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Kindred

Octavia E. Butler

4.26 · Rating details · 107,206 ratings · 12,190 reviews

The first science fiction written by a black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of black American literature. This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a novel of rich literary complexity. Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into ante ...more

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Paperback, 287 pages

Published February 1st 2004 by Beacon Press (first published June 1979)

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Jul 10, 2016 Rick Riordan rated it it was amazing

After reading Parable of the Sower, I had to go right out and buy Butler’s most famous novel Kindred. I was not disappointed. It is amazing that this book was written in 1976 and feels just as fresh and timely in 2016. Dana, a young African American woman who has just started a career as a writer in California, is suddenly and inexplicably yanked back in time to Maryland in 1815, where she must save a white boy named Rufus from drowning.

This becomes only the first of many time traveling episodes ...more

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Mar 08, 2016 Emily May rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2016, sci-fi

“The ease. Us, the children… I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery.”

Butler is an author that constantly pops up on "Best sci-fi" and "Must-Read African American authors" lists and I can finally see why. This book may be my first by her, but it won't be my last. Kindred is a fascinating, horrific journey through a dark time in American history, combining eye-opening historical research with time travel.

I suppose some modern readers will want to compare this sto ...more

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Jul 31, 2015 Lyn rated it really liked it

Octavia Butler is an amazing writer. If you enjoy reading SF/F, or even an interest in speculative fiction, you would like her work.

Kindred, first published in 1979, would become her most best-selling novel.

This is also a painful book to read because of its graphic depiction of slavery and Butler wastes no time in demonizing what was demonic. Describing the slave life from the perspective of a time-travelling modern woman, Butler’s strong narrative prose is in high form for a low burden – to ill Octavia Butler is an amazing writer. If you enjoy reading SF/F, or even an interest in speculative fiction, you would like her work.

Kindred, first published in 1979, would become her most best-selling novel.

This is also a painful book to read because of its graphic depiction of slavery and Butler wastes no time in demonizing what was demonic. Describing the slave life from the perspective of a time-travelling modern woman, Butler’s strong narrative prose is in high form for a low burden – to illustrate to contemporary readers the horrors of slavery and in this context to draw a comparison with life of our time, making the transition to the early 1800s all the more stark and evil in contrast.

Kindred is also an allegory for our modern times, still burdened by the wounds of slavery and a racial consciousness in our society that has scars that won’t heal. Butler shows us, though, that we as a nation and a people are bound, as kindred, between races and with a shared history.

Back in the 90s I was working in Washington DC and I had the opportunity to meet a group of folks from Africa. Multi-lingual (with French predominant among the diplomats) I found the people I met worldly, intelligent, generous and interesting to talk to – and they were singularly not American. I think this was the first time I had met a large group of people from another continent and the idea struck me how much closer I was to my black neighbors than I was to these people I had just met.

Butler adeptly reveals in Kindred, in multiple ways, the many degrees of our shared humanity. But more narrowly, Butler is pointing out our kinship as Americans, dates like 1976 and July 4th must be intentional, how the shared history of slavery – between black Americans and white Americans – has bound us together.

Butler also, once again, has created a strong female protagonist in Dana whose endurance and courage are remarkable, made more evident by the fact that she has a unique viewpoint. Dana, in some respects, becomes a symbol of a present-day African-American woman, both made stronger from her heritage, but also still bearing the wounds of past wrongs.

Kindred also displays Butler’s amazing talents in storytelling, using dramatic irony expertly. A reader may notice a subtle, though strangely twisted reference to a scene in Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

Introspective and somber, with many questions that remain unanswered, Kindred is a powerful work told by an artist of genius ability.

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Nov 06, 2017 Adina rated it it was ok

Shelves: w-mwl-alternative, fantasy-sf, historical-fiction

Later Edit: I've thought about this review a lot and I think I regret the tone I used. I stand by what I wrote about the novel but I might have been too aggressive which is not really me. However, people found their thoughts in my review so it is going to stay. Please do not take this review as personal attack if you liked this novel as it is not meant to be.

