A REVIEW OF

PARABLE OF THE SOWER

by Octavia E. Butler

Review by:   Alura_

I was about eight months pregnant for my daughter when I was put on bed rest with complications. A good friend of mine, who works at the public library, brought me a book she said I might enjoy. It was Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. I lay there, feeling a little sorry for myself, and read that book cover to cover, not able to stop. I could not put it down! It was one of the best books I'd read in a very long time.

I liked it so much that when on my next day pass from bed rest to go see the doctor, I stopped at the library and lugged all Ms. Butler's other books I could find home with me. I was having a great time laying there reading such great stories. Her trilogies were especially helpful in wiling away the hours. And they were wonderful too!

Parable of the Sower takes place in the fairly near future (2024-2027 CE) after quite a bit of social disintigration and chaos. Walled neighbourhoods, gangs of drug-abusing arsonists, crime, inhumanity are throughout the book. The main character, Lauren, is a young woman growing up during this time in Southern California. Her father is a minister and they live in a walled neighbourhood, trying to keep the insane world outside from getting in.

A turning point in the girl's life is when the walls are broken, her neighbourhood burned, and many friends and family killed. She escapes with a friend and starts to travel north through the shocking and terribly dangerous Southern California. She is an empath and feels other's pain and pleasure, which makes her journey difficult.

Her trip along the freeways and into towns adds member by member, making a growing group of people traveling with her. She had rejected her father's religion and had developed her own beliefs, which she shared with her travel companions. "God is change." She also had a collection of her writings and poems called Earthseed: The Books of the Living. Lauren becomes a prophet with a following, going to a safe place to live, without walls or fear of violence.

Octavia E. Butler's novel is full of imagination. It is often disturbing, always gripping, and raw. She is brilliant in making her main characters (always women) vivid and powerful. She obviously knows her characters intimately and has seen the places she describes. It is a wonderful read.

All of her books have a common thread, psychic connections and abilities in one form or another. Her book Kindred is about a woman who travels by mistake back to the time of slavery in the United States. She finds that her purpose in being there is to save the life of an ancestor of hers from accidental death until he can impregnate a woman with her great grandmother.

Most of her other books are more science fiction than Parable of the Sower. Her trilogies are full of other worlds and beings from other planets. One of them is about connections between people. There is a web and each strand brings people together in thought or abilities. I read the books before I was connected to the internet, perhaps written before it had really taken off in popularity, and I wonder now, as I thought then, if Octavia E. Butler was predicting the internet's conception and growth.

Again, I say I loved her books. Since I read them I claim Octavia E. Butler to be my favourite author. I even wrote a fan letter I was too embarrassed to send. Sigh. Maybe some day.

Oh, btw, she is a Hugo and Nebula award winner. ;)}

Alura_