Kindred (Black Women Writers Series) (Paperback)

by Octavia E. Butler (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Kindred utilizes the devices of science fiction in order to answer the question "how could anybody be a slave?" A woman from the twentieth century, Dana is repeatedly brought back in time by her slave-owning ancestor Rufus when his life is endangered. She chooses to save him, knowing that because of her actions a free-born black woman will eventually become his slave and her own grandmother. When forced to live the life of a slave, Dana realizes she is not as strong as her ancestors. Unable to will herself back to her own time and unable to tolerate the institution of slavery, she attempts to run away and is caught within a few hours. Her illiterate ancestor Alice succeeds in eluding capture for four days even though "She knew only the area she'd been born and raised in, and she couldn't read a map." Alice is captured, beaten, and sold as a slave to Rufus. As Dana is sent back and forth through time, she continues to save Rufus's life, attempting during each visit to care for Alice, even as she is encouraging Alice to allow Rufus to rape her and thus ensure Dana's own birth. As a twentieth-century African-American woman trying to endure the brutalities of nineteenth-century slavery, Dana answers the question, "See how easily slaves are made?" For Dana, to choose to preserve an institution, to save a life, and nurture victimization is to choose to survive. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Donna Nichols-White

Review

"Like emotion that uplifts and enriches, like exquisite music or the taste of some special candy remembered from childhood, I never wanted Kindred to end. It overwhelmed me, dominated me, drew me on page after page. To express my total admiration and wonder for the originality of this surpassingly compelling novel, I am driven to a despised cliché: I could not put it down! It is a book that simply will not be denied; its power is hypnotic. Kindred is a story that hurts: I take that to be the surest indicator of genuine Art. It is an important novel, filled with powerful human insight and the shocking impact of the most commonplace experiences viewed in a new way, and it demands that, once begun, the reader continue till it has done its work on the heart and mind and soul. Octavia Butler is a writer who will be with us for a long, long time, and Kindred is that rare magical artifact ... the novel one returns to, again and again, through the years to learn, to be humbled, and to be renewed. Do not, I beg you, deny yourself this singular experience."
—Harlan Ellison

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

---

Product Details Paperback: 264 pages Publisher: Beacon Press (September 15, 1988) Language: English ISBN-10: 0807083054 ISBN-13: 978-0807083055 Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (183 customer reviews) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #139,886 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books) Popular in these categories: (What's this?) #10 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > African American > Butler, Octavia E. #11 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( B ) > Butler, Octavia E.

---

Look Inside This Book

Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover

---

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	97% buy the item featured on this page: Kindred (Black Women Writers Series) 4.6 out of 5 stars (183)
	1% buy Parable of the Sower 4.3 out of 5 stars (111) $5.58
	1% buy Lilith's Brood 4.6 out of 5 stars (36) $12.91
	1% buy Fledgling 4.3 out of 5 stars (78) $5.60

Explore similar items

---

Tags Customers Associate with This Product  (What's this?) Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people. Check the boxes next to the tags you consider relevant or enter your own tags in the field below. courageous women(7) slavery(7) time travel(5) african-america n sffantasy(4) science fiction(4) book recommendations(3) butler(3) wonderful story(2) See all 9 tags... Your tags: Add your first tag

Search Products Tagged with   See most popular tags

Help others find this product — tag it for Amazon search

No one has tagged this product for Amazon search yet. Why not be the first to suggest a search for which it should appear?

---

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

---

 