DNF at 50% (with some skipping)

What came first, the egg or the chicken? What came first, the badly written book or the reading slump? Har Later Edit: I've thought about this review a lot and I think I regret the tone I used. I stand by what I wrote about the novel but I might have been too aggressive which is not really me. However, people found their thoughts in my review so it is going to stay. Please do not take this review as personal attack if you liked this novel as it is not meant to be.

DNF at 50% (with some skipping)

What came first, the egg or the chicken? What came first, the badly written book or the reading slump? Hard questions to answer but one thing is certain. It definitely did not help forcing me to reach 50% of this book. I only did it because of my rating rule and because I wanted to bitch about it. So here it is again the time for an unpopular opinion.

I though this book to be TERRIBLE. I don’t even know with what to start. I understand it is written by a woman of color in a time when it was an extraordinary accomplishment. I get and admire that. I also get that she had an agenda to prove how easily one can accept slavery, even in our modern world. However, the above is not a relevant excuse for bad writing, cartoonish characters, poorly conceived plot and ridiculous dialogue. Also, the use of time travel had nothing to do with SF, there was no explanation of the phenomenon, and it felt only as a lazy gimmick to prove her point. Yes, others used it as well but better, in my opinion.

Let’s start with the plot. We are in 1976 America, a young black woman is married with a white man and she suddenly starts to repeatedly go back in time in the antebellum South so she can save a child (and later young man) who proves to be her ancestor. It quickly becomes obvious that she has to save him every time he is in trouble, otherwise she would not exist in the present time. So far so good, the premise sounds interesting.

Too bad the execution was poor. Firstly, the two pair accepted way to easy the time travelling part. The same happened with the people in the past. You tell me that a person in the 19th century would not freak out and try to murder any source of such an abomination? The dialogues between the husband and wife after the first two times she comes back are laughable. At first he doesn’t believe her although she disappeared and then he doesn’t understand why she is scared. Really? I would lose control of myself it that happened, screaming my ass into a mental hospital.

Later, when they both land in the past, I could not believe how easily they get used to the roles they had to play there, her as a slave and him as the white master. I totally understand that she had to lay low in order to survive but that doesn’t mean she had to be acceptant in her mind or find excuses for that little piece of shit, Rufus. And to convinced Alice that is ok to be raped so you can survive…. Nope.

I disliked all the characters, especially Dana and her detachment; the author did not make me feel anything except annoyance. I know I am in minority here but it can’t be helped, I can’t find many positive thoughts about this novel. ...more

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Jun 14, 2014 carol. rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Americans who read

Shelves: female-lead, lit-fiction, multi-culti, sci-fi

Octavia Butler amazes me. She writes science fiction that is full of complicated ideas about race and sexuality that are completely readable. I’ll innocently start reading, thinking only to get a solid start on the book, and suddenly discover I’m halfway through the story. That isn’t to imply she’s a light-weight, however; her works are emotionally and ethically dense, the subject of numerous high school and college essays. A recent read of Dawn inspired a number of recommendations for Butler an ...more

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Jul 22, 2008 M— rated it it was amazing · 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

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Jul 06, 2016 Cecily rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Cecily by: Apatt

Shelves: scifi-future-speculative-fict, historical-fict-pre-20th-c, read-only-cos-of-gr-friends, usa-and-canada

“I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery.”

I wanted to love this book. I knew the slave narrative might be harrowing (though it’s not overly graphic), but it has an average GR rating over four stars, features time-travel dilemmas, has a strong, intelligent, kind, and practical female protagonist, and gives thought-provoking insights into the complexity of US race relations in the 1800s and, to a lesser extent, the 1970s.

It is a good and powerful, exciting and educ ...more

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Apr 02, 2012 Apatt rated it it was amazing

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

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

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Nov 14, 2018 Justin Tate rated it it was amazing

A unique look at slave-era America thanks to a time-traveling twist. Should be shelved with the classics. Riveting from the first page and doesn’t let up.

