Kindred in A Book Walks Into a Bar

Mar 12, 2019 Travis rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Kindred hooked me from the very beginning, and each time I had to put it down, it was with great reluctance, and when I would take it up again, it was with barely contained anticipation to see what would happen next.

I love the novel's protagonist, Dana. She is thrown into the strangest of situations (being transported back and forth in time by unknown forces), yet she responds calmly and rationally, taking steps to prepare herself for the antebellum world to which she continually jumps from her Kindred hooked me from the very beginning, and each time I had to put it down, it was with great reluctance, and when I would take it up again, it was with barely contained anticipation to see what would happen next.

I love the novel's protagonist, Dana. She is thrown into the strangest of situations (being transported back and forth in time by unknown forces), yet she responds calmly and rationally, taking steps to prepare herself for the antebellum world to which she continually jumps from her own time in 1976. She is not overwhelmed by panic. She is smart and pragmatic, and her sharp social skills enable her to navigate relatively safely a minefield of dangerous personalities. On top of everything else, she is kind, forgiving, and selfless. She's a great heroine whom we readers are rooting for from the very beginning.

Rufus, the villain of the novel, is the best kind of villain: we are ambivalent towards him, unsure whether he is, at heart, good or evil. We meet him as a young boy, and we see that he has the potential to grow up to be a virtuous man, and in another era, he very well could have, but his father--who is distant but still, in his own way, loving--is cruel and beset with the worst prejudices of his time while his mother loves him deeply but is herself a jealous, ill-tempered woman. With such parents, we can sympathize with Rufus and understand why he does not become the man we hope that he would. Rufus is sometimes a very good man, sometimes wicked, earning our admiration one moment and our disgust and anger the next. Like Dana, we want to love him and want to see him embrace what he knows to be good and right, but we can never trust him and always fear him.

The supporting characters are not mere props for Dana and Rufus but are well developed with intriguing narrative arcs of their own: Kevin, who endures his wife's strange tribulations and does all he can to help her; Alice, who is born free and suffers in her own unique way at the hands of Rufus; Sarah, the elder stateswoman and cook on the plantation; Carrie, Sarah's mute yet resourceful daughter; Nigel, Carrie's husband and Rufus's childhood friend who must often play peacemaker. All of these characters endear themselves to us and play vital roles in the narrative.

Finally, Kindred is a time travel novel, making it a fascinating mix of historical fiction and science fiction. And one of things I most appreciate about the time travel element is that (view spoiler). But what I appreciate even more is that this is a tale well told that kept me in suspense from beginning to end, eagerly consuming the pages as quickly as I could. ...more

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