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Kindred

4.11 of 5 stars 4.11 · rating details · 16,737 ratings · 2,124 reviews

Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay...more

Paperback, 264 pages

Published February 1st 2004 by Beacon Press (first published 1971)

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Jul 22, 2008 M— rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

On October 5, 2004, Octavia E. Butler visited my graduate university to give a lecture and book signing. I was really impressed by her. She actually spent several hours at the university, giving a public interview with one of the professors, then a short lecture to a large auditorium, then a book signing. I even skipped class in order to attend.

The interview was really fascinating, where Butler answered questions about how she worked to write Kindred and how she felt about the characters and ho...more

36 likes · like · see review

Apr 29, 2013 Apatt rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, sf-top-20, top-20

I had no idea what Kindred is about prior to reading it, I previously read Octavia Butler's Wild Seed and thought it was marvelous, and Kindred seems to be her most popular work judging by Goodreads ratings. So buying a copy of Kindred without knowing anything about it was a no-brainer. I even deliberately avoided looking at the book's synopsis before hand, I just wanted to get to know the book as I read on. I hoped for a pleasant surprise, which I did get. This is only the second Octavia Butler...more I had no idea what Kindred is about prior to reading it, I previously read Octavia Butler's Wild Seed and thought it was marvelous, and Kindred seems to be her most popular work judging by Goodreads ratings. So buying a copy of Kindred without knowing anything about it was a no-brainer. I even deliberately avoided looking at the book's synopsis before hand, I just wanted to get to know the book as I read on. I hoped for a pleasant surprise, which I did get. This is only the second Octavia Butler book I have read and I already worship her.

Kindred is about Dana, an African American woman who finds herself time travelling involuntarily to Maryland in the early nineteenth century. It is not explained how or why this happen to her, the mechanic of it is entirely irrelevant to the story. The novel is about her experience of slavery in the past. Her fate becomes intertwined with Rufus, a white ancestor who is the only son of a plantation owner and who somehow triggers her time traveling trips every time he is in mortal danger, a situation that arises more frequently to him than to most people. While there she experiences the woes of slavery first hand, including whipping, beating, degradation and humiliation.

This is a harrowing and emotional read, I almost cry manly tears during some of the chapters. I never pondered what it may have been like to be a slave, it is not exactly a contingency which is at all likely to ever arise. However, Ms Butler - genius that she was - made me feel it through the eyes of her protagonist. The pains and humiliation of slavery resonates with me even though there ought to be nothing to resonate. I kind of winced every time a stroke of a whip is described. This is not a comfortable read but highly engrossing and thought provoking. The book is very much character-centric, the relationship between Dana and Rufus is very complex and fascinating. Dana's husband Kevin who also become embroiled in time traveling and is marooned in the nineteenth century for years without his wife adds to her complications, his reaction to returning to the present time (1976) is entirely believable and again resonates strongly.

The book reminds me a little of Connie Willis's excellent Doomsday Book, which is about time travelling to the fourteenth century and also a harrowing (yet wonderful) read, though the emphasis of that book is on poverty, hardship and diseases rather than slavery. The involuntary time traveling aspect of the book reminds me of Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife, though Kindred predates it, and Kindred is certainly not a romantic book.

Octavia Butler was not one of those literary writers who try to avoid the science fiction label like the plague even while using sf tropes in their works, she has always loved sf and gladly embraced the genre (see image below).

That said, Kindred is also not science fiction. The author described it as a "grim fantasy" and deliberately did not put any science in it, it is described by some literary critics as a "neo-slave narrative". I did consider why the book was written as a fantasy (or almost sf) instead of historical fiction, then I realised that it was probably done so the modern reader can experience the nineteenth century Maryland through the protagonist's contemporary eyes, this makes the book very visceral.