I’m always a fan of throwing in a little sci-fi, but here it really, really works. Most novels on this subject tend to look at race relations from one time period. Nothing wrong with that, but there was something wholly shocking and eye-opening about having these characters hop from a modern (1970s) lens to pre-Civil War society.

This is my firs ...more

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Jul 28, 2020 Miranda Reads rated it it was amazing

4.5 stars

New month, New Booktube Reading Vlog - tier-listing all the books read in July!

The Written Review

“Better to stay alive," I said. "At least while there's a chance to get free."

Dana and her husband just settled into their first house together when she...disappeared.

Like, literally disappeared. One minute she was there and the next minute she was rescuing a drowning white boy.

And when she turns around, she gets called the n-word by his parents as they demand an explanation fo ...more

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May 04, 2018 Maxwell rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club-pick, black-authors

This should be required reading in high school. I feel like if teachers used material like this, students would be a lot more engaged. It’s a fascinating blend of genres and such an interesting perspective with which she examines slavery. Very immersive and horrifying, but it really humanizes the past. Would highly recommend and am eager to read more from Butler’s backlist.

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Jul 05, 2017 Thomas rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Thomas by: Ninoshkka

Shelves: 2nd-favorites, historical-fiction, fantasy, science-fiction, five-stars

I wish we could read more authors like Octavia Butler, bell hooks, and Celeste Ng in our English classes instead of white men like Ernest Hemingway. I loved Kindred because it uses the science-fiction/fantasy genre to expose the cruelties and horrors of slavery and racism in an innovative way. Similar to what author Viet Thanh Nguyen writes in his book Nothing Ever Dies , the United States's education system often informs us of issues like war and slavery through a sanitized, depoliticized le I wish we could read more authors like Octavia Butler, bell hooks, and Celeste Ng in our English classes instead of white men like Ernest Hemingway. I loved Kindred because it uses the science-fiction/fantasy genre to expose the cruelties and horrors of slavery and racism in an innovative way. Similar to what author Viet Thanh Nguyen writes in his book Nothing Ever Dies , the United States's education system often informs us of issues like war and slavery through a sanitized, depoliticized lens. Though we "learn" about these events, we do not recognize the cruelty and evil our country's past generations committed - and how we are also complicit if we do not act for justice today. Octavia Butler's Kindred tells a gripping tale and reminds us of how we must not let the stories of our past happen again.

Kindred follows 26-year-old Dana, a black woman who lives in California and gets transported to the antebellum South. There, she meets Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner who will go on to sire the daughter who becomes Dana's ancestor. Dana is teleported back in time over and over again to protect Rufus from death, but each time she travels to the past, she encounters increasing amounts of danger and abuse that put her own life at risk for extinction.

Butler creates a compelling cast of characters in Kindred. Dana, Kevin, Rufus, Alice, etc. all have complex motivations and their relationships with one another feel replete with nuanced power dynamics, as well as love and hate and fear. In addition to imbuing Kindred with a fast-moving and surprising plot, Butler succeeds at showing and not telling the atrocities of slavery through Dana's travels backward and forward in time, in particular her forced journey to acclimate to plantation life in the nineteenth century. Through detailing the pain Dana suffers and the pain she sees her fellow enslaved individuals suffer at the hands of white folk, Butler encourages us to consider the challenges of surviving in an unjust world, just like the one we live in now. Why is it that our ancestors, as well as a lot of us today, are so willing to look away from the evils of racism? How do we stay true to our values in a society that so often pits minorities against each other, gives power to those who disempowers others, etc.? Kindred makes us think about these questions without offering simple answers, providing proof of its thoughtfulness and strength as a novel.

