diana a lot of the time - though I am not a Diana-hater by any means). But yes so much so, I love that she is a mother like that, and how poised and dangerous and in control she is even when she isn't, and her moments of vulnerability, and how she gives the impression of being powerful despite the relatively small level of power she actually has! And I think you will LOVE the bits of retroactive characterization she gets in the next book, which are not unexpected but reinforce just how incredible she is!

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

Retroactive awesome! SCORE! I dunno, man, I was just reading the book and felt she was so similar to another female character, one I felt a bit ambivalent about but mostly admired as a character, and I knew it was an unusual kind of character to be, well, not white, because it was an interesting and complex and perhaps unlikeable but totally sexy* character. And then I figured out that it was Diana. They have the same pride and the same dashing beauty, and there's the same sense that even though they're caged by circumstance -- Cassiopeia way way more than Diana, obviously, but Diana is trapped in her society as well -- they're still defiantly unbeatable. And I didn't really like Cassiopeia, the way I go back and forth on liking Diana, but she's just such a great character.

*Not meaning actually sexy, as in sexually attractive, but the way investment bankers use it. Exciting! Cool! Kakkoi!

[skygiants]

Yes sexy is exactly the right word! Sexy in maybe the same way Azula is sexy throughout season 2 . . . though obviously she and Casseiopeia are not much alike otherwise. But it's, yes, that unbeatable quality and that pride, so even when you hate them you sort of have to admire them. (Though I did like Casseiopeia, even when she was being unlikeable - just because maintaining that dignity in her circumstances was like 10x as impressive as in most other circumstances! I think the only reason I do not like Diana so much is that we get so much of her over the books when I wanted them to be focusing on something else, oh no, it is more Diana-related angst. But I never wanted less focus on Casseiopeia!)

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

All right, all right, that's enough, I wasn't getting any work done this morning anyway. *collects library card, heads downstairs to the PZ stacks for Vol I*

[skygiants]

Excellent plan, that means we can talk about it when I get there! >:D

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

\o/ \o/ \o/!

[wickedtrue.livejournal.com]

I have had these on my list to EAT upon graduation! Everyone should read them!

[skygiants]

Agreed agreed!

- wait do you mean you have already read them, or that you are about to? :O

[wickedtrue.livejournal.com]

I got to read a little of the first book and feel IN LOVE but had to put them away because of thesis. Next week, I shall attack them both because I...kind of sort of bought after I fell for the first book from the library.

[skygiants]

I feel this is TOTALLY JUSTIFIED. I read them both from the library but I suspect I shall end up buying them anyways! Because: LOVE!

(When you have finished you should come back here and talk to me about them!)

[obopolsk.livejournal.com]

Wow -- I just finished reading the first volume of Octavian Nothing this morning, and was just about to make a post remarkably similar to this one when I saw your post.

The first volume is definitely at the top of my list for this year, too, and I want to read it again. I also can't wait until the library gets the second one in.

[skygiants]

. . . *cracks up* EXCELLENT TIMING. Oh man, is it not AMAZING? I just want to go around shoving it into people's hands!

I do not know what library system you are using, but I just returned the second one to the Brooklyn library, so . . . it's there at least! >.>

[obopolsk.livejournal.com]

Alas, I live in the suburbs, but if the local library hasn't gotten it in by the time I move, Brooklyn it is. :)