New York, NY : Penguin Books, 2013.
xxxviii, 240 p. : ill ; 20 cm.
When the movie, Twelve Years a Slave, came out about 2 years ago, I knew I would want to read the book. At the time, I bought a couple of new copies of the book for my library, and I've finally gotten around to reading it - stunning! I can't say enough about what a fine book this is.
I thought that since this autobiography was written over a hundred and fifty years ago, it might be a bit formal or stiff, but it is wonderfully written. There are several things that make the story of Northrup's ordeal such a tour de force. First, the circumstances of his living thirty years a free man, only to be kidnapped and sold into slavery make the story immediate and chilling. The reader can imagine the experience in a visceral way different from narratives of those born into slavery. Northrup's tale reads like a modern Kafkaesque story of one man's descent into a horrifying alternate universe. As Fredrick Douglas said of Twelve Years a Slave, "It chills the blood."
Also, since Northrup was so concerned that he not be accused of fabricating his narrative, he includes specific names and details that make the action of the book terribly real and give the book a cinematic effect. Steve McQueen, the director of the Oscar winning film of the same name, writes in the Foreword, "The book read like a film script, ready to be shot."
I'm not sure I'll be able to get a lot of students to read Twelve Years a Slave, but I'm going to give it a try. I'll feel certain telling them it's a book that will blow them away - more than any dystopian fiction novel could!
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