Customer Reviews

183 Reviews 5 star:  (137) 4 star:  (30) 3 star:  (10) 2 star:  (2) 1 star:  (4)           Average Customer Review 4.6 out of 5 stars (183 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews 69 of 75 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars OUTSTANDING, August 31, 2004 By  C. Baker "[e-mail]" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)       Book Review by C. Douglas Baker KINDRED is one of those rare novels that grabs you by the throat and doesn't let you go until the very end. From the first sentence, Butler's simple, straightforward prose moves the story quickly making it nearly impossible for the reader to put down. Dana, a black woman living in Los Angeles in 1976, is inexplicably transported to 1815 to save the life of a small, red-haired boy on Maryland's Eastern Shore. It turns out this small boy, Rufus, is one of her white slave owning ancestors, who she knows very little about. Dana continues to be called into the past to save Rufus, and frequently stays long periods of time in the slave owning South. The only way she can get back to 1976 is to be in a life threatening situation. During her stays in the past she is forced to assume the role of a slave to survive. She is whipped. She is beaten. She is nearly raped, twice. She is forced to watch whippings and families being broken up. She learns to enjoy hard work as an escape from the other horrors of slave life. And she watches as a fairly unassuming small son of a plantation owner grows up to be a cruel, capricious, hot-tempered slave owner in his own right. And to be her great-grandfather many generations removed. KINDRED is about slavery and the scars it has inflicted on American society. There are really three key factors Butler focuses on that reveal the ability of the South to institutionalize slavery. First there is the physical abuse. The constant work, especially the physically exhausting work of a field hand, kept slaves too tired to run or become insolent. Being ever on the verge of a lash or two for minor offenses kept slaves working to avoid punishment. Being beaten nearly to death after escape attempts made a slave reluctant to try again; especially if this is coupled with the abuse of the slave's family. Then there is the psychological abuse. The continual threat of being beaten or watching others be beaten broke the spirits of those in bondage. The worst punishment was sometimes having to watch a family member abused for your transgression. Encouraging slaves to marry and have children also deadened their desire to escape. Families made the slave settle down, gave him or her something to protect and care for. The selling off of a few family members had a damping effect on a slave's spirit. A most poignant example is the slave Sarah, the primary house slave; "Weylin had sold only three of her children, left her one to live for and protect". She rarely questioned slavery, thought little of freedom, because "she had lost all she could stand to lose". The risk of losing the one daughter she had left was too great. Slaves that escaped had to be willing to risk not only their own life but possibly the lives of their family. The physical and psychological abuse imposed on the slave made it so much easier to accept one's lot in life and avoid the unpleasantries that recalcitrance entailed. 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 the slave owner. The slave owner is hated for the physical and psychological abuse imposed on the slave. But at the same time the slave loved the owner in a familial sense, even though the slave owner was seldom worthy of this. Thus slavery became for many the accepted norm of life, even if this acceptance was a tenuous and unhappy one at best. This acceptance was generational. Dana at one point espies children playing at selling each other on the auction block and haggling over price. Many times throughout history sheer terror has been used to subdue a population and sap it of its strength. One only has to look at the Tsar's of Russia like Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and Stalin to realize the extent to which terror can be used to subjugate a people. The Southern aristocracy of the United States practiced a similar terror till 1864 and beyond. There is much historical evidence for the Butler's depiction of slavery and its effects. KINDRED is patterned after the slave narratives becoming more widely read today. These include Frederick Douglass' NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AN AMERICAN SLAVE and Harriet A. Jacobs INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL. Butler could have depicted the beatings and physical abuse in more graphic detail to have a greater impact on the reader. Slavery even has its effects in 1976. The scars Dana brings back to 1976 are symbolic of the scars slavery has left on contemporary society. Some will heal with time. Some can never heal. Others will scab over and be just below the surface. But they are all there. But in another sense healing has taken place. Dana is married to a white man, Kevin, who is transported to 1815 with her once. While there they both fall easily into the pattern or act of slave owner and slave concubine, roles they must assume to survive. The ease with which they fall into these roles brings about a greater consciousness of their ethnicity. But through this relationship Butler leaves the reader with hope. Dana's love for Kevin is what really pulls her through the most harrowing terrors she faces and in the end gives her the strength to survive this horrible test. KINDRED is written at the young adult level and moves along at a brisk pace. I highly recommend it for teenagers and adults. 27 of 27 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars A Note on the Passing of Ms. Butler, February 27, 2006 By  Laura B. Monteros - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    I heard today of the weekend passing of Octavia Butler. She is is in the "Hall of Fame" as an alumna of John Muir High School, Pasadena, which all four of my children attended. "Kindred" was, for many years, required reading at Muir. It was through this connection that I was introduced to her writing by my daughter. She is my youngest son's favorite author, a tribute to her ability to transcend gender, race, and age in presenting ideas that no one else could ever have imagined. We were looking forward to meeting her as part of Pasadena's "One City, One Story" program which had chosen "Kindred" as this year's selection. Butler was certainly not a "black author" in any limiting sense at all. She blasted open the SciFi gates of gender and color with her extraordinary vision, imagination, and courage. The choice of "Kindred" is a fitting tribute to the diversity of her hometowns of Pasadena and Altadena and the Pasadena Unifed School District in which she was educated. It is rare that a passing of someone I have not personally met so saddens me. She is in a world without limits now. 27 of 33 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Kindred ....to the whole human race, October 17, 2002 By  Maximiliano F Yofre "Maxi" (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    Not so long ago I've read for the first time a book from Ms Butler. I was immediately captivated by her amazing imagination and quality of her prose and became instantly a fan of the author. This first impression was corroborated as I read more of her writings. All her books showed a rich mixture of imagination, complex and interesting characters and conflictive situations to test their mettle. In "Kindred" the story is presented in a sci-fi framework, in order to give an entry point to a world distant more than a hundred years from us, but the substance is about getting in touch with slavery. Unearthing the relationships between slaveowners and slaves, drawing a huge fresco of that society. Dana, an Afro-American woman, is drawn time and again to the past with the specific mission of saving Rufus' life, the son of a slaveowner and his heir. Each time Dana is transported backward, the drama increases. Poignant and vivid scenes are shown, reaching deep into the reader's sensibility, but with an earnest and straightforward approach. You can't elude perceiving the "reality" of the world shown in this amazing book. After reading it, I keep wondering about what strange compulsion make a human being to despise another one based on racial, religious or even political or social differences, without perceiving that we are kindred to each other. Reviewed by Max Yofre.		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars pleasantly surprised This was a book club read, I was a bit skeptical on the choice, but was pleasantly surprised. We had quite a good discussion about it & the ending. Read more Published 5 days ago by G. Christensen 5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite so far!! I loved this book. I was sad to see it end. Butler really develops the characters well and through them you examine yourself to make sure that - even though slavery does not... Read more Published 17 days ago by C. Moultrie 4.0 out of 5 stars Contemporary History I thoroughly enjoyed this unique story merging 1976 and 1819. It was very convincing, especially as the main characters all expressed their disbelief. Read more Published 27 days ago by K. Bryant 4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Novel, But I Don't Think It's Butler's Best Work Kindred was the first Butler book I read, and I loved it (still do). It's simultaneously a poignant commentary on racism, a rollicking time travel novel, and filled with complex... Read more Published 1 month ago by Andrea Head 4.0 out of 5 stars Much can be learned reading this novel !!!!! Powerful novel. It made me more aware of the hardship and racial oppression African American lived in the antebellum south. Read more Published 1 month ago by Freddy M. Rivera 5.0 out of 5 stars Kindred was an outstanding work of fiction! This was a very moving book,didn't want to put it down. It made you think you were right there in the midst of what was going in that time period. Read more Published 2 months ago by B. Johnson 1.0 out of 5 stars Poor metadata from publisher This item cost $9.75. For an eBook at that price, you would think that the publisher would have the common decency to create metadata with the correct Author Name. Read more Published 3 months ago by Michael J. Ehling 5.0 out of 5 stars Favorite This is my favorite book. I read it in college. Butler is a wonderful writer. Published 3 months ago by JD 5.0 out of 5 stars Immediately engaging! Kindred is one of Octavia Butler's least fantasy books, but the realism makes the story that much more powerful. Read more Published 5 months ago by M. Oja 5.0 out of 5 stars Time Travel, with Soul Those seeking Octavia Butler's superlative science fiction may be disappointed with Kindred. She herself states that the novel is not science fiction, as "there isn't a bit of... Read more Published 6 months ago by Graceann Macleod Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