While the book was written to make the reader ponder some serious issues such as man's inhumanity to man, inequality and courage in an environment where you are made to feel worthless, at no point did I feel like being lectured to. The author knows the importance of communicating through the story, and I was completely swept away by it. Whatever I read next will likely suffer from being compared to this book. This goes in my all-time greats list.(less)

17 likes · like · see review

Apr 22, 2012 Hend rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels, slavery, science-fiction, american-literature

Although I don’t like science fiction novels,this one was different , Time was an important factor in this one it left its marks on Dana s body and soul,Time damages as well as heals.....
It portrays the horrors of slavery , the loss of humanity.the torturing, the fear of family separation if one of them is sold,
Dana experienced being lashed for nothing ,offenses,beating, The exhausting work in the plantation ....
Octavia doesn’t.make Dana only witnessed all the suffering that all slaves have gon...more

8 likes · like · see review

Aug 21, 2011 Kaion rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, sci-fi, feminism, chromatic

Octavia Butler appears oasis-like as an answer to all that clinical, super-non-human, detached science fiction with Kindred- a tale that cleverly uses time travel tale to confront our contemporary relationship with the history of slavery.

Dana, a young black writer in 1973, finds herself inexplicably transported to 1820s Maryland just in time save the life of a drowning white boy. This boy Rufus is the son of a cruel plantation owner, and her long-forgotten ancestor. And try as she might to prev...more Octavia Butler appears oasis-like as an answer to all that clinical, super-non-human, detached science fiction with Kindred- a tale that cleverly uses time travel tale to confront our contemporary relationship with the history of slavery.

Dana, a young black writer in 1973, finds herself inexplicably transported to 1820s Maryland just in time save the life of a drowning white boy. This boy Rufus is the son of a cruel plantation owner, and her long-forgotten ancestor. And try as she might to prevent him from growing into a copy of his father or distance herself from his world, they are incontrovertibly linked and she keeps getting pulled back to his antebellum South world.

As a thriller, this is a spectacular premise. To return home, Dana must adapt and persevere—work to ensure both that a) she will born and b) she will survive these disorientating trips to a world in which she is seen as mere property. As a historical piece, well, I’m no historian, but I believed in the world Butler constructed around a small plantation, simmering in tension before the War Between the States we and Dana know is forthcoming.

But it is as Butler ties these genres in a time-travel bow, that Kindred derives the most of its power. As Dana finds herself unwillingly deeper trenched into this past, she’s challenged to stop seeing the people around her as mere ‘types’ (the slave owner, the field slave, the cook, etc.) through her temporally chauvinistic lens… to see them as complex human beings in a world full of hard choices, as the book challenges us to do as well.

So with such laser-guided intent, it’s understandable that sometimes the story is pulled too tightly to its message, relying on telling rather than letting the conflicts play out more naturally. It’s the rare book that I think should be longer, but here it really seems there is more tension to be milked out of well-timed natural “breathing” points rather than rampant action.

Regardless, Kindred is an obviously well-researched and humanistic yarn that uses science fiction beyond a 'gimmick' to bring up some startling questions: If people are people, what really separates us from the horrors of the past? Rating: 4 stars(less)

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Apr 23, 2008 Janice C. rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who want to experience new perspectives on life and being a woman

Recommended to Janice by: Don't remember

The first time I read KINDRED I viscerally identified with the modern day black female heroine (I'm not black but I am a female) who travels, without control, to a past in which she was a slave girl. In the present, she is married to a white man and she is trying to become a writer. Her experiences as a slave shock her into a reality she never suspected.
It's difficult for her to explain to her husband what she is experiencing as she travels back and forth from past to present. And when one day...more

14 likes · like · see review

Feb 20, 2009 Tattered Cover Book Store added it

Recommended to Tattered Cover by: Chuck R

Shelves: staff-recommends

I feel that many female sci-fi authors have wider appeal than their male counterparts. This is especially true of Octavia Butler (and Ursula K LeGuin, but that's for another review) and 'Kindred' is no exception. This book follows a modern black woman who is suddenly transported back to the deep south during slavery and saves the life of a young white son of a slave owner. The woman, Dana, keeps getting sent back for longer and longer periods, to help the past but to also save her present/future...more

