A review by nuts246
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Octavia Butler’s Kindred defies genres- it is part science fiction and part historical fiction. Twenty-six year old Dana, a modern day black woman, is plucked out from present day California and transported 150 years into the past into the centre of the antebellum South. She saves a young white boy from drowning, is mistaken for a nigger man and barely escapes with her life. By the time she returns from her second trip into the past, she knows two things- she gets called back into the past whenever the white boy, Rufus, is in danger, and that he, Rufus, is the father of her long dead great great grandmother. In the true tradition of time travel stories, Dana realises that however much she dislikes it, she would need to keep going back to the past to save Rufus, at least till her ancestor is born. 

Rufus’ family own slaves, and though his father is grudgingly grateful to her for saving his son’s life multiple times, she is still treated like a “nigger”. Dana realises, too, how perilous her position is- in the absence of papers, she cannot prove that she is a “freedwoman”, and that if the family chooses to sell her into slavery, she would not be able to do much about it. While, for the most part, she is treated much better than the other slaves, she is regularly punished by various members of the family. She is forced to make certain compromises in order to survive, and to ensure that none of the other slaves is punished because of what she said or did. 

During every time travelling episode, though days, weeks and even months might pass in the world that Dana has been transported into, the corresponding time in her real world is only a few moments. As Dana watches Rufus grow from a young boy to an adult and on the death of his father into a slaveowner himself, and she tries to use her influence over him into being a more humane person. However, neither he nor she can avoid the tentacles with which slavery imprisons their mind. Dana finds herself slipping into the mindset of a slave; her responses are tempered, her agency diminished, her desire to flee almost non-existent. 

The book examines issues of slavery, racism and sexism. It describes the lives of slaves in graphic detail- the less than human way in which they were allowed to live, the frequent punishments, the callousness with which families were separated. Women slaves had it worse- they were forced to provide sexual services to their masters, and any child they might bear was treated as the property of the master and often sold. 

The book begins with the climax, so we know exactly how the story will turn out. Yet, the power of Butler’s writing is such that we experience all the horror, disgust and fear that Dana lives through. The book is not just a historical account of slavery in the antebellum South, it is a reminder that racism still bubble below the surface, and could erupt anytime and yank people back into more exploitative times. Though published in 1979, the book reads like a contemporary novel, and it is particularly relevant today when the country appears to have declared war on justice and equity for all. 

We did a buddy read of Kindred in honour of #BlackHistoryMonth 

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