Kindred is a fascinating exploration of a "what if" scenario, which doesn't happen very often. It manages to balance integrity and faithfulness to the subject material with a gripping story which I think is what fiction should be all about. The novel is entertaining, emotional, powerful, and enlightening. Every character is well fleshed out. The time travel elements are just enough to facilitate a great story but fit into the story in a way that is not distracting and does not causes serious logical discrepancies. The topic of slavery is engaged with complexly and really raises some questions and points of discussion without taking away from the momentum of the story.
The central question of the book is "What if a modern African American Woman was somehow transported back to a time of American slavery?" Everything about this question is dealt with complexly -from "What would I bring or have on me that would help me survive or give me an advantage?" and "How much would I be able to explain to people there and how much of an impact would I have on their lives?" to "Could I convince someone living in a slave society to shed his/her prejudices?" and "What would I be able to do to help the slaves? How much of what I did would end up harming them?" The book also deals with Dana's relationship with her husband, a white man, and how he deals with living in a slave society as well as how their relationship changes after their series of supernatural experiences. I loved how all these what if questions were answered in a way that helped build a world and story and also helped me understand a time in the US not too long ago. The book does a very good job of portraying not just the evil of slavery but its context, the specific ways in which it might have been particularly harmful, and the culture that it existed in.
The characters Rufus and Alice are particularly of interest. As portrayals of a white Slave owning man and a black freewoman turned bondswoman they are quite complex. Neither of them is actor or acted upon, perpetrator or victim. Instead, they are both complex people with personalities that exist in a society that complicates their relationship and leads to violence and desperation. Octavia Butler takes just as much time dealing with the relationships between the characters as she does developing and discussing a historical world.
Butler goes beyond discussing the historical world by relating Dana's experiences in the past with her experiences in the present. A good portion of the book speaks to Dana's life in the 1970s, when the "present day" of the book takes place. Issues of race relations, interracial relationships, and the political climate of the 1970s are raised as well. In this way the novel makes the story even more relevant and recognizable -all of it is captivating and believable.
Dana's unique place as a visitor to history also raises some important thoughts about what it means to be a student of history, what our role is as someone who can "visit" a time without having to live in it. It calls us to wonder what it means to live in our time, in this culture, and how someone from a brighter future might examine us.
As I mentioned, I really enjoyed the portrayals of Rufus and Alice but I have some small criticisms of some other characters. The portrayal of Margaret, the white mistress, was a little lacking I think. She was pretty a rather typical portrayal of a white mistress which I think could have been complicated. I also think the other slaves besides Alice could have used some more personality and even Dana as a main character, I think, could have been fleshed out more. I actually wanted to know more about Dana's views on race in the 70s. It seemed she was pretty passive about it until prompted to think about race through her experience.
All in all, though, I found the book engaging and enlightening and in a society where we don't really like to discuss slavery and its consequences and we want to stay away from boring or "downer" subjects, this book manages to make history interesting, relevant, and powerful.
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Popular Highlights in this book
“The ease. Us, the children … I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery.”Highlighted by 4,009 Kindle readers- There was no shame in raping a black woman, but there could be shame in loving one.Highlighted by 2,871 Kindle readers
- “Then … Rufus’s fear of death calls me to him, and my own fear of death sends me home.”Highlighted by 2,708 Kindle readers
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Great read
From cover to cover this book will have you wanting more. Surely a 5 star read!
Top reviews from other countries
Mikkel
Captevating, gripping, historic science fiction.
Reviewed in the Netherlands on March 17, 2024
Richieparf
Excellent and Important Book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 18, 2024