6 likes · like · see review

Apr 19, 2008 Christine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow... intense book! We're reading this for school, and my teacher has warned us again and again that this book was NOT written for kids... we've learned that already after reading a quarter of the book already! However, I am pretty happy that we're reading this because it goes with our curriculum, and it really is pretty interesting... I actually like reading historical fiction books.... they teach people about history without them having to open a textbook every time....
Anyway, this book is a...more

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Dec 07, 2011 Adrienne rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: women-unbound-challenge, science-fiction, woman, time-travel

I was a captive audience of one. Science fiction that I love, a female author so rare, setting close to my heart. It started off great, sort of like a really awesome Star Trek: The Next Generation time travel episode. I mean, man, what a premise! Modern black woman goes back in time to rescue an ancestor and slave owner from a death that would lead to her having never being born. And I was totally absorbed in it, until the realization that the highly charged, emotional and traumatic beginning ha...more

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Jan 19, 2009 bookczuk rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to bookczuk by: Nancy Oakes

Shelves: bookcrossing, favorite-author, read-on-recommendation, set-in-the-south

When this book arrived, I picked it up, skipped past the introduction and came to the first two sentences of the prologue.

"I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm"

Reading that, I knew I had to read this book- just to see what had happened.

This is not an easy book to read, because of the subject matter. The phrase "man's inhumanity to man" takes on real meaning. I have never been able to comprehend how one culture or ethnic group can actually believe that another , different one is not h...more

5 likes · like · see review

May 20, 2013 Cheryl in CC NV rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reminds me, in some ways, a lot of Humence's YA book, A Girl Called Boy. Intense but still an easy read. *Not* science fiction in any significant amount - the time travel is of the kind found in time-travel romances and other stories, and is just a gimmick, never actually explored as in more 'core' sf. Thoughtful and memorable characters and issues, should be read by literary-types.

2 likes · like · see review

Mar 25, 2009 TheFountainPenDiva rated it 5 of 5 stars

When I read this back in the 1980's, I didn't think black people wrote science-fiction. Of course, I didn't know that Samuel Delany (another favourite of mine) was black. It seemed the publishers went out of their way to "whitewash" him (not to mention he's also a gay man).

Kindred began my life-long admiration of Octavia Butler and I still feel a deep kinship with this woman whose life in some ways mirrored my own.

It's a time-travel novel that doesn't focus on the time-travel aspect. Instead, w...more

5 likes · like · see review

Sep 23, 2012 ~Charmer~the 1click addict rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ir-bw-wm, sci-fi, historical-fiction, slavery, time-travel

This book was a GREAT read. I hate it took me so long to read it. I was on an emotional rollercoaster, while reading it. I was excited, sad, scared, and disappointed. I didn't care for the ending. I could not hate Rufus, but Tom, yes. I could talk about this book all night so Imma stop. Loved it.

3 likes · like · see review

Jun 17, 2012 Andre rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There are many wonderful things to think about Octavia Butler’s Kindred. There aren’t many negative ones. In fact, here is the only one I had: I didn’t find any intellectual progression in Rufus Weylin from the time he was a toddler until he was in his mid-twenties. He thought and spoke the same throughout the novel. That was fine when he was older, but read as out of place to me when he was a boy. Outside of that, Kindred was a well-thought out, thoroughly researched, and perfectly crafted nove...more There are many wonderful things to think about Octavia Butler’s Kindred. There aren’t many negative ones. In fact, here is the only one I had: I didn’t find any intellectual progression in Rufus Weylin from the time he was a toddler until he was in his mid-twenties. He thought and spoke the same throughout the novel. That was fine when he was older, but read as out of place to me when he was a boy. Outside of that, Kindred was a well-thought out, thoroughly researched, and perfectly crafted novel.

This is the first Octavia Butler novel that I’ve read—I tried to read Parable of the Sower, but gave up after 3 or 4 chapters—but Kindred must be her masterpiece. She thought of everything (by everything, I mean she answered all of my “But what if?” and “But what about?” questions). As far as I’m concerned, this is the definitive modern day slave narrative.

