Kindred

Locations
Call Number: Science Fiction / Butler, Octavia, Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / Classic / Butler, Octavia
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Pittsfield Branch, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Science Fiction / Butler, Octavia	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Science Fiction / Butler, Octavia	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Science Fiction / Butler, Octavia	4-week checkout	Due 05-17-2024
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Science Fiction / Butler, Octavia	4-week checkout	Due 05-20-2024
Pittsfield Adult Books 2-week checkout	Express Shelf Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / Classic / Butler, Octavia	2-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 2-week checkout	Express Shelf Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / Classic / Butler, Octavia	2-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / Classic / Butler, Octavia	4-week checkout	Due 05-17-2024
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / Classic / Butler, Octavia	4-week checkout	Due 05-18-2024
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / Classic / Butler, Octavia	4-week checkout	Due 05-05-2024
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / Classic / Butler, Octavia	4-week checkout	Due 04-29-2024

Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned across the years to save him. After this first summons, Dana is drawn back, again and again, to the plantation to protect Rufus and ensure that he will grow to manhood and father the daughter who will become Dana's ancestor. Yet each time Dana's sojourns become longer and more dangerous, until it is uncertain whether or not her life will end, long before it has even begun.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Summary / Annotation
Table of Contents
Fiction Profile
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Interesting read.... submitted by christenbjohnson on June 10, 2008, 2:41pm When you read a lot of books, you really do find out that they're really all the same 5-10 stories told in different ways. It's the job of the author to make you think his way is the best: the most innovative, the most poetic, the most thrilling, the most heart pulling. Octavia Butler has definitely put a new spin on an old tale. Here the slave novella meets science fiction. And I can't say I know many authors are brave enough to tread such peculiar territory. To her credit, Ms. Butler does keep her reader engaged but sometimes it's only because the reader is hoping the absurdity will make some sense along the way. Inconsistent in prose and not particularly lyrical, this book won't do much to quench a thirst for the poetic. But the story does drive in action from start to bizarre finish. It's a fun summer read and brings some interesting history to light but not one I couldn't live without.
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Best!

Kindred submitted by DBJC on June 17, 2014, 10:43am There aren't many sci fi books that feature people of color, so I'm glad that I found this book and picked it up. I also haven't read any science fiction books that jumped into slave territory. As in, the main character from a current time goes back in time...to slavery. Now, I know that would suck. And as this book portrayed, slaverydoes actually suck. I was engaged throughout the entire book, and it was thrilling and suspenseful enough to the point where I finished it in a weekend even with my busy schedule. It definitely has interesting premise with a plot that is unusual and maybe a bit uncomfortable and inconvenient for certain readers. But Octavia Butler is an author that chooses to boldly step forward into a time period that is often talked about but yet forgotten. The book is a reminder that the past should not be forgotten no matter how long ago it was because it still affects the present. I do have to admit that the ending is a bit strange, though inventive. Though it is strange, it's not surprising since it's science fiction and in the science fiction world, anything can happen. I wouldn't openly recommend this book to anyone because of the subject matter, but if you want a taste in a different kind of science fiction, experience a life that you would never experience, or just read for the thrill of it, I would lay this book down on the table in front of you. It's not a hard read, and it's not a slow read either, so why not pick up a small book and read it if not for any other reason?

Tackles deep moral questions submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on July 2, 2015, 10:18am An extraordinary fantasy that challenges our conceptions of the lives of women in slavery and of the moral absolutes that we would like to believe in.

Written in 1979 (and so the characters are contemporary to their time), Dana and Kevin move into a house in 1976. As she is unpacking, Dana feels dizzy, then finds herself outdoors on a riverbank, where she sees a child drowning. She jumps in and saves him to the apparent astonishment of the mother and sudden barrel of a gun from the father. Then she feels dizzy again, and finds herself back in the living room, but wet and muddy and on the other side of the room. Many minutes elapsed for her, but only seconds for Kevin. These episodes repeat, and they work out that the boy (Rufus) brings Dana to him in 1815 Maryland when his life is in danger, and she (but not he) knows that he is actually her many-times-great-grandfather. She is sent back to 1976 LA when her life is in danger. She goes to Maryland repeatedly and for extended periods of time.

But as a Black woman from the 1970's, Dana's conception of the lives of slaves, and of slave *women* in particular, and experiencing that life is the difference between a brisk breeze and stepping outside into a Polar Vortex deep freeze without a coat. She refuses to give up her independence and prerogatives, and yet living in a slave state without free papers, she knows that she stands at severe risk of losing all liberties if those around her cease to grant her those prerogatives.

_Kindred_ tackles deep moral questions. Rufus instigates and performs abominable acts. Dana can't let him die without ending her own family lineage before it even begins. He threatens women she cares about as a way of gaining her assistance. He wants her to coerce her many-times-great-grandmother into having sex with him, which will essentially be consensual rape. What should Dana do?

