Book: Kindred
Author: Octavia E. Butler
Country: United States of America
Review: 5/5
This is one of those books that you simply cannot put down.
While writing about tragic, unjust, and horrific topics, Butler writes in straightforward prose and her words are engaging. While I’m not always a fan of time travel as it often creates complex messes and more questions that can be answered, this was a unique and fitting way for Butler to bring current-day readers into history. It shows us who people were, instead of representing them as facts and statistics. I was surprised to find out this book was written roughly 40 years ago: it could have easily been written today as it was in the 70s. Octavia E. Butler has made her voice strong within the sci-fi and creative space, as a black person and a woman, she made her mark where many others of the time had not. I first read the graphic novel adaptation (Damian Duffy and John Jennings) which I also highly recommend! It should be noted that while Butler is known for her science-fiction, this is NOT marketed to be sci-fi, as quoted by Butler, it has no science in it whatsoever, it should be considered a “grim fantasy”: the time travel acts more as a plot device, helping to shape character and their relationships.
Most of us always look at history, or the horrible things happening around the world and think, “I wouldn’t put up with that. I would have made a difference and not just sit still.” But, as we are shown through Dana’s story, this isn’t the case. I can only hope in these situations that I would speak up for what is right, but more likely, and I hate to admit it, I would be afraid and do whatever I could to stay safe. Dana speaks about this truth from her current-day perspective, “The ease. Us, the children… I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery”.
This book easily could go even further into the topics of slavery and racism that it discusses, and I think that may be one of the things that people find wrong with it, however, the book leaves readers room to think and speculate about the complexity of rebelling against slavery. During this year’s resurgence of the black lives matter movement, I (as a young, white woman) really focused time on reading books surrounding the topic of racism, using stories to further educate myself. Other books were slow to read, overly descriptive where they didn’t need to be, and they felt quite dated. This in comparison went farther back in time but focused more on comparing then and now. I was worried the time travel element would take away from the horrific subjects discussed, but instead, it helped to centre my attention in this story.
I chose this book for the States for reason that slavery is an incredibly influential piece of US history that needs to be talked about and learned from. “The American Dream” was a popular idea that was attainable only by a select type of person, not the real people who upheld and suffered for the country.
Stay tuned for other book recommendations for this country and other countries, and follow my journey on Instagram @beyondpageone and find more reviews on my GoodReads page: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/116494925-kaitlyn-nightingale Thank you and happy reading!
Feature image from Goodreads.