Kindred in Buddy Reads

Feb 20, 2023 Steph rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook-kindle, first-read-in-2023, poc-author, historical-fic, buddyreads-bookclub, poc-characters, time-travel

a very harrowing read, but this is a classic, and an important one. the essay at the end of my copy refers to kindred as a neo slave narrative, which is fascinating itself. this type of book is uniquely positioned to not only show us the gruesome realities of slavery in the pre civil war US, but also to place slavery in the larger context of all the history that has come after it.

it's a time travel novel, and one of the strangest things about it is how everyone goes with the flow of the jarring a very harrowing read, but this is a classic, and an important one. the essay at the end of my copy refers to kindred as a neo slave narrative, which is fascinating itself. this type of book is uniquely positioned to not only show us the gruesome realities of slavery in the pre civil war US, but also to place slavery in the larger context of all the history that has come after it.

it's a time travel novel, and one of the strangest things about it is how everyone goes with the flow of the jarring passage through time. our protagonist, dana, is remarkably chill about the fact that she's flung from her cozy life in 1975 and onto a 19th century plantation on the other side of the country. i was often thrown off by her relatively relaxed attitude, though perhaps it's a storytelling device... we are able to learn much more when we're following a character who isn't freaking the fuck out. or perhaps it's her way of survival, and i am not as strong as she is in such crisis.

dana is deemed untrustworthy by many people on the 19th century plantation, black and white, because she is so different from all of them. she wears pants rather than dresses, and everyone believes she speaks too "educated" for a black person in the south. this really drives home the extreme privilege of education and power of literacy. slaves are forbidden from learning to read because it does give them an advantage, and any power they have is a threat to their oppressors. this an important reminder for the 21st century reader, because so many of us take our literacy for granted.

and as another powerful reminder, the story really drives home how recent slavery is in our history. how far have we come in these few hundred years, in this country that was founded on white supremacy? regardless of our biological connections, those of us in the US occupy spaces that were sites of slavery just a few hundred years ago. and it's obviously not a fun history to think about. it's ugly, brutal, violent, dehumanizing. but should this history be a larger part of our cultural consciousness?

while it is undoubtedly an important read. i had always heard of kindred as an early classic in african american scifi, so i was surprised to find it reads like historical fiction, rather than scifi or fantasy. butler herself referred to it as a "grim fantasy," but not as scifi.

and maybe the genre classification isn't terribly important, but i think it's a shame that the story doesn't lean into its fantastical elements at all. there is zero speculation on the cause of the phenomena, the existential implications of time travel, the possibility of the butterfly effect. dana travels through time again and again, and spends multiple years in the past, interacting with her ancestors. why doesn't she ponder any of the sciencey shit at all?? i don't think the novel would have to be drastically changed by this speculation. but while reading i was thinking a lot about the implications and possible changes to history that might occur by making yourself at home in the past for a little while. it would have been nice to see at least a nod to the impact. dana saves her ancestor rufus's life again and again, but we never see any evidence of any of her actions (other than her own existence).

another thing that strikes me as strange is all the emphasis on rufus rather than alice. rufus's life being in jeopardy is what triggers dana's jumps back in time, presumably so she can save him and ensure that he will live long enough to conceive hogar, her great great (great?) grandmother. but dana also shares space with alice, hogar's mother. i wish we had seen more of dana's relationship with alice. she doesn't seem to have much reverence for alice as an ancestor. it's mentioned that they look alike and that they fight like sisters when they're together, but we don't see much of their bond.

rufus is detestable, of course. wholly detestable, and i love the complexity of dana's relationship with him as an ancestor that she must save. it's very bleak every time she jumps past years of his life... meeting him first as a kiddo who doesn't know any better than to refer to her using the N word, then as a teen, still naïve but less innocent, and then as an adult, as he turns into a dehumanizing rapist, inherits his father's slaves, becomes the monster he was always born to be. it's fucking grim.

i really appreciate dana's interracial relationship with her husband, kevin. apparently butler said she put kevin into the book to complicate dana's life, which certainly happens when the two travel back in time together and must play the role of slave and master. lots of deep questions here about the impact our culture has on us, and how we can become a product of our time even when we're from another time.

the novel in general has many big questions like this, and i often wished it spent more time pondering the answers. but maybe it doesn't need to. ...more

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Feb 09, 2021 Lesa Divine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: my-2023-tbr-rereads, favorite-list, i-own, read-it, 2021, botm-selection

To time travel to the past. To be a black woman in the 1970's and time travel back to slavery time omg. Dana had it hard.
But why travel back to continue to save this red head white boy? She wonders. She finds out what.