---

Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)

New! See all customer communities, and bookmark your communities to keep track of them.

This product's forum (1 discussion)   Discussion Replies Latest Post Science Fiction-Short Story 0 June 2008 › See all discussions...   [Start the discussion] Start a new discussion Topic: First post: Receive e-mail when new posts are made Prompts for sign-in   [Cancel] Guidelines Active discussions in related forums   Discussion Replies Latest Post science fiction ---does anyone know this book?--- 1 4 hours ago science fiction Saturn's Mysterious Six-sided Pole Cloud 13 4 hours ago science fiction Black Holes (under the New Model) 3 4 hours ago science fiction Wanted: No Humans 23 4 hours ago science fiction Wish there were more thought provoking, intellectual Sci-Fi movies 43 5 hours ago science fiction help finding book read in early 80s... 2 5 hours ago time travel Judge Bean's serialized time-travel novel 0 1 day ago time travel Books on time travel to the 1970's and 80's 5 2 days ago

The Slavery community Latest activity 4 hours ago 1,839 customers have contributed 1,711 products, 125 lists & guides and more... › Explore the community The Time Travel community Latest activity 2 hours ago 4,805 customers have contributed 2,215 products, 371 lists & guides and more... › Explore the community The Science Fiction community Latest activity 24 minutes ago 26,609 customers have contributed 25,018 products, 1,023 discussions and more... › Explore the community Related forums courageous... octavia e... (1 discussion) science fiction (1023 discussions) slavery (3 discussions) time travel (14 discussions) Explore more › See all Customer Communities › Your communities

---

Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)

Be the first person to add an article about this item at Amapedia.com.

