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A review by bekahbeth
A Handful of Earth, a Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia Butler by Lynell George
4.0
BookRiot 2022 Read Harder Challenge #1: Read a biography of an author you admire; OR [b:Poet Warrior: A Memoir|56769519|Poet Warrior A Memoir|Joy Harjo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1625851261l/56769519._SY75_.jpg|88729154].
This is a very dynamically written, very personal biography-of-fragments. There isn't much of a continuous narrative (although I might call it contiguous: adjacent or abutting), but it leaves a strong impression of the person and writer Butler was based on her own ephemera. I regularly felt like I was reading someone's diary -- that frisson of guilt and unrequited intimacy -- but in a way that made me feel almost like her diary entries and most personal exhortations were mine. I'm not 100% sure George's writing style would work for me in other contexts, but it worked very well in this one.
This is a very dynamically written, very personal biography-of-fragments. There isn't much of a continuous narrative (although I might call it contiguous: adjacent or abutting), but it leaves a strong impression of the person and writer Butler was based on her own ephemera. I regularly felt like I was reading someone's diary -- that frisson of guilt and unrequited intimacy -- but in a way that made me feel almost like her diary entries and most personal exhortations were mine. I'm not 100% sure George's writing style would work for me in other contexts, but it worked very well in this one.