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Parable of the Sower---Octavia E. Butler
Jul. 8th, 2009 12:50 pmThis is the first Butler novel I've ever read. Shame on me, I totally know, right? I, uh, have to say, I am absolutely stunned. I've been thinking about this book since I started it and it's been haunting me. It's way too close to home to not make me uncomfortable. I think Butler wrote it in 1992(?) and the things she saw coming even from a decade of relative wealth for most of America amazes me. She foresaw the mortgage meltdown...and the break down of civil society and her nightmarish vision is so very, very possible, could happen tomorrow with the right set of circumstances, that I had nightmares. This was an ugly, ugly book. It was searing. I had a cold lump in my stomach the entire time I was reading it.
...and I don't know that I can recommend this book to anyone...it's really, really grim and just ugly. That's the best word I can think of, and yet, it was also luminous. The prose was so simple and plain and Lauren, the main character, was incandescent. She glowed. I've never, ever seen such well developed and real AND likeable characters in an apocalyptic novel before. Butler's ability to narrate, control character and set tone is astounding. Plus, wow, she really, really covered so much that isn't said or explored in all those nifty, what-if, future scenario novels. She covers isses of race and gender and class. She talks about exploitation and fear and what lack of hope really does to people. And mostly, she just astounds. I had tears running down my face when I got to the last page last night and I sat up all night with my mind racing...and I have never wanted anything more out of fiction than for that tiny little community of potential Earthseeders to succeed. I'm afraid to get the next book because I have a feeling it won't...and that will crush me. I've not been this emotionally involved in a book for awhile. I think this was cathartic. I been feeling like shit about the world lately---angry, helpless, hopeless. I'm still angry at the way the world works, I still want to make a difference (heh, I even found a PhD program that promises to help me do that) but I feel better. I feel like all of my bleak ruminations on the future have been noted and digested and explored and not just written off because I'm young and I don't know what I'm talking about. I feel better after this book. It's ironic.
So with that in mind, I do recommend this novel. I do. It's....I don't really have words for it except, it's ugly and it's beautiful and if you have the heart for it, you should read it.
...and I don't know that I can recommend this book to anyone...it's really, really grim and just ugly. That's the best word I can think of, and yet, it was also luminous. The prose was so simple and plain and Lauren, the main character, was incandescent. She glowed. I've never, ever seen such well developed and real AND likeable characters in an apocalyptic novel before. Butler's ability to narrate, control character and set tone is astounding. Plus, wow, she really, really covered so much that isn't said or explored in all those nifty, what-if, future scenario novels. She covers isses of race and gender and class. She talks about exploitation and fear and what lack of hope really does to people. And mostly, she just astounds. I had tears running down my face when I got to the last page last night and I sat up all night with my mind racing...and I have never wanted anything more out of fiction than for that tiny little community of potential Earthseeders to succeed. I'm afraid to get the next book because I have a feeling it won't...and that will crush me. I've not been this emotionally involved in a book for awhile. I think this was cathartic. I been feeling like shit about the world lately---angry, helpless, hopeless. I'm still angry at the way the world works, I still want to make a difference (heh, I even found a PhD program that promises to help me do that) but I feel better. I feel like all of my bleak ruminations on the future have been noted and digested and explored and not just written off because I'm young and I don't know what I'm talking about. I feel better after this book. It's ironic.
So with that in mind, I do recommend this novel. I do. It's....I don't really have words for it except, it's ugly and it's beautiful and if you have the heart for it, you should read it.