› See featured Amapedia.com articles

---

Listmania!

Great books for/about strong women: A list by K. Roberts "amazonratz"   Circle of Friends II Book Club Favorites: A list by Phyllis M. Kusi   Single Black Professional Womens' Guide to Survival: A list by M. Hart "meldanyel" Create a Listmania! list

Search Listmania!

---

So You'd Like to...

Take Women's Lit 101 Without the Tuition Bill: A guide by Julie   Read a Dozen of the Best Women Writing SF: A guide by Chris Rachael Oseland   Be gripped by a book you can't put down: A guide by Ann "Ann" Create a guide

Search Guides

---

Look for Similar Items by Category

• Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > United States > African American
• Books > Nonfiction > Women's Studies
• Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( B ) > Butler, Octavia E.
• Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction

---

Smooth Operator Find garage door products (opener kits, remotes, mini-key-chain controls, and wireless-key entry systems) in the Hardware Store. Opening the garage door shouldn’t be a chore. ›Shop all garage door hardware

Big Savings in Books Find great titles at fantastic prices in our Bargain Books Store.

Buy Three Books, Get a Fourth Free Order any four eligible books under $10 and get the lowest-price book free in our 4-for-3 Books Store. See more details.

No X-ray Vision NeededExplore our wide variety of stud finders and scanners in the Home Improvement Store.

Ad feedback

 

Feedback If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? Is there any other feedback you would like to provide? Your comments can help make our site better for everyone. Please note that we are unable to respond directly to all feedback submitted via this form, but we'll ask you to sign in so we can contact you if needed.

Where's My Stuff? Track your recent orders. View or change your orders in Your Account. Shipping & Returns See our shipping rates & policies. See FREE shipping information. Return an item (here's our Returns Policy). Need Help? Forgot your password? Buy gift cards. Visit our Help department.

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)

You have no recently viewed items or searches. After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.	Continue shopping: Top Sellers Paranoia by Joseph Finder 4.1 out of 5 stars (183)$0.00 Glenn Beck's Common Sense by Glenn Beck 3.7 out of 5 stars (182)$6.59 Glenn Beck's Common Sense by Glenn Beck 3.7 out of 5 stars (182)$6.59 Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning 3.7 out of 5 stars (214)$0.00

Amazon.com Home  |   Directory of All Stores

International Sites:  Canada  |  United Kingdom  |  Germany  |  Japan  |  France  |  China

Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Build an eCommerce Site  |  Advertise With Us  |  Developer Services  |  Self-Publish with Us

Help  |  View Cart  |  Your Account  |  1-Click Settings

Investor Relations  |  Press Releases  |  Careers at Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage

Conditions of Use | Privacy Notice © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (September 15, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807083054
• ISBN-13: 978-0807083055
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (183 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #139,886 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #10 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > African American > Butler, Octavia E.
  #11 in	Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( B ) > Butler, Octavia E.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OUTSTANDING, August 31, 2004

By	C. Baker "[e-mail]" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Book Review by C. Douglas Baker

KINDRED is one of those rare novels that grabs you by the throat and doesn't let you go until the very end. From the first sentence, Butler's simple, straightforward prose moves the story quickly making it nearly impossible for the reader to put down.

Dana, a black woman living in Los Angeles in 1976, is inexplicably transported to 1815 to save the life of a small, red-haired boy on Maryland's Eastern Shore. It turns out this small boy, Rufus, is one of her white slave owning ancestors, who she knows very little about. Dana continues to be called into the past to save Rufus, and frequently stays long periods of time in the slave owning South. The only way she can get back to 1976 is to be in a life threatening situation. During her stays in the past she is forced to assume the role of a slave to survive. She is whipped. She is beaten. She is nearly raped, twice. She is forced to watch whippings and families being broken up. She learns to enjoy hard work as an escape from the other horrors of slave life. And she watches as a fairly unassuming small son of a plantation owner grows up to be a cruel, capricious, hot-tempered slave owner in his own right. And to be her great-grandfather many generations removed.

KINDRED is about slavery and the scars it has inflicted on American society. There are really three key factors Butler focuses on that reveal the ability of the South to institutionalize slavery. First there is the physical abuse. The constant work, especially the physically exhausting work of a field hand, kept slaves too tired to run or become insolent. Being ever on the verge of a lash or two for minor offenses kept slaves working to avoid punishment. Being beaten nearly to death after escape attempts made a slave reluctant to try again; especially if this is coupled with the abuse of the slave's family. Then there is the psychological abuse. The continual threat of being beaten or watching others be beaten broke the spirits of those in bondage. The worst punishment was sometimes having to watch a family member abused for your transgression. Encouraging slaves to marry and have children also deadened their desire to escape. Families made the slave settle down, gave him or her something to protect and care for. The selling off of a few family members had a damping effect on a slave's spirit. A most poignant example is the slave Sarah, the primary house slave; "Weylin had sold only three of her children, left her one to live for and protect". She rarely questioned slavery, thought little of freedom, because "she had lost all she could stand to lose". The risk of losing the one daughter she had left was too great. Slaves that escaped had to be willing to risk not only their own life but possibly the lives of their family.

