From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

Kindred

Octavia E. Butler

Start date: January 15, 2023

Finish date: February 15, 2023

Discussion: Reading List

Discussion leader: Justin Pickett

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Reading List

* The Schedule for July through Dec. 2025
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last updated Nov 15, 2025 02:07PM

The Blackhouse - Discussion (including spoilers)
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What Members Thought

Sep 25, 2019 Stephanie Barko is currently reading it

This title is the September 2019, Banned Books Month selection of South Austin Spiritual Book Group.

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Feb 26, 2017 Yashoda Sampath rated it it was amazing

If I could give it ten stars I would.

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Oct 22, 2019 spoko rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, race, gender, reading-with-kids, history, sci-fi, re-read, speculative

This was the most thought-provoking book I've read in quite a while. I'm not particularly drawn to sci-fi books, so I was glad that the mechanics of Dana's time travel didn't get much time in this book. But the implications of her choices and actions were complicated and profound, and I'll be thinking about them for some time. I read it with my wife and son, and we've already had several really good conversations about both the content and the form of the book. (By the way, the exposition early ...more

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Mar 03, 2013 Robert rated it really liked it

I have to do some thinking before writing this review. i thought this was a truly major book of far greater reality and impact than the much more well known "Roots" by Alex Haley. Although it does not go back to Africa, I found the depictions of slavery and plantation life far more compelling. I'm going to have much more to say about this book in a day or two.

Later today: If I recall correctly, my most recent read that dealt extensively with time travel was "The Time Traveler's Wife," by
Audrey I have to do some thinking before writing this review. i thought this was a truly major book of far greater reality and impact than the much more well known "Roots" by Alex Haley. Although it does not go back to Africa, I found the depictions of slavery and plantation life far more compelling. I'm going to have much more to say about this book in a day or two.

Later today: If I recall correctly, my most recent read that dealt extensively with time travel was "The Time Traveler's Wife," by
Audrey Niffenegger. I liked that book very much, but the actual time traveling was a more central part of that book than this one. Here, the time traveling was central to the plot, but the content and characters so far outweighed the actual time traveling that it had a much different feel. The present was far less important in this book than the past, and the real character development and content was rooted in the past. Ms. Butler has created a face to face confrontation of 20th century sensibilities with the 18th century realities of slavery in the antebellum south. This is the essence of this book. The demeaning, destructive, and utterly corrosive impact of the institution of slavery stands revealed here in all its ugly reality.

We need look no further than this to identify much of what lingers in or contemporary society in terms of institutional racism, class distinctions, social pathologies with regard to families and economic classes across racial lines. Families are impacted by the experiences of their individual members over several generations, whether that impact be positive or negative. Like ripples from a stone tossed into the center of a pond, that impact radiates outward in ever widening circles through successive generations. Some in the media speak of a post racial society, but the toxic legacy of roughly 200 years of slavery in what is now the United States will not evaporate with a single election of a black President or enactment of sundry laws.

We will need to arrive at a societal consensus as to a new "declaration of the rights of man" that is inclusive and embracing of all mankind. We need to address economic inequality and look beyond zero sum economic policies. The dialog between labor and management, men and women, and nation and nation needs to be recast in a manner that celebrates diversity and embraces our differences rather than segrating them. These are some of the implications present in Ms. Butler's work. It is a very powerful story and a powerful message in a deceptively simple package. Some may find it easy to read simply as a time travel story or as one more cry against the unjust legacy of slavery in this country. Others may recognize deeper and broader implications in this powerful work. ...more

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Jul 14, 2014 Jane rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, read-this-book-again

A powerful time travel account of a couple's encounter with slavery in Maryland pre-Civil War. I read this book several years ago at my son, Josh and his wife Lisa's suggestion. Very powerful. The time travel part of the story is roughly sketched in. Dana time travels when an ancestor living in the 1830's is in danger. Eventually, her husband, a white man named Kevin, time travels with her. The details of life for slaves, pre-Civil war, are brutal. I think it would be a wonderful book to help h ...more

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Mar 05, 2023 Dora rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bookgroup

Outstanding. I would call it magical realism instead of science fiction. I’m sorry it took me so long to get to this book. It’s very effective at placing you in the 1800s and the horrors of slavery. Certainly not pleasant, but compelling because it makes you reflect on what life was really like on plantations. I have more to think about and to add, but wanted to at least start a review.

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