A CLASSIC MUST-READ FOR MODERN TIMES
Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred, first published in 1979, is an incredible novel. Though it’s speculative fiction utilizing time travel, much of its focus is showing a glimpse into the past, and the way the author incorporated so much about society into such a well-paced story is nothing short of brilliant. It’s a book I find difficult to recommend because it’s filled with ugliness and brutality due to its forthright examination of slavery, and as such, may be too grim for some to endure. The choices the characters make seem questionable with modern day trains of thought. Yet, I want to recommend it to everyone because it is a powerful book showing exactly what fiction can be.
Kindred tells the story of Dana, a black woman suddenly transported from 1976 to the antebellum South. She has no idea how she got from her living room to a riverbank and does not even realize that she’s in a completely different century from whence she came: all she knows is that a redheaded child is about to drown before her eyes if she doesn’t do something about it. Without hesitation, Dana jumps into the water, pulls the boy to shore, and saves his life using artificial respiration—but soon fears saving his life will cost her own when she turns around to find herself facing the boy’s father and his rifle.
Dana is convinced she is about to be killed but instead ends up back in her house as suddenly as she left. Her husband only saw her disappear for a couple of seconds and can barely believe her account of what happened to her even though she returned drenched and muddy. Dana can hardly believe it herself and dreads the thought of it happening again—and later that evening, it does.
Once again, Dana sees a child in danger: a lone child with red hair a few years older than the drowning boy, this time standing in front of burning draperies. She puts out the fire and prevents the house from going up in flames but is not sent home immediately after the threat is gone, as she was before. Dana learns that this boy, named Rufus, is the child she pulled out of the river earlier, now a few years older, and that not only is she in a different state but also a different time: the year 1815. As she converses with him, she comes to realize that this boy, the son of a slave owner, is the exact same Rufus recorded as one of her ancestors in the family Bible that was passed down to her. Somehow, they are connected by more than blood and he seems to be able to pull her into his time whenever he’s in trouble—and does so throughout his lifetime, again and again, sometimes keeping Dana in the 1800s for a long time.
Time Traveling
Before Kindred, my only experience with Octavia Butler’s work was her novel Parable of the Sower. With a wonderful main character, I found it more interesting of a book than Kindred, but both are gripping and reflective. Kindred doesn’t spend a lot of time introducing Dana and her life in the present timeline (although it does fill in some details about her relationship with her husband Kevin and both their families’ displeasure with their interracial marriage later) but, instead, quickly plunges into her trips to the past. I would have preferred if more detail was written about Kevin and Dana’s relationship, Kevin seemed a bit naïve when it came to deeper matters of race and social expectations. From the very beginning, I liked Dana and was also quite frustrated on her behalf as she kept getting pulled backwards in time to rescue her accident-prone ancestor, often from his own folly. Dana is practical, compassionate, and far tougher than she gives herself credit for being, and the main reason I was glued to the book was to find out what happened to her. Though based on the time it was written, it took me a few chapters to understand her lack of anger and rage. Her ancestor is clearly going to grow into being a terrible person and the question of nature and nurture is apparent but I think it’s wasted on the character. I repeatedly kept asking to myself, “Why don’t you kill this little boy right now and save generations of your family from slavery?”
Even though it is technically a book about time travel, I didn’t think that was the primary focus of Kindred. The basic idea of what’s happening to Dana and Rufus’ identity is revealed early, but how Rufus managed to pull her into his time or why precisely she went back instead of another is never explained. Dana definitely has an impact on the past as she saves Rufus several times and becomes an important figure in his life, but it’s not a book that’s about accidentally making major changes affecting the present or one that dwells too much on the butterfly effect (although Dana does have some concerns about what would happen to Rufus’ daughter Hagar and the rest of her line, including herself, if she were to fail to save him before he can father this child). Most of Kindred takes place in the past and shows Dana’s attempts to survive there, allowing readers to see events firsthand through her eyes as a black woman from the late 1900s transported to the antebellum South.
You Can Handle the Truth
As such, it’s often a distressing story. When Dana returns to the present the first time after nearly being shot, she’s traumatized and her time in the past only gets worse from there as she witnesses firsthand—and is subject to—the inhumane treatment of slaves. She describes seeing someone beaten and how shockingly different it is from televised violence, as she can smell their sweat and hear their cries. She observes a chilling game played by slave children in which they pretend to sell each other to the highest bidder. It includes racial slurs, violence, and rape: it is unflinchingly honest when depicting the atrocities human beings are capable of committing.
Kindred is frightening because, despite the time travel and fictional characters, it’s rooted in history and mirrors society. I felt one line in particular that Dana uttered during a conversation with Kevin struck to the heart of this novel: “I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery” (101). It shows how the attitudes that permeate society reinforce racial inequality, and how it can be easy to be an observer of injustice, especially the further one is from being personally affected by it. Dana herself at times felt like an observer as a visitor from the past, but her white husband found it easier to dismiss the treatment of slaves as not as bad as he may have expected instead of seeing it as plenty bad enough.
Kindred is plot-driven and I didn’t find the characters particularly deep. Rufus was amongst the more memorable ones. He could be kind when he got his way, but cruel when he didn’t. He behaved irrationally and often threw tantrums. But he felt realistic. With a brutal father whose violence extended to his child and with the prevailing norms for white people, I could see how he had become the man he was.
The slave Alice, Dana’s other ancestor, had an interesting storyline. All the way through, she struggled with the same dilemma, which has been described in books about concentration camps. As a favorite of Rufus’, she could make life so much easier for herself by being nice to him. On the other hand, she would betray every principle she’d ever believed in.
Generally, I found the descriptions of the dynamics between (and within) various groups in the community compelling and, I suspect, accurate.
The Finale
Whilst utterly readable, Kindred didn’t quite live up to my high expectations, though. Besides the repetitive structure and lack of character depth, I didn’t love the writing and the ending fell flat. However, as a portrayal of life as a slave, this novel gets top marks.
Seeing Rufus at different points in time also shows a boy who could have grown up to be kind under different circumstances. As a child, he’s certainly absorbed what society has taught him and repeats what he’s learned from his parents, but Dana actually likes him and has hope that maybe, just maybe, she can be a positive influence and he won’t end up like his cruel father. Yet, he turns out to be largely terrible, though he and even his father still have moments when they are not completely heartless, making their more horrific moments all the more disquieting.
Kindred is the absorbing tale of a young woman forced to navigate the troubled waters of a hostile era she’s only experienced through books and television, and it’s also an in-depth examination of society, particularly racial inequality and its reinforcement. Given its exploration of slavery and related themes, much of it is quite harrowing, but it’s all the more powerful and memorable because of its candidness bringing the worst of humanity to light. Even though much of what is described is common knowledge, the way Octavia Butler presents it through Dana’s perspective is particularly impactful, and it’s tragic how relevant this story is in the year 2023.
Thank you for reading our book review about Kindred by Octavia E. Butler. We are not affiliated with the publisher, but here’s the link to pick up a copy.
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Lee Knight Jr. is a poetry slam expert, performing on stages around the United States and Europe since 2001, finishing 4th place in the National Poetry Slam individual competition in 2006. He’s also been a coach and member of eight poetry slam teams which competed in the National Poetry Slam, helping Team Berkeley and Team Palo Alto win group piece finals in 2009 and 2014, respectively. He loves to read and is excited to write more book reviews. Please click here to go to his Blog Archive.