The Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler -- book review

The Parable of the Talents is a book written in the form of journals and commentaries. The journal portions are written by a woman known as Olamina (except for a couple written by her husband Bankole). The commentary sections are written by Olamina's daughter.

Olamina's story is of an amazing life. She was forced from her home as a teenager. While on the road she met a much older man, Bankole. Bankole was a medical doctor and owned some family land in an area safer than the post-apocalyptic Los Angeles where Olamina had lived. Olamina, Bankole and people they met on the road formed the nexus of a new community called Acorn. Acorn was a community modeled on the philosophical system or religion that Olamina had conceived--Earthseed.

Olamina is a prophet, but this is the story of a very human woman and the ways in which she worked to make her dreams real. It is also the story of her vision, Earthseed, and of her daughter, Lauren, and of a world nearly destroyed by its leaders and the more unfortunate of humanity's proclivities. Reading The Parable of the Talents in 2006, it is hard to believe it was written before the presidency of George W. Bush and the attendant ill-considered military adventures. This is an engaging and shattering book.

Quote:

From EARTHSEED: THE BOOKS OF THE LIVING

Choose your leaders
------------with wisdom and forethought
To be led by a coward
------------is to be controlled
------------by all that the coward fears.
To be led by a fool
------------is to be led
------------by the opportunists
------------who control the fool.
To be led by a thief
------------is to offer up
------------your most precious treasures
------------to be stolen.
To be led by a liar
------------is to ask
------------to be told lies.
To be led by a tyrant
------------is to sell yourself
------------and those you love
------------into slavery.

Octavia Butler died recently (Feb. 24, 2006) as the result of head injuries brought on by a fall on a cobbled walkway. Some reports speculate that the fall may have been the result of a stroke.

You can learn more about Octavia Butler and The Parable of the Talents in the following web sites:

http://cyberhaven.com/books/sciencefiction/butler.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octavia_Butler

http://authors.aalbc.com/octavia.htm