The Kingdom on the Waves: Octavian Nothing, Vol. 2 - M.T. Anderson
Brilliant, brutally violent novel for mature readers only.
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Book details
- Author:M.T. Anderson
- # of pages: 561
- Publisher:Candlewick Press
- Original Publication Date: 10/1/2008
- Genre: Fiction - Literary Fiction
- Hardcover: $22.99
- Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: 14
- Read Aloud: 15
- Read Alone: 15
Parents need to know
Parents need to know that the violence here is as grim and graphic as it is unrelenting. Men are brutally beaten and killed in various gruesome ways, including hanging, decaptiation, being cut in half, shooting, stabbing (once through the eye). A major character is killed, his jaw and part of his skull being blown off. A father tries to strangle his son. A pregnant woman is beaten, causing her baby to be stillborn. A young girl is gang-raped, another is raped. A dog is bayonetted. Men are whipped, then the wounds are scoured with hay and salt water, others commit suicide through starvation. There are also sexual references and some swearing.
Families can talk about the historical event and point of view. How is this view of the Revolution different than the one we usually see? Did it make you think about it differently? Why don't we usually hear this view? What do you think of the governor's actions?
Families can talk about the historical event and point of view. How is this view of the Revolution different than the one we usually see? Did it make you think about it differently? Why don't we usually hear this view? What do you think of the governor's actions?
Message
Social Behavior:
Plenty of racism and despicable acts and attitudes toward African Americans. Speculation about the inherently evil nature of man, as well as wit about the nature of God that some might consider blasphemous.
Consumerism:
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:
Drinking and drunkenness; pipe smoking.
Violence
Men are brutally beaten and killed in various gruesome ways, including hanging, decaptiation, being cut in half, shooting, stabbing (once through the eye), A major character is killed, his jaw and part of his skull being blown off. A father tries to strangle his son. A pregnant woman is beaten, causing her baby to be stillborn. A young girl is gang-raped, another is raped. A dog is bayonetted. Men are whipped, then the wounds are scoured with hay and salt water, others commit suicide through starvation.
Sex
A scene in which sex is overheard, and the various parts of the act compared to military maneuvers. The lyrics to a very bawdy song are given. Details of French kissing, references to homosexuality and sodomy, and witticisms about the nature of the penis.
Language
"S--t" and "f--k" each used once.
Common Sense says
What's the story?
Reviewed by Matt Berman
This sequel to the National Book Award-winning The Pox Party finds Octavian and Dr. Trefusis making their way into beseiged Boston in 1775. After a stay there filled with privation, illness, and some moments of happiness, they head south to Virginia to join Gov. Dunmore, who has promised freedom to any slaves who join his army to fight against the rebels. But Dunmore is incompetent, and only interested in freedom if it helps him win.
Is it any good?
That this is a brilliant historical novel there can be no doubt. Complex narrative structure and sophisticated, often lyrical, language are employed to bring to life an almost forgotten part of the American Revolution from an equally forgotten point of view -- that of the slaves, whom both sides attempted to use, and neither side considered human. Through nearly 600 pages of misery, illness, violence, and witty philosophical discourse Octavian's hope for the betterment of humanity remains in spite of his almost uniformly horrific experiences.
But whether it qualifies as children's or even Young Adult, literature, is questionable at best. Few children under the age of 15 will be able to find their way though its dense prose and unremitting misery, and children above that age are often already reading adult books, which is what this really is. So read it yourself, and give it to your older teens if they have a taste for high literary style and like to keep a dictionary at their elbows. But few younger children will want to read it -- nor should they.
Other choices
Other Books by M. T. Anderson:
Feed
Thirsty
The Pox Party
More About the Revolution:
My Brother Sam Is Dead
by Christopher and James Lincoln Collier
April Morning by Howard Fast
Johnny Tremain
by Esther Forbes
Moon of Two Dark Horses
by Sally M. Keehn
Feed
Thirsty
The Pox Party
More About the Revolution:
My Brother Sam Is Dead
by Christopher and James Lincoln Collier
April Morning by Howard Fast
Johnny Tremain
by Esther Forbes
Moon of Two Dark Horses
by Sally M. Keehn
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