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Kindred

by Octavia E. Butler, 1979

Published: 2021.10.29

Home > Book Reviews > Octavia E. Butler > Kindred

 

Photo by Wil C. Fry

★★★★ (of 5)

(* 264 pages does not include the Reader’s Guide or Selected Bibliography)

 

Summary

Kindred is a fictional story inspired at least in part by the slave narratives, perhaps deliberately taking the form, yet it is also fantasy in that the first-person protagonist is a Black woman living in the 1970s who accidentally travels through time to the early 1800s (also from California to Maryland). Unable to control or even predict her magical travels, the main character Dana Franklin seems to be pulled into the past whenever Rufus Weylin is in trouble. Rufus is the white son of slaveholder Tom Weylin (both of whom turn out to be among Dana’s ancestors). Since Rufus is often in danger of death and only survives due to Dana’s interventions, he comes to realize he can’t wield the same power over her that he does over Black people from his own time (though he tries). At least once, Dana’s husband Kevin (a white man) is transported back with her, and becomes trapped in the 1800s for several years.

(Butler later said she intended to write the protagonist as a man, but she couldn’t make it work — the Black man would immediately be perceived as dangerous in a way that a Black woman wouldn’t, and “wouldn’t even have time to learn the rules”. In other words, sexism could work in favor of a female protagonist. She also said she wrote the book in response to a young Black man who said he was ashamed of his ancestors for submitting to white supremacy — her view was that the subservience of previous generations was a courageous resistance, a means to survival.)

 

The Good

Aside from the unexplained phenomenon of Dana traveling through time and space, everything about the story seems incredibly realistic and tangible, from Dana and Kevin’s relationship and careers in the 1970s to the descriptions of the plantation and people in the 1800s. Perhaps most remarkably for a novel of fewer than 300 pages is that none of the characters are caricatures — neither the slave owners nor the slaves. Even Dana and Kevin have complexities to their personalities that mark them as individuals rather than stand-ins or archetypes. Each person, especially those met in Maryland, is an individual precisely and masterfully described. This is rare even in the best of works.

I was startled — and eventually impressed at the author’s insight — when it turned out that people in the 1800s were most surprised by Dana wearing “man’s clothing” (pants and shirt instead of a dress). Both whites and blacks of the time resented that her speech sounded “white” (educated), that she could read and write, that she didn’t (initially) cow before the white masters. But none of that startled them or upset them like the fact that she wore pants. It was details like this that showed not only how much thought Butler put into the work but that made it feel so realistic.

Though it hurt to read, it made sense that Dana would eventually learn to grovel before the white people of the day. She simply had no power, no recourse, in those times. Despite her education and 1970s-level freedom, her only method of survival in 1800s Maryland was to learn to act like a slave. Even when she did learn to wield the power she held over Rufus (that she could simply decide not to save him next time she came back through time), she realized that he had other ways of retaliating — usually against other people — for which she had no defense. Though she never told Rufus, one reason she waited so long to act against him was that he had not fathered Dana’s ancestor Hagar. (If she killed him or let him die before Hagar was born, she feared she would cease to exist.)

Near the end, I began to lose patience with the protagonist when Rufus committed worse and worse atrocities and Dana had the ability and opportunity to end him (after Hagar was born). But she finally did what I needed her to do, much to my relief.

Points Off For...

I can’t name anything specific that I disliked about this book. It simply didn’t have quite enough to nudge me into rating a fifth star.

Conclusion

It was not intentional that I read two slavery-related books back-to-back. Kindred was already on my shelf waiting to be read when I bought Never Caught and read it first. But it worked out well, despite my complaints about Never Caught. If nothing else, it prepared me, historically speaking, for this book. I would recommend Kindred to any reader, whether or not they enjoy history or time-traveling fiction. It is simply a good story.

 





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