post-apocalyptic, science fiction
The year is 2024 and 15-year-old Lauren lives with her
family in a walled cul de sac. The wall is meant to keep the homes within safe. The United States is in turmoil.
Human relations and culture have devolved into survival of the fittest.
Poverty, desperation, drugs, and violent crimes are rampant. People are
frequently driven from their homes, often by fire, and then must fend for
themselves. The police and the politicians are corrupt and of no help.
It is so interesting to read a book that begins three years
into my future that was written thirty years ago. It’s fun to see how Octavia Butler envisioned the 2020s back in 1993. Her vision of our near future is not
a happy place. Resources that we take for granted are almost gone. It only
rains a handful of times each year where this novel takes place in California. Water
is so scarce that it costs money for the fire department to put out a fire on personal property.
The story is told from Lauren’s viewpoint, through her diary
entries, and despite her dire circumstances she is a bit of an optimist. As the
daughter of a preacher, she develops her own personal belief system/philosophy. She
has become desensitized to most of the terrible things happening to the people
around her. Yet she is hyper-empathetic and can feel peoples’ physical pain
acutely. This ability is the one science
fiction aspect of the otherwise realistic story. She is one of those “old
souls” who are very mature for their age. She foresees that her flimsy protections
could disappear at any moment and she educates herself in survival tactics in
preparation for an unknown crisis which she feels is impending.
Around the novel’s halfway mark, Lauren is flung into
survival mode and the story becomes so compelling. It reminded me a bit of The Road by Cormac McCarthy (published 13 years after Parable of the Sower) as Lauren
faces the uncertainty and dangers while making her way in a dangerous world. Lauren is a terrific character to spend time with despite the many
tragedies she witnesses.
The audiobook was narrated by Lynne Thigpen and recorded in
1999. She’s a really good voice actress with a rich tone to her voice. However,
she does not have much of a vocal variety in her character repertoire and she was too old
to be reading as the first-person teenage protagonist. So I appreciated her
acting but not the publisher’s choice to use her as this novel’s narrator.
Granted, audiobooks were not as popular as they are today and casting choices
were more limited in 1999. However, I can only grade her on today’s scale so I
give the recording a B+.
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