Dana was the perfect protagonist for this type of story. She knows things, but isn’t an expert. She’s educated, but not extremely so. She has a sufficient quantity of self-esteem. She’s realistic in her expectations of herself. And, most importantly, she values herself. These qualities make the reader wonder why and how she could possible allow herself to fall into and remain in slavery. But this is where the book really shines. Slavery isn’t propagated by making people want to be slaves or lost desire for freedom. No, slavery thrives on making people sacrifice themselves for the “good” (continued existence and/or health) of those they love. The life of a slave is a life of selfless sacrifice, not for the sake of the master, but so as not to cost everyone else their lives. Dana could have easily ended the horror of slavery for herself, but the cost would have been the lives of Sarah and Carrie and Nigel and a number of the other slaves she grew to know and love.

In addition, Dana had the extra concern of making sure her ancestors lived long enough to produce the next generation. It makes for an interesting, yet never ending “I want to kill him, but I can’t because then I won’t be born” dynamic. Pretty tense stuff.

It is Dana’s husband, Kevin, though, who really makes the story what it is. His arc shows just how easy it is for someone at either end of the master-slave dynamic to fall into his/her role. In this way, Kindred is frightening in is realism and in the subtlety in which those roles manifest. A creature’s natural instinct is to preserve itself, and sometimes that means committing oneself to either end of abuse.

In the prologue, we learn that the ending of Kindred will not be pretty. It was, however, perfect. just like the rest of the novel.(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Aug 30, 2012 Megan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: iah-207, school

Another book for class which I will review when I read it again. Just a short review for now...

It took awhile to get into this book and some chapters seemed to drag on but I still really enjoyed the book. It took a very interesting and unique perspective on slavery in the old south by having the main character from the 1970s travel back in time as a slave. The only problem was the book lacked a lot of character development and while I liked a lot of the characters the story I felt like the story...more

4 likes · like · see review

Dec 11, 2011 Sony rated it 3 of 5 stars

I wanted to love this book. But it has many flaws. I'll get to that in a few, but first, let me gush about what's great about it.

The plot/premise is brilliant. I love the idea of a modern black woman being propelled back into time to help one of her white ancestors to survive, even if he becomes a mean and despicable slave master. I love the fact that it used time travel, which I usually hate, but found tolerable here. I love the observations of the protagonist, Dana. She's an interesting chara...more

9 likes · like · see review

Aug 11, 2011 Kim rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle

This is a powerful book. In simple prose, free from literary flourishes, Butler tells an amazing tale. Or rather, she doesn't tell the tale: she allows her central character, Dana, to tell the story for her. Written as a memoir, the story unfolds entirely from Dana's point of view. The reader is there with her as she describes her experiences of travel in space and time, from her present as a young black writer in 1976 California to life on a plantation in antebellum Maryland. Dana’s experiences...more

2 likes · like · see review

Sep 26, 2011 booklady rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, adventure, classic, crime, fantasy, fiction, historical-fiction, literature, mystery, sci-fi, travel, favorites

Although I'm not usually one for the time-travel, sci-fi or fantasy genres, this book—which is all three—worked for me. It will probably top the list as the most unusual book I'll read all year and yet, it was still incredibly believable.

Dana, a black woman, is married to Kevin who is white; they live in mid 1970’s California until Dana begins to be involuntarily pulled back in time to early 19th century Maryland to rescue a distant relative. It doesn’t take Dana long to figure out her own exist...more

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Nov 14, 2011 Caitlin rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It was an assigned read for class and judging from the cover and the other texts we read for the same course(which I was unenthusiastic about the whole way through,) I assumed it would be another heavy theory book on race and feminism. Kindred deals with these elements but it prides itself in being a work of creative story telling first. Butler manages to use the past, colonized southern America during slavery, to shine light to issues of today. This soun...more

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Jan 08, 2011 Chanda rated it 2 of 5 stars

Although I couldn't stop listening to this one I can't say why. The story didn't have a great plot but it was an interesting vantage point from which to tell the story of slavery. The ultimate problem with this book is that the men in it are so terrificly annoying that you find them unbearable in spite of the fact that they dont' technically exist. They're really such whiners, pissing and moaning about their lot in life. And the problem with that is it isn't even the enslaved men doing the whini...more

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Jan 02, 2008 Finkle rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who like science fiction

this was a very interesting book because of the way that it takes place in so many different time periods. The way that the author switches from the present to the past is truely amazing.