Overall, a book I would recommend to anyone and everyone. I honestly feel ashamed at my younger self for not reading authors like Butler sooner and for buying into problematic portrayals of slavery, like Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind. I am doing my best to make up for it now by reading more books about social justice, by donating to the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center and other organizations fighting the good fight, and by having conversations about these topics, volunteering, etc. As a companion to Kindred, I would recommend reading The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander and giving to groups that fight mass incarceration, as that injustice serves in many ways as the slavery of our time. Thank you to Ms. Butler for creating art that allows us to see injustice and to fight it. ...more

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Feb 26, 2017 Alienor ✘ French Frowner ✘ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: scifi, adult-fiction, 2017-reads, historical

I remember the astonished fear I felt when I read Primo Levi in High-school and realized how easily one can go along with dehumanization in order to save his life. As much as we humans like hiding behind false truths, we're merely trying to go easy on ourselves and to maintain our breakable feeling of control. We don't control shit. From the moment I read Holocaust accounts, I've met a lot of people assuring me that these days wouldn't ever happen again because people would fight harder and long ...more

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Mar 07, 2020 Julie rated it liked it

Shelves: nobody-talks-like-this, reading-road-trip-2020, maryland

Reading Road Trip 2020

Current location: Maryland

Octavia E. Butler's biography could just break your damn heart.

Her father died when she was 10, she had no siblings, her family was poor.

She was a self-described “loner,” a woman who was tall and awkward and friendless. From the recent bits and pieces I researched, as I started this novel, I gathered that her romantic life was either private or nonexistent. (Was she gay? Asexual? Sickly?) As far as I could tell, she had substantial medical issues a ...more

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Jan 20, 2020 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing

Shelves: african-american-lit, race-issues, historical-fiction, fiction, sci-fi-fantasy

Audiobook/sync/ebook

Voice narrator Kim Staunton was outstanding....
Absolutely fantastic!
At times I felt like I was watching a movie.... and Staunton had a lot to do with the ‘movie-feeling’ experience. She demanded my attention- I even stood taller while soaking in our warm water pool.

The time travel/fantasy/historical fiction blend worked beautifully... kept me interested.
Dana Franklin is a strong protagonist - a black woman married to a white man during the 70’s.
Each time she is thrown bac ...more

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Feb 18, 2017 Christy rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017-four-stars, 2017-audio

Kindred is about a woman named Dana who gets transported/time-travels back to the past. She travels way back to the time when her great-great-grandparents were alive. This also happens to be a time of slavery. Dana is a black woman from the 1970’s who is married to a white man. Each time she is thrown into the past, she has to learn how to live and survive in this time while staying true to herself.  

I love books about time travel. One of my top favorite reads of all time (The Time Travelers Wif ...more

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May 02, 2019 Dolors rated it liked it

Recommends it for: Sci-fi and history? It's possible

Shelves: read-in-2019

Kindred is a hybrid novel, difficult to categorize. Partly science-fiction, partly historical novel, it addresses race, gender and class issues in the context of slavery but, and this is the complexity of this book, in two timelines, antebellum Maryland and modern California.

Butler, far from trying to make sense of time travel and how it suddenly affects the protagonist of the story, uses the sci-fi device to transport a free Afro-American woman to a colonial plantation near Baltimore to explor Kindred is a hybrid novel, difficult to categorize. Partly science-fiction, partly historical novel, it addresses race, gender and class issues in the context of slavery but, and this is the complexity of this book, in two timelines, antebellum Maryland and modern California.

Butler, far from trying to make sense of time travel and how it suddenly affects the protagonist of the story, uses the sci-fi device to transport a free Afro-American woman to a colonial plantation near Baltimore to explore human resilience when confronted with the vexation, humiliation and manifold forms of abuse, physical and psychological, of treating human beings as property to be used, misused and trafficked with.

