Kindred

If I had to sum up the book in one phrase, I'd say that this book is Murphy's law applied to time travel. Everything that can go wrong does, and at the worst possible time."Kindred" is technically classified as sci-fi, but it is a genre-bending novel that also incorporates elements of historical fiction. It tells the story of Dana, a modern black woman from California who is pulled back in time to the early 1800s in Maryland to rescue her distant white ancestor Rufus when his life is endangered. Dana makes six visits to the past during the course of the novel and is only able to return home when she believes that her own life is threatened.Dana is forced to confront the horrors of slavery as she spends time in the past and struggles with her own identity as she is swept into life on the plantation. Meanwhile, she finds herself in the rather awkward (and completely f'ed up) position of having to make sure that Rufus has sex with a woman named Alice so that her ancestors would be born and she wouldn't flicker out of existence a la "Back to the Future.""Kindred" is such a powerful story because Dana is so easy to identify with. She's intelligent, resourceful, and a very much a product of modern life. When we see slavery from the eyes of someone from our own world it makes everything seem so much more real than it would in a typical historical fiction novel. We see Dana react to the past in a multitude of different ways, ranging from her initial realization that she wasn't in 1976 anymore when kid-Rufus used a racial slur against her to the panic at realizing that medicine in the early 1800s could be downright scary (bloodletting? leeches? gross!). It's extreme culture shock on a multitude of different levels, but Dana eventually finds herself adapting and learning to understand the mindset of surviving the violence and dehumanization that her ancestors faced.One of the things that I also enjoyed about this book was seeing Dana's relationship with her husband Kevin. She and Kevin are both writers and are very clearly soulmates. We see some of her backstory with Kevin, including the way that both of their families handled the fact that they were an interracial couple (badly, of course). However, the problems that Dana and Kevin face in the modern world pale in comparison to the harsh reality of life in the 1800s.Dana discovers that anything she's carrying when she gets pulled into the past goes with her, so she packs herself a bag and on one occasion even takes her husband with her. Kevin tries to use his social standing to protect her, but that doesn't make Dana's experience of the past any less dangerous.I read "Kindred" in one sitting and was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Butler's writing is articulate and powerful, and she is able to make readers not just see the past but also feel it. "Kindred" is one of the best books that I've ever read, and I'd highly recommend it.

Once I started reading this book I could not put it down until the very last word. It is absolutely captivating, and at the same time quite disturbing.The book is a mix of science fiction and historical fiction, blended perfectly by the author to thoroughly engross the reader in the story without going into distracting detail of the sci-fi component. Briefly, a 26 year old black woman, Dana, (from California of 1976), is "called" back to Maryland in the early 1800's to repeatedly rescue the life of a white plantation owner's son, Rufus. She is transported back in time on five different occasions to rescue Rufus, and in the meantime, she experiences first-hand the degradations and horrific oppressions of plantation slavery. She cannot control her time travel, but comes to realize that she is only transported back to 1976 when her life is about to end.During Dana's visits back in time, she becomes aware that Rufus is her "Kindred", a great-great-great grandfather, and if he dies prematurely before fathering a certain child, Dana will likely cease to exist. In one trip back in time, her current husband, Kevin, a white man, accidentally returns with her, creating more complications when Dana is transported back to Los Angeles without him.Throughout her five trips back in time, Dana tries to prevent Rufus from becoming like his abominable father, who uses the constant fear of physical and corporal punishment to keep his slaves from rebelling and running. Despite her efforts to change Rufus, Dana is greatly disturbed by Rufus's slow but inevitable transformation into a slave master, a man of his his time period. Their complicated relationship creates the tension in this disturbing story. She holds an unspoken but real power of life and death over him and likewise; he holds the power of life, death, and freedom over her. He needs her just as much as she needs him. Their final and climactic interaction is stunning, and the reader literally will not want to put down the book until the last word.This is an absolutely engrossing account of Dana's experiences in southern-style slavery. It leaves the reader with a more thorough understanding of the appaulling practice of slavery and how slavery changes both the oppressed black slaves and the whites who fearfully dominate them. This is an unforgetable book and is most highly recommended. I love historical fiction, but have never read anything as unique as this book.kone

So, I loved and hated this book at the same time. I was told to read it by a friend, so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I really hate reading about slavery and what some of my ancestors had to go through. But I found myself desperate to find out what was going to happen to Dana. I even found young Rufos funny. If you can read about slavery then this book is a good one. I found that hard, but I loved the plot. This was a good read, just a little hard for me.

Super recomendo o livro, bem escrito e bem interessante. A autora conseguiu ilustrar melhor (mesmo que simplificado) a realidade da escravidão do que muito livro de história

Es el primer libro que leo de Butler y ¡que vívido ha sido! Casi que se olía la sangre que estallaba en espaldas esclavas bajo los látigos blancos. Los paralelos con un Estados Unidos “avanzado” y su pasado, su instrumentalización por dos siglos para dar ejemplo a los Nazis, y esa traída heroica de las mujeres negras para restituir las humillaciones, ya no solamente físicas, sino en escritos de blancos, hombres, misóginos.

Bellissimo! Un must read

Reading the challenges of a black woman being transported back in time to an era when slavery was still legal, gives you a gripping insight in the horrible treatment of black humans then.The slow erosion of selfworth, being beaten out of her is impressively written. Youll feel the struggle and balancing. Keeping the master happy.Traveling back and fort in time also has its anxious moments.Recommended.

There is an awful lot to love about Kindred. There is a sci-fi underpinning to the novel given the time travel that the story requires, and the well-constructed but not overburdened historical setting that gives the novel its context, but above all this is a book of subtle, truly human characters.In Kindred, we follow writer Dana and her husband, fellow-writer Kevin. One evening, Dana suddenly finds herself thrown back in time to save the life of one of her descendaants, Rufus. The young son of a slave owner, Rufus finds himself in several life-threatening situations. Over the course of several visits back and forward in time, Dana realises that she must keep him alive in order to save herself. At the same time, she sees first-hand the relationship between Rufus and Alice, one his slaves from whom Dana would eventually descend.As a woman wearing jeans and who lacks all the deferential habits of the other black women that Rufus's father keeps enslaved, Dana struggles to adjust. On subsequent visits, Kevin is able to travel back with her. This is where Butler teases out the subtleties most skillfully, as Kevin finds the world much easier to navigate as a white man. When she is thrown back to the present without him, he even moves north to the free states, meaning he isn't there when he comes back. In contrast to his distant travels, she is unable to even make it a few hundred yards away from the slave owner's property.Dana's powerlessness to stop the time travel, her realisation that she has to serve the slave master in order to save herself, and Kevin's startling if brief remark that it didn't seem as bad as he would have expected, are all examples of how Butler so powerfully conveys the terror of slavery in a unique way. This is a truly excellent and important book.