Kindred

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.

Kindred, by Octavia Butler, was first published in 1976. Edana (a young black woman who prefers to be called Dana) and her white husband, Kevin, are moving into their first home together in California in 1976. She suddenly becomes very dizzy and finds herself transported to a strange place where she encounters and young white boy (Rufus) floundering in a river. Dana rescues the boy and administers CPR to save his life. However, a strange man threatens her with a rifle, and she becomes dizzy again and is transported back to her home where Kevin is stunned by her sudden disappearance and reappearance. Dana does not understand what happened, but a few minutes later she mysteriously appears in Rufus' bedroom, only he is a few years older. This time Rufus is standing in front of a burning window curtain. Dana quickly rips the curtain down and throws it out the open window preventing the house from catching fire and likely saving the lives of the boy and his parents. She discovers from Rufus that his father (Tom Weylin), who had previously threatened her with his rifle, is a slave owner and plantation owner, in rural Maryland. Rufus helps Dana sneak out of the house to avoid be discovered by his father and gives her directions to the house of Alice Greenwood (a good friend of Rufus) and her mother who is a free black woman. Through her conversation with Rufus, Dana discovers that she has traveled to rural Maryland during the Antebellum period (specifically 1815) and she realizes that Rufus and his black friend (Alice) would eventually have a daughter who would be a direct ancestor of Dana. Therefore, Dana realizes that it is important that Rufus and Alice are protected. She finds the house, but unfortunately a group of white men are savagely beating the husband of Alice's mother. Dana hides until the men leave and then asks the woman if she can stay the night. Unfortunately the men return and they beat Dana. However, during the beating (which she thought would surely kill her) she becomes dizzy again and is transported back to her home in 1976 in California. Dana makes four more trips to save Rufus when he is near death, and each time Rufus is older and the visit lasts longer. She has no way to control or avoid these trips, and it seems that she cannot return home unless she is placed in extreme danger. She is accepted by Tom Weylin because she repeatedly saves his son from death and Rufus becomes very dependent upon, and fond of, Dana. However, Dana is treated as a slave by both Tom and Rufus Weylin, especially as Rufus grows older. Although she does enjoy a somewhat better life on the Weylin plantation than the other slaves, she must endure a very harsh life and she is beaten severely more than once and suffers many other indignities. However, she is accepted by most of the other slaves, and she forms very close relationships with some of them. This book is a science fiction book only because it involves time travel. However, the vehicle of Dana's time travel is never explained and time travel only functions to bring Dana (and her husband who travels with her by touching her as she experiences her episodes of dizziness) to Antebellum Maryland when Rufus needs her. It is more appropriate to view this book as a highly researched book of historical fiction. It enables the reader to witness the incredibly brutal, and dehumanizing, treatment of slaves during the Antebellum period. Readers without much knowledge of the period could not begin to understand the lives of slaves, and Ms. Butler does an amazing job of placing the reader in that shocking and extremely sad environment. Octavia E. Butler is a very distinguished and acclaimed science fiction writer, but she has also brought this harsh and shameful period of American history to life for her many readers. This is a great book that educates, but also contains plenty of suspenseful action and wonderfully complex characters. I believe everyone should read it.

J’ai beaucoup aimé ce livre!

I am ashamed to admit that this is my first Octavia Butler book. I took this up as part of read along for my science fiction Book Club. I wasn’t sure what I was about to get into. This book explores the slavery in the early 1800s in Baltimore using an unexplained time travel trope. The premise is simple. Two people are connected to each other and somebody from the future is dragged into the past when the person in the past is in trouble. The person in the past is one of the ancestors of the person from the future. The writing is exquisite and the book is fast-paced. I don’t think anybody will have diff in getting through the book. I believe you will end up with a satisfying experience.