But to keep going back to have her time move forward in the past but pop back in her own time to find she hasn't been gone long.

Living in the past isn't easy at all for Dana it's hard scary. Never know if she will be punished for just anything. From whites or her own kind.
She's bl ...more

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Sep 25, 2021 Christine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

"That's history. It happened whether it offends you or not."

We are intruded to Dana, a woman dealing with losing her forearm; it is evident that Dana has been through something traumatic. In the next chapter, it is revealed that Dana, for reasons unknown, can shift through time. The first time, Dana witnesses a small boy drowning. After saving the young boy, Dana is faced with a shotgun before finding herself back in 1976.

This shift leaves Dana confused and scared as she doesn't understand the
"That's history. It happened whether it offends you or not."

We are intruded to Dana, a woman dealing with losing her forearm; it is evident that Dana has been through something traumatic. In the next chapter, it is revealed that Dana, for reasons unknown, can shift through time. The first time, Dana witnesses a small boy drowning. After saving the young boy, Dana is faced with a shotgun before finding herself back in 1976.

This shift leaves Dana confused and scared as she doesn't understand the reason for her change through time. However, within a few days, Dana finds herself saving the boy again, this time after he set fire to his house drapes. After rescuing the young boy, Rufus Weylin, Dana is told she is at the Weylin plantation in 1815; after this reveal, Dana realizes that Rufus Weylin is one of her descendants.

After Dana saves Rufus from being killed, Isaac, Alice Greenwood's, another one of Dana's descendants, husband, it's after saving Rufus's life that Dana pieces together the sexual assault that Rufus inflicted on Alice. After learning of this, Dana advises Rufus to let Alice live her life with her husband. Dana's advice goes ignored by Rufus as he buys Alice after she is caught and sold. Rufus's dependency on Dana results in Dana's involvement with her existence. Rufus demands that Dana advises Alice to go to him without a fight. Knowing that her existence is wrapped in this sexual enslavement, she doesn't pressure Alice to go to Rufus and tells her it is her decision. In the end, Alice, traumatized by her experience with the slave catchers, goes to Rufus while dealing with the mental toll it takes on her. The situation is bizarre, especially since Rufus threatens not to send her letters to Kevin unless Alice accepts him. This whole conversation is uncomfortable, and Dana, in the end, doesn't feel any malice or view him negatively as Rufus has made her an accomplice in just one of his many violent actions.

Even as Dana is trying to make sense of her lineage and the dark nature of her linage, the looming danger of slavery is always apparent for Dana. The severe beatings to the mental toll of trying to survive causes Dana from being too comfortable at the Weylin Plantation and shows that slavery, regardless of the severity towards a slave the institution of slavery is inherently evil. This plagues Dana as she is envied by others and considered a traitor by other slaves, which results in her being treated as an "other" by both the slaves and slave owners. The complexity of slavery for people's mental state is rampant throughout the novel; as Dana is aware of the horrors of slavery, those horrors rarely touch her, and when they do, she is told this is their reality, and thus she is helpless. The helplessness weights on Dana, but this also has her feeling guilt as she can go back to her form of freedom but mentality she isn't free from the horrors she endured.

Kindred is a book about a black woman's complex role during slavery. As she is a primary factor in her existence, that existence depends on the sexual enslavement of her ancestor. It is a dark origin that she has to live with after returning to 1976. It is an excellent book regarding the horrors of slavery and the dealings with those horrors in the present day.

...more

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Oct 06, 2016 Rachel rated it it was amazing

I'm hesitant to call this science-fiction. More like historical fiction with science-fiction elements. There's more focus about the life in the past and not a lot of explanation as to how or why Dana pops back to antebellum south to defend one of her ancestors.

I'm sure there have been comparisons to Outlander Outlander and The Time Traveler's Wife, and I would almost call this a hybrid of the two--concept-wise. The tension in this is immediately high because we have a black woman in plantation Ma ...more

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