Kindred in The Alternative Worlds

Dec 21, 2011 Regina rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, favorite-authors, science-fiction, historical-fiction, urban-fantasy-uf, owned-kindle, time-travel, antebellum-south

Time travel is so cool! What beats traveling back several hundred years in to the arms of a handsome Scottish highlander … or traveling back in time to meet your spouse while she is still a child … or traveling in time to solve a supernatural mystery in an attempt to save the future … or traveling back in time to learn of the world’s beginning or forward to witness its collapse. There are so many different ways time travel can come in to play in a story. I honestly thought I had seen and read th Time travel is so cool! What beats traveling back several hundred years in to the arms of a handsome Scottish highlander … or traveling back in time to meet your spouse while she is still a child … or traveling in time to solve a supernatural mystery in an attempt to save the future … or traveling back in time to learn of the world’s beginning or forward to witness its collapse. There are so many different ways time travel can come in to play in a story. I honestly thought I had seen and read them all when it came to time travel, but I could not have been more wrong. I had never before read a time travel novel, where the main character travels to an incredibly dangerous and distasteful time. The set-up of Kindred could not be more extreme – the main character is a young African American woman who is, repeatedly and without any control of her own, sent back in time to the antebellum south where she finds herself enmeshed in relationships on a plantation occupied and run by slave-owners and slaves. As an African American woman, such a trip into the past is not an easy one, nor is it safe. Each trip back becomes increasingly dangerous and more disturbing. But who was safe during that time period? Definitely not blacks, whether free or slave. Kindred does not shy away from telling their stories.

Kindred was published in 1979, yet for some sad reason I only recently discovered the author, Octavia Butler. Having finished Kindred in the space of two days, I intend to hunt down each and every book written by her. She is not an author I want to miss out on. Occasionally, reading a book written and published decades ago, particularly in the science fiction genre, makes the book less accessible and less enjoyable. This is absolutely not the case with Kindred. Kindred pulled me in from page one, the main character – Dana – seemed real; she seemed modern. Her thoughts, her concerns and her actions were not dissimilar from my own. Dana is a writer, who is married to another writer. They are a mixed raced couple living in Los Angeles. Their status as a mixed couple becomes important as the story progresses; it is a factor that allows the story to be broader than just Dana’s experience. The pace of the book is intense and I could not put it down. I was pulled in and terrified at almost every step for Dana. Terrified for her well-being and for her life. Terrified that she would never see her husband again. Shocked at the brutality of the events as they unfolded.

Time travel and science fiction are labels that work to make this book seem more whimsical than it is. Kindred addresses heavy topics between the front and back covers – freedom, love, ownership, and survival. How does an individual survive in an atmosphere where every minute puts them at risk? How does an individual survive in a situation where their survival comes at the cost of another’s loss of family and loss of life. How does one survive the loss of their children – taken at the hands by a cruel slave owner? How does a woman preserve her integrity – again at the hands of a cruel slave owner? The topics are dark and disturbing (as they should be), but the main characters are so genuine and likeable that while the subject matter is gruesome, it is still fed to the reader in the form of entertainment. In between the dark images and storyline, are bits and pieces of the love story shared between Dana and her husband and her desperate desire to remain in her own modern time with her husband.
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Aug 11, 2021 Kara Babcock rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2021-read, fantasy, own, time-travel, historical-fiction

Over a decade ago, I read Lilith’s Brood . I immediately recognized the power of Octavia E. Butler’s writing, her utter willingness to exploit science fiction to the fullest extent that it can comment on our society. Since then, I have always nodded along and agreed every time someone calls Butler a grandmaster of science fiction and fantasy. She is an icon. But I didn’t read anything else by her.

Until now.

Kindred is the first of many Butler stories I hope to pick up and finally read over the ...more

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Jan 09, 2011 Sarah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: time-travel, favorites, speculative-fiction

Oh, what a fantastic book. This is the second novel by Octavia Butler that I've read, and the second one that has instantly demanded my full attention. I was on page 50 when I came home this evening, and I had to sit and read until I finished it. It's a masterfully written book, despite the fact that by my math Octavia Butler must have still been in her twenties when she wrote it. The prose is deceptively simple: it is exactly what it needs to be. I don't know that I would have been able to bear ...more

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Jan 18, 2011 Nicky rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy

Shelved as fantasy, rather than SF, because while it deals with time travel, that aspect isn't explained at all. It simply isn't the focus: it's set up enough that the main character can go back in time to that of her ancestor, and forward again to her own time, but there's no explanation of why it starts or how it works. In a way, I do wish there'd been more of that, but ultimately it isn't the important part.

Octavia Butler writes well -- not just interesting writing, but writing that is just e Shelved as fantasy, rather than SF, because while it deals with time travel, that aspect isn't explained at all. It simply isn't the focus: it's set up enough that the main character can go back in time to that of her ancestor, and forward again to her own time, but there's no explanation of why it starts or how it works. In a way, I do wish there'd been more of that, but ultimately it isn't the important part.

Octavia Butler writes well -- not just interesting writing, but writing that is just easy to read. There's no barrier to enjoying the story: the writing isn't ornate, but it's not too simple, either. Personally, it walked a perfect line, and the voice of Dana -- the narrator -- worked well for me.

The stories alternates between the 1970s -- Dana's time -- and the 1800s, when she had a white, slave-owning ancestor. The co-dependency she has with him, and the way things fall apart at the end, are well-drawn, and the contradictions of liking him somewhat while knowing the kind of man he is... The way she's trapped, forced to play the role of the slave, is a little heart-breaking. Someone else's review talks about wishing Dana were a stronger character, but when you think about the time period she was put into... a different kind of strength was needed then, which to some extent she develops, and some of which is beyond her...

I liked the inclusion of her (white) husband, Kevin. He seems to be a great guy -- not untouched by the world he ends up spending five years being a part of, but fighting it all the time -- and one likes to hope that the two of them manage to be happy after the end of the book. It's a big strain on their relationship, after all.

I'm not sure how articulate I'm really being! In any case, I found it fascinating and definitely recommend it, with the caveats that you have to be okay with the lack of explanation, and with slave narratives. And if you're one of the white people who has read this book and complained about the racism towards white people shown in it, think about it this way: a) however little you like it, it's historically accurate, and b) it's not about you.

Both times I've read a book by Octavia Butler, I want to immediately go out and find the rest. So I expect I'll read some more soon. ...more

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Jun 27, 2007 Wealhtheow rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, historical, race, pocmaincharacters

A young black woman with a good career and life is abruptly pulled back in time to save the life of a slaveowner's son. She tries to find meaning and balance in this constant shuttling through time, but the atrocities she experiences in the past color her present. This is an incredibly emotionally intense book. It remains one of the few novels I have read that took a complicated, intimate look at slavery and race and gender relations, without ever relying upon cliches or pat answers. The writing ...more

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Dec 30, 2010 Michelle rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: lit_fic, ebook, book_club, magical-realism, historical-fiction, feminism, time-travel

over the course of several days, a 70s feminist black woman is inexplicably yanked back into the past to repeatedly rescue a white ancestor from his own foolishness. through mundane bad luck, this man keeps putting himself in mortal danger, and fate (?) has decided on this mysterious method to save him. on each successive trip back, Dana spends a longer amount of time stuck on her ancestor's plantation, and is terrified, brutalized, whipped, beaten, and enslaved...yet continues to protect the li ...more

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