The physical and psychological abuse imposed on the slave made it so much easier to accept one's lot in life and avoid the unpleasantries that recalcitrance entailed. 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 the slave owner. The slave owner is hated for the physical and psychological abuse imposed on the slave. But at the same time the slave loved the owner in a familial sense, even though the slave owner was seldom worthy of this. Thus slavery became for many the accepted norm of life, even if this acceptance was a tenuous and unhappy one at best. This acceptance was generational. Dana at one point espies children playing at selling each other on the auction block and haggling over price.

Many times throughout history sheer terror has been used to subdue a population and sap it of its strength. One only has to look at the Tsar's of Russia like Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and Stalin to realize the extent to which terror can be used to subjugate a people. The Southern aristocracy of the United States practiced a similar terror till 1864 and beyond.

There is much historical evidence for the Butler's depiction of slavery and its effects. KINDRED is patterned after the slave narratives becoming more widely read today. These include Frederick Douglass' NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AN AMERICAN SLAVE and Harriet A. Jacobs INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL. Butler could have depicted the beatings and physical abuse in more graphic detail to have a greater impact on the reader.

Slavery even has its effects in 1976. The scars Dana brings back to 1976 are symbolic of the scars slavery has left on contemporary society. Some will heal with time. Some can never heal. Others will scab over and be just below the surface. But they are all there. But in another sense healing has taken place. Dana is married to a white man, Kevin, who is transported to 1815 with her once. While there they both fall easily into the pattern or act of slave owner and slave concubine, roles they must assume to survive. The ease with which they fall into these roles brings about a greater consciousness of their ethnicity. But through this relationship Butler leaves the reader with hope. Dana's love for Kevin is what really pulls her through the most harrowing terrors she faces and in the end gives her the strength to survive this horrible test.

KINDRED is written at the young adult level and moves along at a brisk pace. I highly recommend it for teenagers and adults.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Note on the Passing of Ms. Butler, February 27, 2006

By	Laura B. Monteros - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I heard today of the weekend passing of Octavia Butler. She is is in the "Hall of Fame" as an alumna of John Muir High School, Pasadena, which all four of my children attended.

"Kindred" was, for many years, required reading at Muir. It was through this connection that I was introduced to her writing by my daughter. She is my youngest son's favorite author, a tribute to her ability to transcend gender, race, and age in presenting ideas that no one else could ever have imagined. We were looking forward to meeting her as part of Pasadena's "One City, One Story" program which had chosen "Kindred" as this year's selection.

Butler was certainly not a "black author" in any limiting sense at all. She blasted open the SciFi gates of gender and color with her extraordinary vision, imagination, and courage. The choice of "Kindred" is a fitting tribute to the diversity of her hometowns of Pasadena and Altadena and the Pasadena Unifed School District in which she was educated.

It is rare that a passing of someone I have not personally met so saddens me. She is in a world without limits now.

27 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kindred ....to the whole human race, October 17, 2002

By	Maximiliano F Yofre "Maxi" (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Not so long ago I've read for the first time a book from Ms Butler. I was immediately captivated by her amazing imagination and quality of her prose and became instantly a fan of the author. This first impression was corroborated as I read more of her writings.
All her books showed a rich mixture of imagination, complex and interesting characters and conflictive situations to test their mettle.
In "Kindred" the story is presented in a sci-fi framework, in order to give an entry point to a world distant more than a hundred years from us, but the substance is about getting in touch with slavery. Unearthing the relationships between slaveowners and slaves, drawing a huge fresco of that society.
Dana, an Afro-American woman, is drawn time and again to the past with the specific mission of saving Rufus' life, the son of a slaveowner and his heir. Each time Dana is transported backward, the drama increases. Poignant and vivid scenes are shown, reaching deep into the reader's sensibility, but with an earnest and straightforward approach. You can't elude perceiving the "reality" of the world shown in this amazing book. After reading it, I keep wondering about what strange compulsion make a human being to despise another one based on racial, religious or even political or social differences, without perceiving that we are kindred to each other.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.