Parable of the Sower

Added a comment on Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower to my book recommendations list.

[This post was imported on 4/10/14 from my old blog at satsumabug.livejournal.com. My old book review webpage is no longer up, but I’ve pasted the text of my review below.]

I bought this book for an English class I ended up dropping (“The Contemporary Novel”), but I kept the book because it sounded so intriguing. Ever since I read it I have been recommending it to everyone, including my summer geography instructor. It is set in Los Angeles in 2015, imagining that the worst consequences of human civilization have taken effect, and the worst impulses of humanity have prevailed. The heroine’s parents have tried to raise her sheltered from the horrors of this new world, but she is a strong realist who as she grows older refuses to remain sheltered. When her parents’ nightmares come true, she is left alone with no choice but to put into action whatever plans she has been formulating on her own. It’s an amazing story.

My classification: This will make you think, and may also scare you. Don’t read it at night, because even if you don’t get scared it may confund your brain. Keep someone you trust around, and keep all the lights on, because this book really sucks you in.

Choreographer Bill T Jones liked this book enough to quote its line ‘God is change’ in a post-performance talk at UC Berkeley.