I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about the time travel episodes but I will confess I was instantly pulled into the story. Dana, the narrator, and maybe even the author’s alter ego, challenges the reader to get to grips with the cruel reality of slaves, of their everyday life and their will to survive mainly with the sole idea of protecting their endangered families from the masters’ whims and vicious “rights”. The artifice of time travel serves the purpose of making historical barbarity a tangible and constant threat and to better understand the huge amount of silent courage required of those oppressed to endure all sorts of inhuman punishments.

Butler’s prose is rather unadorned and definitely plot-driven, but she is very accurate in recreating the social mechanisms that enabled slavery in the Southern States; the violence, the helplessness and the loss of whatever self-dignity might be left to those born into captivity. The effects of racial bigotry and subjugation on the making of identity are clearly delineated and open a debate on the reader’s mind. Progress has been made since the days of legal enslavement, of course, but is it enough?
Books like this one remind us that we should never lose that silent courage, that will to survive in order to fight injustice and oppression, if only, to pay back the huge sacrifices that our ancestors made so that we could exist, so that we could be here, living a relatively comfortable life, now, today, and hopefully, a life that will be fairer when our children fight their own battles in the future. ...more

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Mar 06, 2017 Mary ~Ravager of Tomes~ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: year-2017, favorites, 5-star

"I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery."

Actual Rating: 4.5 Stars

This was such an excellent book.

Kindred tells the story of Dana Franklin, a black woman who is suddenly whisked back in time from 1976 to pre-Civil War Maryland in 1815.

This novel is a beautifully elegant analysis of a not-so-beautiful period in American history. Using a prominent element of Science Fiction, Butler confronts the poisonous attitudes & double standards that are propagated by racism ...more

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Dec 18, 2016 Joe rated it it was amazing

Before Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad, there was Kindred, a grueling plunge into American slavery with a fantastic twist. One of the great time travel novels, right there with Time and Again and 11/22/63. Aspects of the narrative might be too agonizing for the tender at heart, but I was with it all the way, from first sentence to last. ...more

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Feb 14, 2012 Richard Derus rated it really liked it

BkC10) KINDRED by Octavia E. Butler: Excellent!!

I still agree with myself. And what better review for Valentine's Day than this time-travel novel in which a modern-day African-American woman is summoned by her slave-owning ancestor to rescue him at critical moments, and then must pimp her slave ancestress to the slave owner to ensure that she is born?

Rating: 4.75* of five

The Publisher Says: The first science fiction written by a black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of black American lit BkC10) KINDRED by Octavia E. Butler: Excellent!!

I still agree with myself. And what better review for Valentine's Day than this time-travel novel in which a modern-day African-American woman is summoned by her slave-owning ancestor to rescue him at critical moments, and then must pimp her slave ancestress to the slave owner to ensure that she is born?

Rating: 4.75* of five

The Publisher Says: The first science fiction written by a black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of black American literature. This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a novel of rich literary complexity. Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given: to protect this young slaveholder until he can father her own great-grandmother.

My Review: Oh my heck. Modern African American, circa 1976, makes her way in the slave society of 1815, and all that that entails. It's not an easy, fluffy read, but it's amazing how Butler pulls no punches and still manages to keep the easy, smug path of good = noble, bad = horrible, from making her characters into masks capable of expressing only one emotion. I liked reading the book because it pulls no punches, and it left me breathless at frequent intervals with its complete willingness to engage all, each, every, facet of human love.

Octavia Butler, gone too soon, wrote this meditation on survival when she was abour thirty. What a feat that is. So young, and so sharply critical of denial and misdirection...so ready to face up to the underlying motivations and the foundational lies of each and every character's identity...what she must have been like as a friend! Her insights would be Buddha-like, if they were anything like the honest and unsparing insights she used in creating this book.

