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

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What Members Thought

Dec 23, 2012 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: around-the-usa, location-usa-maryland, sci-fi-fantasy, read2015, own, time-travel

ETA: This was discussed on Episode 045 of the Reading Envy Podcast.

I had this on my shelf for years, my intended read for Maryland for my ongoing attempt to read a book set in every state. When my Misfit Readers group picked it, I finally picked it up.

I waited too long! This novel is masterful. For people who shy away from science fiction writers, and think of Butler associated with post-apocalyptic religions and alien novels, this would be a better novel to try. There is time travel here but i ...more

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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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Sep 10, 2013 Andi rated it it was amazing

It will take me a while to think through why this book is so powerful. And even then, I know some of its power is inaccessible to me. Still, absolutely amazing.

2 likes · Like · see review

Sep 14, 2018 Clifford rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, sci-fi

This is a good story and important--the experience of a 20th century black woman who experiences 19th century slavery through the "joys" of time travel, but is shunned by other slaves for being too "white." But given Butler's reputation, I had higher expectations for the writing, which I found clunky. From a craft point of view, it's interesting to note that she uses the structure of beginning with a glimpse of the story's climax and then goes back to the beginning to show the reader how the cha ...more

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Oct 19, 2017 Loretta rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, sci-fi-and-fantasy

After reading James Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son, I went down a bit of a rabbit-hole. I've started and almost finished Uncle Tom's Cabin, which I found challenging to read because of the language and stereotypes (but it got easier as I went along, and I'm almost finished it now); I've just started Native Son by Richard Wright; and then I needed something to read for the car so I went with Kindred, because Butler has been on my to be read list for ages.

I loved this book. The narration was exc After reading James Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son, I went down a bit of a rabbit-hole. I've started and almost finished Uncle Tom's Cabin, which I found challenging to read because of the language and stereotypes (but it got easier as I went along, and I'm almost finished it now); I've just started Native Son by Richard Wright; and then I needed something to read for the car so I went with Kindred, because Butler has been on my to be read list for ages.

I loved this book. The narration was excellent. But the story is what is outstanding. I might have more to say after finishing Uncle Tom's Cabin and Native Son, but what I think Butler accomplished really well, using the device of the modern woman being dropped into the antebellum south, was depicting, in a way, the banality of evil. That slave owners could be monsters, but they could also be human beings, recognizable characters but caught up and deformed by an institution that deformed everyone human being it touched. One good reads review I read was upset that the Weylans weren't "evil" enough, but I think that is exactly the point. I think Butler clearly exposes the utter evil and dehumanization brought about by an institution that allows the ownership, sale and purchase of human beings - and shows that it dehumanizes not just the slaves (although of course they pay all the costs of this system), but also the owners, and the bystanders, and everyone who works in and benefits from this society. And it's too easy when the portrait of slave-owners is a demon - it's too easy for white people to sniff and condemn and NOT RECOGNIZE that even though THEY could never be that evil, their ancestors were never owners, that all white people were complicit and part of the system, whether or not they actually whipped a slave. That slave owners and those who benefited from the institution were not different from us. They were us. We are them. Forgetting that (and encouraging the forgetting of that) is what the system of white supremacy urges upon us and encourages every day. We can't forget it.

When I saw the movie Schinder's list, I was struck at one point by Ralph Fiennes' portrayal of the Nazi soldier - I saw that in today's society, he'd be a sleazy used car salesman - dishonest, getting away with whatever trickery he could, probably abusive to his wife but not a "monster". But in a society in which that kind of evil was encouraged and allowed to flourish, he became a monster. And looking around the world today, it's a different form of monstrosity which is being encouraged and flourishing - but not that different. And it is being encouraged. And we can't pretend our society is immune from that kind of bigotry because clearly, we're not.

And this is why I loved this book. It was populated by real people, in a real society that we aren't that far removed from. And we can't forget that reality. ...more

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Jul 05, 2008 Allyse rated it really liked it

A really enjoyable read. I'm not sure why I didn't have it on before as I read this years ago but if you like time travel and character studies...a very good pic. I'm considering a re-read. ...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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Oct 29, 2014 SooYoung rated it really liked it

So Butler's Wild Seed was one of my favorite books in high school/college, i've read it countless times. Kindred is the only other book I read by Butler, and I did so nearly 10 years after picking up Wild Seed. It's not what I expected, but it was quite good. The plot in general: a black woman travels between her present time in 19070s California and late 19th century Maryland. Her travels are directly connected to her ancestor in Maryland--the son of a white plantation owner.

The dynamic/bond b ...more

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Jul 26, 2010 Lee rated it really liked it

Not as good a read as The Time Traveler, but homed in on the issue of traveling to a place and time so unlike your own, and dangerous.
Time traveling books fascinate me.

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