The ‘12 Years a Slave’ Book Shows Slavery As Even More Appalling Than In the Film

Of Human Bondage

It's the most devastating film about slavery ever, but the book shows the institution to be even more hideous than you can imagine. By Jimmy So.

Published Oct. 18 2013 5:45AM EDT

articles/2013/10/18/the-12-years-a-slave-book-shows-slavery-as-even-more-appalling-than-in-the-film/131017-so-12-years-slave-tease_hat7qm — Francois Duhamel/Fox Searchlight

That collective gasp you hear is the audience jolted by intolerable cruelty in 12 Years a Slave. Yet if you think the movie offers a terrible-enough portrait of slavery, please, do read the book.

Jimmy So

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The ‘12 Years a Slave’ Book Shows Slavery As Even More Appalling Than In the Film

It's the most devastating film about slavery ever, but the book shows the institution to be even more hideous than you can imagine. By Jimmy So.

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Jimmy So