Book Review: Parable of the Sower, by Octavia E. Butler

All right, I’ll admit that if you show me a book in a post-apocalyptic setting, there’s a good chance it will end up on my “to be read” list. For whatever reason, stories of people dealing with a loss of all infrastructure (meaning a lack of government support and services), and having to move forward with their lives all alone really appeals to me.

To be clear, I’m not in anyway hoping I would have to live through such a scenario, nor my kids or their kids, but as far as fiction goes, it introduces both a world-wide view and often a more intimate portrait of the characters involved.

So let’s look at Octavia E. Butler’s 1993 novel Parable of the Sower. I came upon this title for one of my book clubs, and as the fellow who selected has previously chosen the Cormac McCarthy novel The Road (which I totally loved), and as I had some familiarity with the author (I had read and loved her 1980 novel Wild Seed), I was really looking forward to the read.

The book takes place just as society in the United States is crumbling - not through a bomb or disease, but instead through an ever-increasing wealth gap. The story focuses on a young woman named Lauren Olamina, and views the end of society through her eyes. The story begins with Lauren at a young age, living in a gated community in Southern California, but throughout the book follows her over the course of a number of years. As I get older, this style of narrative has quickly become one of my favourites, as it gives me the opportunity to watch characters change and grow over the course of their lives.

The novel is pretty great, and was followed in 1998 with Parable of the Talents, which, although I haven’t read yet, has definitely been added to my list of books to check out.

A fantastic read.

Book Review: This Perfect Day

Over the weekend I finished all the books I had set out to read in July, so this month instead of digging into my collected comics and magazines, I decided to hit the books I’ve borrowed from others.  A few months ago, a friend of mine from one of my book clubs lent me Ira Levin’s 1971 novel This Perfect Day.  Although I have a few Levin books on my “To Be Read” shelf at home, the only one I’ve read so far is his superb Rosemary’s Baby.

 

Drawing obvious comparison with both 1984 and Brave New World, This Perfect Day is the story of Li RM35M4419 (nicknamed, “Chip”) and his journey through his terrifying society.  In Chip’s world, Unicomp is a worldwide computer system which manages the everyday lives of its citizens.  Each citizen is given a bracelet at birth and they scan their bracelet each time they enter or leave a room, ask for food, and receive their monthly treatments – which gets rid of all sorts of disagreeable issues like aggression, free will, and generally being disagreeable.

 

In this world everyone looks the same – the monthly treatments all citizens receive ensure men don’t grow facial hair and no one develops very much during puberty.  The main character, Chip, is a bit of a throwback as he has two different coloured eyes, which makes him stand out, but he is quickly forgiven regarding his appearance because Unicomp wants all of its citizens to be forgiving.  Obviously Chip has an interesting future ahead of him, although in Unicomp’s world, all choices are simply assigned to him (job, marriage, whether or not he will have kids, etc.).

 

It’s kind of funny, this book came out in 71, and excusing the few graphic sex scenes, it really felt like a modern day young adult fiction novel (I’m thinking of Uglies, Matched, Divergent, etc.), in fact, so much so that many of the plot points virtually telegraphed themselves to me as I went along, which I’m quite sure wasn’t’ the case when the book first came out, but as we are getting more and more used to dystopian stories in our teen fiction these days, it seems pretty straight forward to the modern reader.

 

The book was a lot of fun, a quick read (and even though I liked Rosemary’s Baby better), definitely recommended reading.