Kindred is a book for people who like to read fictional books because of the magical way she transports from present to past. I like the way it is set up, but for someone who does not like make believe scenarios, they would not like it. Personally i didn't like the ending but it did cause a dramatic effect.

This...more

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Dec 20, 2007 James added it

Kindred was written by Octavia Butler. It's a story of Dana, who travels through time. Through her adventures, she loses her arm, and kills a man. She does more than she ever thought she could.

I thought it was interesting how Butler truly painted a picture through her description. I could see the Weylin house, I could envision it in my head because of her skilled description. I really liked the plot twists in the story. At the beginning of the story, I wasn't sure why Dana was going back in tim...more

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Jan 03, 2008 Vince rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: depends on what you're into

Thought provoking, stimulating, and intriguing. These are just some words that come to mind when I think of the book Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler. Octavia E. Butler has won many awards including the Hugo award twice, and the Nebula Award. In the book Kindred, Octavia Butler uses fictional time travel to show how slavery was like in antebellum America, and how mistreated the African Americans were. The novel is about how a young interracial marriage in the 1900’s is accepted; unlike it would be...more Thought provoking, stimulating, and intriguing. These are just some words that come to mind when I think of the book Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler. Octavia E. Butler has won many awards including the Hugo award twice, and the Nebula Award. In the book Kindred, Octavia Butler uses fictional time travel to show how slavery was like in antebellum America, and how mistreated the African Americans were. The novel is about how a young interracial marriage in the 1900’s is accepted; unlike it would be back in the 1700’s. When Dana is pulled back into the past, to save Rufus, she is confused and alone. Rufus, is a white boy who when is in trouble, Dana is called to the past to help him.
This novel made me never want to put the book down. Kindred was a very thought provoking book. As I read it, thousands of questions went through my head. I thought who was Rufus? Why was Dana being called to help him? When will she be called back to the past again? Will Kevin go with her again? I wanted to keep reading to answer these questions. I thought Octavia Butlers use of time travel was a good idea. Many people, including me have always wondered if time travel could ever happen, or become a reality. In this book, Octavia made it a reality. I felt as if I was going back to the past with her, because it was described so well.
Overall, I enjoyed this novel. I found it a little confusing though, at the end how Danas arm was amputated. I did not like the fact that it was just left in the past. In addition, I was confused in the beginning. I was not sure if it was a flashback or not. Maybe to improve the book you can make it clearer that it was a flashback. I would think the novel would be more interesting if maybe Rufus was called back with Dana to the future. I think the readers would like to see how it would be with Rufus put in the 19th century. It would be interesting to see how Rufus would react to blacks and whites together, and no slaves.
Despite Its weaknesses, the novel was enjoyable to read, and kept me intrigued the whole time. Many people can enjoy this type of novel. I think it specifically reaches out to those who like historical science fiction. I was glad this novel was chosen to read, and I hope to read another one of Octavia Butler’s novels one day.
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1 like · like · see review

Dec 20, 2007 Jenn KeyessenceDetwain rated it 4 of 5 stars

The novel Kindred by Octavia E. Butler is a modern science-fiction story about a colored woman, Dana, living in the 1970's who travels back in time to the early 1800's. This story shows both older and modern struggles of human rights dealing with race, and skin color, and how Dana learns to over come and gain empathy for these struggles.

