I downloaded Kindred last year and forgot all about it. A few months ago I started to read it annnnd forgot all about it. TWO MONTHS ago this book came back into my life by way of conversation with some friends during a trip to Bangkok. We were sitting around chatting and we started talking about books we had, was currently reading, and was planning to read.
Now I can finally say that I read Kindred by Octavia Butler and what a read it was. The writing behind this book was amazing.
Let me give you what the book about is via Goodreads:
The first science fiction written by a black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of black American literature. This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a novel of rich literary complexity. Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given: to protect this young slaveholder until he can father her own great-grandmother.
I promise what you have just read does not in any way give the complete story away in this book. The above is only what is revealed in the first few pages of reading.
So many times I put myself in Dana shoes and I could not imagine what I would have done and how torn I would have been on the decisions she had to make.
It’s a read that you can’t help but wonder what would you do.
After you read the book be sure to flip or swipe a few more pages to read on all the symbolism that was present in this book. I was able to spot most but there were some parts that I did not see it but glad they were pointed out.
If you are looking for another book check out Kindred.
What do you think?