Kindred is a literary fiction book by author Octavia E. Butler.
The first work of science fiction written by a Black woman, Kindred became the cornerstone of African-American literature.
Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 in California, Dana, an African-American woman, was unexpectedly and inexplicably drawn through time into the Maryland antebellum. While rescuing a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is brought back to the present just in time to save her life.
In many such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she faces: protecting this young slave owner until he can father her great-grandmother.
Octavia E. Butler cleverly combines serious issues of slavery, human rights and racial prejudice with a historical, sci-fi, romantic, and exciting adventure. Kim Staunton magically turns listeners’ headphones into a time machine with sound.
Octavia Butler’s Kindred is a gruesome, gripping, and moving novel that comes to life when considering the Southern slavery system and its negative effects on slaves (especially) and masters (one in particular) sophisticated way). Butler places her protagonist Dana Franklin, a contemporary African-American woman, in extremely difficult physical, moral, and existentially difficult situations through time travel to a Maryland plantation. before the war of her ancestors. Although there is no scientific explanation for time travel, Butler’s description of life on a slave plantation is detailed and realistic.
Kim Staunton reads Kindred brilliantly. Her natural voice matches Dana’s warm, caring, and honest first person storytelling. Staunton easily reads the voices of a variety of characters, from an educated black woman in Southern California in the 1970s to a slave or slave owner in early 19th century Maryland. There are moments of flashback. extreme boxing and gruesome violence, as well as melting moments of kindness and (almost) redeeming insight.
