12 Years a Slave

Author: Solomon Northrup
Editor: Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Genre: Biography, Movie Tie-In Edition
Publisher: Penguin Group, 2013
Pages: 288
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Perhaps the best written of all the slave narratives, 12 Years a Slave is a harrowing memoir about one of the darkest periods in American history. It recounts how Solomon Northup, born a free man in New York, was lured to Washington, D.C., in 1841 with the promise of fast money, then drugged and beaten and sold into slavery. He spent the next twelve years of his life in captivity on a Louisiana cotton plantation.
 
After his rescue, Northup published this exceptionally vivid and detailed account of slave life. It became an immediate bestseller and today is recognized for its unusual insight and eloquence as one of the very few portraits of American slavery produced by someone as educated as Solomon Northup, or by someone with the dual perspective of having been both a free man and a slave.

Review: It's impossible to "enjoy" a book about so horrible a subject, but once I got into the rhythm of the language and narrative, I didn't want to put this book down. 

There is no way that in the 1850s, Solomon Northrup could have known his experiences and writings would still be relevant in 2014; let alone that his words would inspire a movie. Steve McQueen wrote that "I could not believe that I had never heard of this book. It felt as relevant as Anne Frank's diary." I absolutely agree. As a history major who studied the Civil War in depth, I feel I should have read this sooner. 

My final thoughts? Read, ponder, digest.