Lilith's Brood by Octavia E. Butler

Lilith’s Brood by Octavia E. Butler is actually a novel trilogy (Dawn, Adulthood Rites and Imago), evidently published separately, then gathered in the one novel. I became interested in reading the trilogy after hearing Lynn, from my writers group, talk about it. I couldn’t be more pleased that I did.

In Ms. Butler’s work, the people of earth have destroyed the viability of the planet through war. An extra-terrestrial race of beings rescue the few remaining inhabitants, place them in stasis until the earth can be repaired and go about re-introducing mankind along with a superior race of human/alien hybrids back to the again flourishing planet. Lilith, the title character, is chosen to be the “mother” of a group of beings in that she is charged with the responsibility of waking other humans from stasis. She must get them used to the idea they will no longer be able to reproduce via the usual method and she must teach them to re-inhabit a somewhat altered earth. It’s a daunting task for Lilith and marks her forever in the eyes of the rescued human race as a traitor.

The premise of the new earth, hybrid human/alien beings, and a radical new definition of parent, child and family is the backbone of this trilogy but, in my mind, takes a back seat to the characters Octavia Butler creates. As a reader, I was thrilled with the adventure of reading this book. As a writer, I was extremely impressed with Ms. Butler’s ability to make very alien creatures sympathetic.

By way of a practical analysis, the first two books of this trilogy zipped by very quickly. Even though the third lost a little steam for me, I still recommend this book. It’s a great adventure.

"Horseman, Pass By" ~ Larry McMurtry

This book is McMurtry's first novel and a memorable start to a career of putting the reader in the hip pocket of, on the saddle with, and in the life and times of the characters he portrays with aching accuracy.

I wasn't aware this was the book on which the screen-play for the Paul Newman movie "Hud" was based until I recently read McMurtry's "In A Narrow Grave", a collection of essays. The first essay in the Narrow Grave book is about his experience with the making of that movie. I saw the movie when it was a first run in 1963 and thought it a gritty, powerful movie. As is often the case with Hollywood, the screen-play changed the focus of the story as McMurtry had written it from the story of a 17 year old's coming of age in the book, to that of a hell-raising, surly man played by the guaranteed big box office draw Paul Newman in the movie. Doing so is understandable in light of the medium, but a huge loss for the viewer.

"Horseman, Pass By" is the story of three men. Lonnie, from whose point of view the book is written, is a 17 year old, unsettled and anxious to get to know more about the world than his growing up on his grandfather's west Texas ranch has shown him. He's torn between his "itch" and his devotion to his grandfather and his grandfather's way of life. The grandfather is nearing the end of his days and sees his life's work snuffed out when his cattle develope the dreaded hoof and mouth disease and must be destroyed. Caught between is Hud, the old man's step-son who has an itch of his own. He wants the old man's land and he doesn't want to wait.

Larry McMurtry is a master at telling the real story of the cowboy, past and present. This is a very readable example.

Every Man Also

Always interested in the work of Texas writers, I plucked this book off the "Texas" bookshelf at Half Price Books. The cover noted this book to be the "Winner, 1998 Texas Review Fiction Prize". The author is Robert Winship.

Winship evidently called upon his experience as a member of Rice University's 1950 Cotton Bowl team and, later, as a pro-football player with the Philadelphia Eagles, to cast his main character as a former small college football coach forced out of coaching and religated to the position of Athletic Director. It was never quite clear to me why this happened but it was the reason "Mase" Mason betrayed his school's team in the playoffs with the Bears.

Mason's team, the Warriors, lose the championship because Mason has given all the plays to the other team's coaching staff. He has done so as payback for being forced out of the coaching job which he loved so much and for which he felt he was uniquely qualified. The $100,000 he is to receive as a payoff was for insuring the point spread for a big-time Chicago gambler is to be turned over to him at a hill country deer lease where Mason has hunted for years. Being concerned about his personal safety should he go there alone and not wanting his wife to know what he's done, Mason invites Freida, a PhD collegue, to accompany him on the trip. Freida is desperate to get away from her current life because of disturbing discoveries in her experiment on rats which deals with the effects of human overcrowding.

Mason and Freida are toying with possible infidelity when a tragedy surrounding the ranch owner's mentally handicapped son occurs. Mason's subsequent realization of his true purpose in life is the the author's basic plot. The remainder of the story deals with Mason's and Freida's efforts on behalf of the son and their individual acceptance of new roles in attaining long-time personal goals. Mason decides to use the payoff money to correct the wrong he's done the Warriors and to help the retarded son of the ranch owner. Freida becomes the young handicapped man's advocate.

I especially liked the characters Robert Winship created for this story and the way he captured the truth of what it means to grow older in a world that no longer values wisdom and experience. As a "growing older" person, I feel Winship did a masterful job of protraying the nuances of "Mase" Mason. I think the plot of this story is an interesting one but I felt the story moved too slowly to adequately support it. I also found the first chapter confusing. I'm not sure the first chapter was really necessary, even had it been clearer.

As I am all about characters of late, I did enjoy the book enough to recommend it to anyone also interested in characters done with maturity and flawed grace. The understated but accurate "feel of Texas" in Winship's work is icing on the cake.

Book Review: The Children of Men

The Children of Men by P.D. James - I had no knowledge of this book until I was sucked in by the photo of Clive Owen on the cover. The photo is from a new movie by the same name.

I was very interested in the premise of the story... England in 2021, coping with the decline of society and man. There have been no children born since 1995 because males have become sterile. The plight of the elderly and infirm is at a critical point, pushed toward "voluntary" group suicide by the ruling Warden of England. The aging population loses interest in sex and fills its emotionaly barren existence with elaborate christening rituals for kittens and slides away from Christian ways into a revival of paganism. The Warden's cousin, Theo Faron, an Oxford professor, well-to-do, divorced and emotionally constrained, lives an increasingly isolated and bleak existence until he meets a group of dissidents. The small group plots against the Warden's control of the country and a govermental policy of enslavement of immigrants and abandonment of criminals on an island of horror. When they are threatened with exposure, Faron helps them to escape and ultimately falls for one of the group members. In finding love, he also finds a reason to care about life.

While I believe this book was well-written, it moved very slowly and I struggled to stay with it. I tend to invest myself in a story and I am not easily discouraged by a slow pace. In the end, I was very disappointed in this book and I don't recommend it.