Kindred; a novel by Octavia Butler (Rating: 4.75 Crow’s Feet)

Octavia Butler is one of the first (if not the first) African American Science Fiction writers. I am an avid reader, and enjoy most books I read. I ranked this novel high because of the inventiveness of the story, the emotional story line, and the well developed characters. I could hardly put this novel down.

Initially set in 1976, Dana is an African American woman married to a white man. On her 26th birthday, as she and her husband are moving into their new house. She starts to feel dizzy and nauseous and somehow ends up in a forest. She sees a young white boy drowning in a river. She rushes to his aid and performs CPR. When he comes to, she looks up to see his father staring down at her with a shotgun. As suddenly as she goes to the woods, she comes home. In other ‘travels’ she discovers that the boy is her ancestor, and is a Southern slave owner in the 1800’s. She learns about slavery by being thrown into it.

The story portrays the struggles slaves faced, as well as the ‘grooming’ slaveholders went through growing up in the South. Octavia Butler is a brilliant writer! She gives a unique perspective to slavery, by giving a modern voice to the past. I couldn’t put this book down.