I’ve just finished a haunting book called Kindred by Octavia Butler given to me by the Brown family, friends and Storybuzz fans. It is the 25th anniversary edition from 2004 – this book was published in 1979 and should be considered Butler’s masterpiece.
Dana, is a young black woman who is living in California where she and her white husband Kevin have just moved into a new home, and their writing careers are taking off. Suddenly Dana finds herself transported from the present (1976) to antebellum Maryland (1811), where she is forced to become both protector and house slave for Rufus, the young son of a plantation owner and her great-great-grandfather.
From that point in the story, Dana is shuttled back and forth between her home in California and her “home” in the past where she confronts slavery in a very personal way. On one trip she even unintentionally drags her husband Kevin back in time where the reader confronts the role of white man versus black woman. It was amazing to see the struggle they both experienced even as they brought their modern mind sets to the backwards South. Dana answers the question, “See how easily slaves are made?” For Dana finds herself having to choose to preserve an institution of slavery by repeatedly saving a slave owner. We watch her save the life of her future ancestor, by allowing herself and another to be victimized.
The ease with which Dana falls into the routines of everyday life as a slave shocks her. Work is a refuge from the other toils of slave life and the patterns become the norm. There is even an ambiguous feeling toward Rufus and his father. They are hated for the physical and psychological abuse imposed on the slaves. But at the same time are often family as they father slave children and participate in a slaves life from birth to death. One of the most poignant scenes in the book is when Dana observes the children playing at selling each other on the auction block and haggling over price.
The end of the book left me with many questions. I couldn’t see how if Kevin was able to travel with Dana into the past, why Rufus couldn’t come with her into the future. Possibly the past is set, it already happened, whereas the future is fluid and anything can happen. It was still a very bizarre way for the story to end, though. I wondered what would’ve happened if Rufus was pulled into the 20th century. The epilogue also made me ask if there was repercussions from her arm injury and did she and her husband ever write about their experiences.
Kindred is a powerful novel apprpriate for mature teens and adults. It is science fiction because of the time travel but otherwise could be categorized as a historical fiction documenting slavery.
[Octavia Estelle Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006) was an American science fiction writer, one of very 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.]
If you like Kindred, you may want to consider reading: Time Lottery by Nancy Moser or Crucific Lane by Kate Mosse