WOW! This was outstanding! I came across this via someone on bookstagram and was so captivated by the blurb I just had to read it! This is not your usual historical fiction book depicting slavery, it is also a modern tale entwined with elements of sci-fi/magical realism at its finest!! We follow Dana, a 26 year old black woman from the 70s, who suddenly keeps getting pulled back in time to save Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner during the antebellum south! Where slavery and racism was rife and at its harshest, it’s difficult to imagine just how Dana could navigate and survive such a dangerous place. This had me hooked from the very beginning. It was mysterious, incredibly gripping and kept you guessing as to what would happen next throughout with regards to timelines and particular relationships of the characters. Through Dana’s own eyes and footsteps we as readers were pulled along with her, and shown firsthand just how atrocious black people and slaves were treated during this time. It was shocking and brutal and I’m sure just the tip of the iceberg to what actually happened. This not only highlighted the white privilege of its time, but also of todays day and age and that racism is something most definitely taught. It broke my heart to see how an innocent child was influenced so negatively at such a young age into believing that other human beings held such little value in society compared to their own, purely for the fact that their skin colour was different. It also explored the example of how the tiniest bit of empathy taught in place of the bigotry, could change an impressionable mind and so many lives for the better if only given the chance, but also just how quickly things could turn if that compassion and understanding was absent and inconsistent. This was a complex story covering many dark and hard topics not only including the above and many more, but one of which also stood out to me which was emotional and domestic abuse. It encapsulates how the feelings and hope of change could keep a person stuck in a toxic environment or relationship much to their detriment, but also how easily it is for someone to become trapped in that pattern and life with no other choice or options. It’s tragic. I’ve since found that there is a tv series which has been based on this book so I’m definitely eager to watch that now. This book is definitely worth a read not only for your own education, but also for the children of our future. I know I will be teaching my own son to treat all people with empathy, kindness and respect and hope that in time, the world will become a much better and safer place for all if only everyone else did the same.

From the first page I knew this was my kind of book. Historical fiction with time travel, and a strong female protagonist. It is written intelligently but also is uncomplicated. Highly recommended.

Ein bemerkenswertes Buch einer bemerkenswerten Autorin! Octavia Butler gilt als eine der ersten und immer noch raren Autor_innen, welche im Science Fiction Genre antirassistische und antisexistische Perspektiven mit innovativen und überraschenden Ideen verknüpft. Ihre Romane sind spannend und in ihrem Verlauf nicht vorhersehbar. Unbedingt empfehlenswert!! In "Kindred" geht es um eine junge schwarze Frau, die sich übergangshalber mit prekären Anstellungsverhältnissen in einer amerikanischen Stadt herumschlägt, während sie ihre litararische Karriere voranbringen möchte. Doch das nur als kurzer Einstieg. Zusammenlebend mit ihrem weißen Freund, ebenfalls schriftstellerisch ambitioniert, wird sie eines Tages, bei ihrem gemeinsamen Einzug in die neue Wohnung von einem seltsamen Schwindelgefühl erfasst, welches sie plötzlich wegdriften lässt. Aus dieser Bewusstlosigkeit erwachend, stellt sie fest, dass sie sich seltsamerweise nicht nur an einem anderen Ort, sondern viel schlimmer noch, in einer anderen Zeit wiederfindet, in den Südstaaten des 19. Jahrhunderts. Inmitten der Realität einer brutalen Sklavereigesellschaft, mit der Sie als Zeitreisende bald sehr unangenehm und komplex in Kontakt kommt. Ursache dieser Schwindelattacken ist eine geheimnisvolle Verbindung zwischen einem kleinen rothaarigen Kind (Sohn der Plantagenbesitzer_innen) und einer lebensbedrohenden Notsituation, in welches dieses im Laufe seines Lebens immer wieder gerät. Die Protagonostin tritt jeweils als Lebensretterin in Kraft und kann nur durch die eigene Erfahrung von starker Bedrohung/Verletzung in ihre Zeit und an ihren Ort zurückkehren. Diese Zeitreisen wiederholen sich, das Kind wächst heran. Wochen in der Vergangenheit sind jedoch nur Minuten in der Gegenwart. Ihr anfangs ungläubiger weißer Freund beschließt ebenfalls an dieser traumatisierenden Zeitreise teilzunehmen....mehr wird nicht verraten. Ein unglaublich intelligent und reflektiert geschriebenes Buch!!! Nicht umsonst hat diese, leider nicht mehr lebende, Autorin etliche Preise gewonnen.