I found the plot line to be very creative and entrapping. The way that Butler tied both modern and 19th century times and race struggles together is outstandin...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 20, 2007 Courtney rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

The book that i have recently just finished is Kindred by Octavia E. Butler. Octavia has written many other books including Parable of the Talents. In this book a young women of African American deseants is brought from her present day life back to the 1800's. The young women dana experiences being a slave of the time and she experiences the hardships her ansestors had to go through. Little does she know that her trips to the past have a reason, simply to save her family's fate.
The thing that i...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 20, 2007 Jamie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Thought provoking, stimulating, and intriguing. These are just some words that come to mind when I think of the book Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler. Octavia E. Butler is a well-known Arthur who has also published the books Wild Seed and Dawn. She has won many awards including the Hugo award twice, and the Nebula Award. In the book Kindred, Octavia Butler uses time travel to show how slavery was like in antebellum America, and how mistreated the African Americans were. The novel is about how a yo...more Thought provoking, stimulating, and intriguing. These are just some words that come to mind when I think of the book Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler. Octavia E. Butler is a well-known Arthur who has also published the books Wild Seed and Dawn. She has won many awards including the Hugo award twice, and the Nebula Award. In the book Kindred, Octavia Butler uses time travel to show how slavery was like in antebellum America, and how mistreated the African Americans were. The novel is about how a young interracial marriage in the 1900’s is accepted; unlike it would be back in the 1700’s. When Dana is pulled back into the past, to save Rufus, she is confused and alone. Rufus, is a white boy who when is in trouble, Dana is called to the past to help him.
This novel made me never want to put the book down. Kindred was a very thought provoking book. As I read it, thousands of questions went through my head. I thought who was Rufus? Why was Dana being called to help him? When will she be called back to the past again? Will Kevin go with her again? I wanted to keep reading to answer these questions. I thought Octavia Butlers use of time travel was a good idea. Many people, including me have always wondered if time travel could ever happen, or become a reality. In this book, Octavia made it a reality. I felt as if I was going back to the past with her, because it was described so well.
Overall, I enjoyed this novel. I found it a little confusing though, at the end how Danas arm was amputated. I did not like the fact that it was just left in the past. In addition, I was confused in the beginning. I was not sure if it was a flashback or not. Maybe to improve the book you can make it clearer that it was a flashback. I would think the novel would be more interesting if maybe Rufus was called back with Dana to the future. I think the readers would like to see how it would be with Rufus put in the 19th century. It would be interesting to see how Rufus would react to blacks and whites together, and no slaves.
Despite Its weaknesses, the novel was enjoyable to read, and kept me intrigued the whole time. Many people can enjoy this type of novel. I think it specifically reaches out to those who like historical science fiction. I was glad this novel was chosen to read, and I hope to read another one of Octavia Butler’s novels one day.

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1 like · like · see review

Dec 20, 2007 Drew G. rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone

Kindred was written by Octavia E. Butler. Other books she has written include Dawn, Wild Seed, and Parable of the Sower. This novel revolves around the main character Dana and her travels back in time to the antebellum south to rescue her distant ancestor Rufus. The story shows the differences between her home time period, and the slavery stricken antebellum south.

First, This book kept me interested because it never really repeated any storylines. When she went back in time for example, the char...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 20, 2007 Nolan rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone.

The wonderful novel Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler, was a fantastic story. She has written other fantastic novels such as Wild Seed and Lilith's Blood. The story is about a women named Dana. She marries a man named Kevin. She starts to travel back in time to the Weyling Plantation in early to mid 1800's. She saves a boy named Rufus many times throughout the novel. She realizes that She keeps going back to the past when Rufus is in trouble. At the end of the novel, she kills Rufus when he tries to...more

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Jul 22, 2007 El rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: late20th-centurylit

This is about a 20-something black woman, Dana, in 1976 Los Angeles who is suddenly transported against her will to antebellum Maryland. She discovers she is being called to this particular time and place in order to save a young white plantation owner's son who will eventually grow up to father the daughter of Dana's ancestor. Each visit to the environment takes longer and she is expected to live as a slave, challenging Dana's beliefs, strengths, and personal safety.