The differences and parallels between Rufus and Kevin are subtle but fascinating. Both men care for her and say that they want to value her on her own terms... yet want her to do their secretarial work for them. Only one has the power to force that to happen. Both want to protect her for her own good; both would force her to their definition of protection.

Oliver used the fantasy tool of time travel to great effect to explore a new (imagined, but well researched) slave narrative, and the juxtaposition of modern freedoms against slavery's limits was challenging to tackle as a reader, but worth the journey.

Through a fluke of when reserve books came available at the library, I read this book back to back with Sue Monk Kidd's _The Invention of Wings_, a fictionalized version of the life of abolitionist Sarah Grimke and the slave girl given to her on her 11th birthday. Reading these two books together was a fortuitous and deeply meaningful pairing toward having a greater understanding of what life was like for slave women.

Not your normal sci-fi submitted by steveiew on July 27, 2017, 4:47pm While categorized as sci-fi this book seemed more like fiction with historical fiction mixed in. The story was compelling and heartbreaking.

Beautiful and Cruel and so very Engaging submitted by modestpastry on July 16, 2019, 10:41am After I finished reading Kindred I found myself immediately wanting so much more. Even though it was time appropriately cruel, heart-wrenchingly painful at times, I couldn't help feeling a yearning to know more about Dana's life afterwards. That's truly how good this book is, how arrestingly written and beautiful.

Thought-provoking submitted by jaromatorio on July 24, 2020, 11:15am 'Kindred' tells the story of Dana, a young Black woman living in 1976 who, on the day of her 26th birthday, is abruptly transported from her comfortable California home to a brutal plantation in the antebellum American South. There she discovers that Rufus--the white son of the planation owner--is drowning, and it's up to her to save him. Throughout the course of the book Dana is summoned back to the plantation time and again to rescue Rufus from perilous situations, but each time she returns, her stays grow longer and more arduous-putting her own life at risk.⠀
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I'll start by saying that I really liked this book, but I acknowledge that my thoughts on a story like this are totally informed by my whiteness-if I had a more personal connection to slavery there's a chance I would feel very differently. As such-feel free to take this review with a grain of salt!⠀
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That being said, I think this story was well done, and pretty progressive for 1979 (though I would expect the book to be fairly different if written in 2020). I thought the author did a decent job encapsulating the horrors of the antebellum South while also highlighting the complex (and often psychologically torturous) relationships and heirarchies that existed on plantations. It seemed that the author tried to give even the most abhorrent players a tiny sliver of humanity, which, though hard to stomach most of the time, gave the characters and story some interesting nuance.⠀
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I do wish this book had been a little longer and more well developed-I especially I would've loved to get more back story on all of the characters (and Dana in particular!). However, there was hardly any time for that because this book starts off FAST--the first time Dana is transported to the plantation is on page two--and things don't really slow down from there. There were no lulls in the story whatsoever which made this an enjoyable page-turner, but at the same time, I think the story could've benefitted from a bit more build-up and background.⠀

A worthwhile read submitted by CarolSeidl on June 29, 2021, 9:04pm This story is very interesting. It contains so many characters that are worthy of analysis. I had to read it for a class, and as I am usually not a fan of historical fiction, I was not super excited about it. However, it definitely exceeded my expectations. It is very fast-paced and incorporates many elements of science fiction.

Wow! submitted by Xris on November 20, 2021, 4:34pm It keeps you on your toes the whole time, even though you know what happens in the end. Interesting premise of being brought back in time & space to help an ancestor. Horribly realistic in its history of how people were treated. I would recommend it to people!

Interesting story, but writing is artless submitted by 21621031390949 on June 15, 2023, 2:18pm A pretty interesting book about time travel to the dangerous and cruel antebellum South. It was engaging, but I’m baffled at the reviews that describe it as “well-written.” I found it to be simplistic, and it read like a YA novel. Dialogue was sometimes unclear in its meaning, and I noticed a couple of grammatical errors in the narrative that were not intended. The author does drive home the brutality toward slaves of the time and also depicts the confused emotional attachments in slave/master or mistress relationships. It might help the reader to understand the learned helplessness and subservience of the oppressed. But there is no grace, beauty or artfulness in the writing that would make me want to read more by this author.

Butler's foray into historical fiction is a masterpiece submitted by CharleneMangi on August 5, 2023, 1:30pm I love Octavia Butler's parable of the sower series. Kindred is remarkably different in style, but still has such a strong depth of characters, fascinating and imaginative plot and thoughtful commentary about society.

Historical sci-fi submitted by khrobinson on August 5, 2023, 10:26pm An interracial couple travels through time and finds themselves in the antebellum south. A beautiful, imaginative, and sometimes difficult story, it has recently been adapted as a mini-series.