2022 #10 Parable of the Sower (Butler)

 

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Remarkable. It is a word that is over-used, and yet, can also say absolutely nothing. But truly...that is the word that first came to mind. Not when I finished the book, but within the first hour of listening. Lauren Olamina is one of the best adolescent female characters in all the fiction I've read. Her "sharing" (hyper-empathy) is a disability (invisible to most) and for Lauren, an identity, that very much informs her worldview and arguably crafts her mission of Earthseed, as told both in the quotations from "The Books of the Living" and Lauren herself. She describes one woman as "housebound and squeamish," and notes without sanctimony: "...and that's what I would've become if everyone had known about me." It is hard to say what this book is NOT about. Written in 1993, and taking place in 2024, the book is remarkably prescient, but also makes a larger point about cycles of humanity. Slavery and colonialism are not just of the past, but of a future built on a present that relegates patterns to the past. And yet, some of the past is also celebrated as holding answers for the future.

Lauren's character is written with so much personality, yet without hyperbole or sentimentality. She just is. She suffers betrayal and loss, yet walks forward with an almost gentle ferocity, which really only makes sense for her character and the context of the book.

And yes, this is dystopic sci-fi, but it is also a "coming-of-age" novel. And a declaration of faith. "Embrace diversity or be destroyed." "God is change." Butler celebrates the power of poetry--no matter the source. And she even recognizes the limits to her protagonist's agency, as Lauren must disguise herself (figuratively and literally).

So, yeah, the book is remarkable. And I certainly wish it had been available to read when I was in high school, because I'm certain it would have resonated far more with me than Lord of the Flies or Catcher in the Rye. Definitely one of my top ten books.

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