Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

        I read Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler this week. This science fiction novel follows Lauren Olamina, a young black girl living in Southern California where the American government has practically collapsed. Outside the walls of the run-down gated community Lauren lives in, anarchy reigns. Poverty is rampant and resources are scarce, and people are desperate enough to kill over a pair of shoes. Plus, there’s a new drug on the street: pyro, a drug that makes watching fires burn feel as good as sex. This leads to widespread arson, and there’s no one to stop it except corrupt cops who are more likely to loot than help.         To top it off, Lauren suffers from an illness known as hyperempathy syndrome—a delusive disorder in which Lauren feels both the pleasure and pain she perceives others to be feeling—that poses a particular challenge in a world where any weakness is targeted by human predators.

        I loved this book. I can’t think of a bad thing to say about it, other than that I was disappointed to learn that Butler got writer’s block when working on the third installment of this series, and never ended up finishing L

        The characters are well developed; even those who are unlikeable are sympathetic. In particular, Lauren’s foolhardy, sociopathic brother Keith elicited my sympathy despite his general awfulness. Lauren herself is wise beyond her years, compassionate, and very insightful. Lauren, a Baptist minister’s daughter, finds that she doesn’t believe in her father’s God. Instead, through her observation of her surroundings, she comes to one ineffable conclusion: God is Change. Lauren keeps a journal of her observations on the nature of God written in the form of verse. This becomes the basis of Earthseed, a creed that Lauren espouses that aims to help humanity shape God and its own future. I found all of the Earthseed verses to be insightful, well thought out, and really convincing! As Lauren points out, there is no power more pervasive than Change.

        The premise of the book is eerily believable. Butler wrote this book as a projection of how our actions, or lack of actions, will affect the future. Butler considered numerous factors when envisioning a dystopian future, such as “drugs and the effects of drugs on the children of drug addicts. I looked at the growing rich/poor gap, at throwaway labor, at our willingness to build and fill prisons, our reluctance to build and repair schools and libraries, and at our assault on the environment. In particular, I looked at global warming and the ways in which it’s likely to change things for us.” All of these factors are incorporated seamlessly into Butler’s vision of the future, and it’s a terrifying one. Global warming has led to an inflation of food and water prices, there is a scarcity of both resources and paying jobs, and desperation is leading to increasing levels of societal dissolution. This is characterized by a society separated along economic strata, and widespread abuse of the poor.

        Although this is a coming of age story, I wouldn’t recommend this book to young readers. There is a lot of graphic content in this novel, and a lot of elements that could potentially trigger even adult readers, including references to extreme poverty, rape, murder, torture, cannibalism, animal deaths, and slavery. There is also an extreme May-December relationship (age difference of almost 50 years) that may make some readers uncomfortable. Nevertheless, I would recommend pushing past discomfort because this novel is worth reading. This book makes readers consider where we are headed as a country, and how our actions (or lack thereof) contribute to the future. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Parable of the Talents.