Beautiful, hard, fiery. Like a diamond, it will cut anything you can show it. ...more

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Oct 16, 2011 Nadine X rated it liked it

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

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Jan 23, 2017 Nenia ✨️ Socially Awkward Trash Panda ✨️ Campbell rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: poc-interracial, timelords, historical-fiction, nenia-recommends, just-tear-my-heart-out-why-dont-you

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There are a lot of books that talk about the antebellum south, especially in romance novels where it is a popular setting, but few seem to capture the sheer unfairness of what it must have been like as a non-white person living in the South in the nineteenth century. I love Octavia Butler's science fiction, but KINDRED is a book that I purposely put off reading because I'd heard it was brutal. Good, but brutal, and utterly unflinching in ...more

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Aug 24, 2016 Book Riot Community added it

Kindred is one of those books that feels like it should be required reading for everyone. It’s a page-turning, disturbing, provocative, complex, incredibly smart novel. Technically it’s science fiction, since it involves time travel, but it doesn’t follow a lot of other SF conventions. Dana, an African-American woman living in late 70s LA, is suddenly taken back to Antebellum Maryland, where she saves a young white boy from drowning. Although she is inexplicably whisked home, she is brought back ...more

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Sep 30, 2015 Lauren Cecile rated it it was amazing

I wish someone would make this into a movie.

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Aug 23, 2018 Liz rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: best-of-2018

In honor of Science Fiction and Fantasy Week, I am finally taking this book from my TBR queue and actually reading it. The author called this a “grim fantasy” and the description fits. I’m not a big fan of SF or fantasy, but a dear friend of mine has been touting this book for ages and it’s time for me to set aside the netgalley queue for a few days.

Dana becomes the victim of unwanted time travel. She doesn’t know why it’s happening but all of a sudden she’s being transported back to early 1800 ...more

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Sep 09, 2015 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, history, traditional-fiction

This is pretty much a historical novel with a bit of SF icing, focusing almost exclusively on the relationships built between a mid-1970's modern black woman who is continually sent back in time to save an ancestor from an early death. Unfortunately for her, she's a black woman on a slave plantation, and she's stuck there for a disproportionately long time, sometimes even bringing her white husband back into the past with her and sometimes leaving him behind. Theres a ton of time dilation, where This is pretty much a historical novel with a bit of SF icing, focusing almost exclusively on the relationships built between a mid-1970's modern black woman who is continually sent back in time to save an ancestor from an early death. Unfortunately for her, she's a black woman on a slave plantation, and she's stuck there for a disproportionately long time, sometimes even bringing her white husband back into the past with her and sometimes leaving him behind. Theres a ton of time dilation, where moments pass in the modern world and years pass in the past, so it brings a real sense of horror to the story as her real life tumbles away into long absences with her husband.

Of course, the real story isn't about Dana and Kevin, our moderns. Or at least, their intro brings to life a closer contrast of living as a slave, and not always entirely that different from those living in such humiliating circumstances on the plantation. Sure, science, medicine, the abolition of slavery, the freedom to speak your mind, all of that is very well and good, but it says a lot right out of the gate that Dana was able to fit into the frankly horrifying life of the past without too much struggle. Life as a temp slave as she struggled with her dream to become a writer seemed to be merely an appetizer before the grand meal of humiliation and torture.

I can make a pretty solid argument that most people live an all too-similar picture of daily grind and humiliation, and it's only in the matter of degree that anything has really changed, either that, or it's a matter of sublimation.

Dana was seen by too many of those past slaves as an black who pretended to be white because she was educated and tried, with varied success, to stand up to the one person she was nearly irrevocably tied to: Rufus, the son of the plantation owner, who despite Dana's best efforts, still turned out to be a fucking ass. Is it merely cultural? Is it thoroughly cultural? Butler's argument really seems to push aside individual will, time and time again, with every push in the right direction met with an equally feverish backlash.

Sure, we could have had these reversals take place as a science fictional trope, but Butler does something much more interesting. She blames people for being people.

Those times were a travesty of human stupidity and misery, and it's an even bigger blow to us as a species that it's hardly isolated or unique. We live in our own version of slavery, still, even if so many of the particulars have improved, we're still weighted by expectations, assumptions, and bloody-mindedness no less destructive.