Unlike other science fiction...more

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Jul 03, 2007 Stephany fisher rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those who like civil war fiction, time travel fiction

As many of you know, Octavia Butler died recently. I have wanted to read one of her works for a long time, particularly after many of her interviews have been replayed after her death. Kindred is not one of Octavia Butler's most typical books, from my understanding. She often wrote about futuristic dystopian societies, vampires, and the like. This book involves time-travel. Whether or not that places the book within the science-fiction is still up for debate-- probably not for sci-fi purists.

The...more As many of you know, Octavia Butler died recently. I have wanted to read one of her works for a long time, particularly after many of her interviews have been replayed after her death. Kindred is not one of Octavia Butler's most typical books, from my understanding. She often wrote about futuristic dystopian societies, vampires, and the like. This book involves time-travel. Whether or not that places the book within the science-fiction is still up for debate-- probably not for sci-fi purists.

The premise of the book is that a young black woman (Dana) in a mixed race marriage is pulled back in time to save her great great grandfather whenever he is in mortal peril. The hitch is that he is a white slave owner and her great great grandmother is a black woman who may or may not willingly conceive of her great grandmother. Dana explores her feelings about race and slavery while she is thrust into a world she has only read about in books. This is an important book because it is probably unparalleled in its ability to thrust the reader into this paricularly ugly time in our country's history and make it excrutiatingly real. Butler does a fabulous job making the characters and setting three-dimensional... which is precisely why the book packs such a punch. My standard qustions: Would I recommend this book? Yes. To Whom: Those who like a good story. Those who like well-written literature. Those who want to raise their social consciousness and ask themselves uncomfortable questions. Did it change my life? If I'm going to be honest -- not really. That doesn't mean it isn't a valuable book to read. It didn't change my life in that even though I may not have been able to visualize what it would be like to be a slave in the south in the 1800's before I read this book than after, I wasn't shocked and I didn't really learn anything new. Perhaps having been a public defender in Brooklyn, I have seen a lot of different types of human suffering and a lot of different types of debasement and humiliation imposed on others in a variety of ways, and I was not shocked at what human are capable of. Maybe I should continually be shocked -- not being shockable is a dangerously comfortable place to be. The book was, to be fair, though, a good reinforcement of why we must be careful to guard our compassion and humanity with vigilance and not relent to the slippery slope of justifications about incremently increasing cruelty towards others. Part of the problem is that I can't answer the question, "what would you have done in the protaganist's shoes?" Maybe where the novel broke down for me is that even though I felt I was watching and feeling what the protaganist was watching, I never fully related to her though processes and philosophies. For me, the one weakness in the novel was that while I felt I had a stake in her outcome (a sign of a good story), I was never clear on her ultimate motivations. I'm not even sure I liked her. I don't know that we would "hang out." One might argue Butler purposeful infused the character with some moral ambiguity to make her real. Perhaps. The book remains thematically centered on moral ambiguity, knowing where to draw the line, shades of gray, etc. Butler's main character, if not fully likeable, reflects Butler's themes if nothing else.
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Sep 20, 2009 Cam rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lent-out

This book was so good I've had to edit my profile for my favourite books EVER!
That is especially impressive as I don't usually do science-fiction. Kindred would be best described as time-travel/historical-fiction. The central character Dana, is a modern dayish (1976) African American woman that spontaneously gets sent back in time to the antebellum South, to save the life of the Son of a white plantation owner.
This book was so terrifying, so horrendous it could turn the strongest stomach nause...more

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About Octavia E. Butler

Octavia Estelle Butler was an American science fiction writer, one of the best-known among the few African-American women in the field. She won both Hugo and Nebula awards. In 1995, she became the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant.

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Quotes from Kindred

“Better to stay alive," I said. "At least while there's a chance to get free." I thought of the sleeping pills in my bag and wondered just how great a hypocrite I was. It was so easy to advise other people to live with their pain.” — 19 people liked it

“...I realized that I knew less about loneliness than I had thought - and much less than I would know when he went away.” — 7 people liked it

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