Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What an adventure!
This book takes the apocalyptic point of view from the beginning to the end. Our main character is the daughter of a preacher. She is black, but her skin color is not the point. She is a teenager in a protected community that suddenly isn’t. As a teen, she sees things her way, not like her parents or anyone else. So, it is a story of growing up in social, physical, and psychological chaos.
I have to admit to loving the story. I did get tired of the God Seed of her making against the biblical verses of her father. But it was her experience, so I accepted it as the character’s point of view, not preaching to the reader. This blended with her bringing together a group of people wandering up the California highway and byways while protecting each other and defending their rights to live in this new world.
Though the story leaves the reader in a safe place, not a cliffhanger, I feel the need to read the next and see what happens now that they have settled. My e-library had this one but not the next, so I requested that they get it.
It must be nice for black readers to have stories that reflect them. I’m not black, but I would love to see diversity more often. As much as I love seeing female authors writing strong female characters, let’s see more of the female experience in other races and experiences. Maybe our future generations of people will have books written from all points of view, encouraging the reading experience of all society! I’d love to read more about women who are in their sixties and seventies and older! Let’s ensure everyone sees the world from characters like them!
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The above review was from six years ago. I decided to read it again because a member of our church used a quote from this book for a service theme.
“All that you touch,
You Change.
All that you Change
Changes you.
The only lasting truth
is Change.
God
is Change.”
Take it how you will. I feel this one now more than ever. And maybe, having lived so long, I see how much everything I knew and know changes minute by minute. Maybe change isn’t the thing to be afraid of. Even when it is all so frightening at times, I think this is the faith to hang onto. When my children were young, and they were going through stages, I might have wanted to take credit when, say, they finally hit the toilet. But I accepted that it may have been just the change they needed. The world keeps spinning. Orbits continue. But never exactly the same. Sometimes, the change is huge, sometimes tiny. Sometimes, we influence it, and often, it influences us.
I stick with my review from the past. But I read it through Audible with the narrator Lynne Thigpen this time. She did add to the depth I feel in the book.
I highly recommend anything by Octavia E. Butler but start here. I think you might like it.
Darswords 