Personally I haven't found the novel incredibly captivating, so far. It has its flaws and despite the uniqueness of the main character I find the story as a whole relatively unentertaining. I recognize the points its making about society but I don't think it portrays them succesfully from and artistic perspective.
Before reading the Parable of the Sower I have been lucky enough to have experience with Octavia Butler's other work, in particular the book Kindred. This novel discusses a woman who is pulled back into time in the Antebellum South at varying rates, and thus as a black woman becomes acutely aware of the horrors of slavery. It will be interesting for me to see the similarities between this book and that one.
I'll be honest with you: this book wasn't my cup of tea either. It's original and imaginative, but Lauren seemed distant to me and hard to like. I feel like Butler had a lot of ideas here, maybe too many of them, and your assessment that this wasn't as successful from an artistic perspective is spot-on. Kindred was a brilliant, beautiful novel in all ways.
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