Be kinder to our writers. Give them an outlet to create wonderful mirrors to ourselves, such as this novel.

I'm very sorry to know that Butler had passed away, and I'm sorry that it has taken me these many years to finally come around to reading her for the first time. If she was still around, I'd like to thank her. Since she isn't, I'll thank everyone who still remembers this book.
...more

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Jan 16, 2018 J.L. Sutton rated it really liked it

I enjoyed Octavia Butler's Kindred, but it might disappoint those who are expecting what is billed as science fiction. Despite writing a novel based on time travel, Butler never addresses the mechanics of this time travel or whether perhaps there is something about the protagonist, Dana Franklin, which triggers it. Instead, Butler relies on establishing a bond between Dana and the boy she rescues the first time she is thrust into the past. This does not detract at all from the emotional impact o ...more

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Dec 18, 2016 Taryn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: transcends-the-star-scale

Without any warning, Dana Franklin is thrust back through time and space. It's 1976 and she's settling into her new California apartment when she starts to feel dizzy. Her modern surroundings fade away and suddenly she's in antebellum Maryland. She seems to be inextricably linked with Rufus Weylin, the young son of a plantation owner. Dana is pulled to Rufus anytime his life is in danger, which happens with surprising frequency. The era is dangerous for Dana--she's black and has no enforceable r ...more

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Nov 07, 2019 Fares rated it it was amazing

4.9 stars
This should turn into a classic one day!

Here's a review for you.
READ
THIS
BLOODY
BOOK
PLEAAAAAAAAAASE!!!
...more

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Nov 08, 2018 Brian rated it liked it

“She had done the safe thing-had accepted a life of slavery because she was afraid.”

“Kindred” is a novel I would not have picked up on my own, but it was a book club selection so I dutifully read it. Although I do not think it is a great text, it is a good story. When I accepted the limitations inherent in a story about time travel, and focused on the aspects of the writing that are quite good, and not those that are weak, I found I read it quickly and was no worse for the wear.
In short, the sto “She had done the safe thing-had accepted a life of slavery because she was afraid.”

“Kindred” is a novel I would not have picked up on my own, but it was a book club selection so I dutifully read it. Although I do not think it is a great text, it is a good story. When I accepted the limitations inherent in a story about time travel, and focused on the aspects of the writing that are quite good, and not those that are weak, I found I read it quickly and was no worse for the wear.
In short, the story is that of a black woman from 1976 who is transported back and forth to 1815 and the Maryland farm on which her great great grandfather (a white man) and her great great grandmother (a slave) meet. Octavia Butler (the author) does not flinch from the brutality in slavery, and yet it is evident (from an author interview in the text and from the book itself) that she is using the daily aspects of slavery in service to her story, which thus gives them more power. As she says, “The route to readers’ heads is through their guts and nerves, and that requires good storytelling, not just a good set of issues.” With that in mind, she wrote a novel that is not polemic, a danger for any book with a focus like this one.
As I read "Kindred” I kept thinking this is a text that would be good for high school students. The characterization is not particularly deep for any one character (is that a limitation of the science fiction genre?) yet there is enough there to discuss and extrapolate a bit more from. At times I felt the book took the easy way out by not examining some issue further, but again that is not the kind of book Ms. Butler was trying to write. This is not “Beloved” and never was meant to be. Yet, serious issues are there if you care to focus on them, and they are given thoughtful attention. There are numerous times in the novel where some idea or thought was beautifully rendered and I had to stop to appreciate and digest it. However, you could also gloss over them if you so choose and just read a historical time travel science fiction novel.
The choice is the readers, and I think either is probably correct. ...more

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About Octavia E. Butler

Octavia E. Butler

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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.

After her father died, Butler was raised by her widowed mother. Extremely shy as a child, Octavia found an outlet at the li ...more

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“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.” — 84 likes

“Repressive societies always seemed to understand the danger of "wrong" ideas.” — 78 likes

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