The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing (Book for Teens)

I've now read two of M. T. Anderson's novels for teens (see my earlier post recommending Feed), and neither qualifies as pleasant reading.  But boy, are they good.  Anderson is interested in language; the intersection of thinking and feeling; what it means to be human; and what it means to be peculiarly American.  In both FEED and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party (about an American slave subjected to the experiments of a group of rational philosophers), Anderson manages to interweave compelling stories with powerful ideas.  In each, he uses period language (in FEED, an imagined future-speak; in OCTAVIAN NOTHING, eighteenth-century prose).  There's not a false note to be found in either.  The man is a marvel.  I marvel at him.       

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Comments

[Mia]

I've been wanting to read that! But my stack of books just keeps getting bigger and bigger!!

[Julie]

i know! i'm afraid my husband will someday divorce me if i keep bringing books into the house. my best hope is that he won't be able to find me because of all my stacks. anyway, you have to get this one, and put it right at the top.