Kindred

By Octavia Butler

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

In a word: Brutal

Plot:  Dana Franklin is a young black woman married to a white man in 1976.  On her 26 birthday she is pulled through time from her home in California to the antebellum south. She is called to save Rufus Weylin, son of a plantation owner.  It seems when Rufus' life is in danger, Dana is pulled back to protect him and make sure that he will grow to become the father of one of Dana's ancestors.  Dana is pulled back again and again (at one point draggin her husband with her) - spending longer and longer in the past (her trips to the past take up almost no time in the future).  While on the Weylin plantation, she lives amongst the slaves, working in household and trying to insure that Rufus grows to be a better man than his father.  But the longer she spends in the past the more complex her relationship with Rufus becomes and she finds out how easy it is to fall into the mentality of a slave.

Thoughts:  This is a difficult read because I liked the character of Dana so much and terrible, terrible things happen to her.  Of coures, I knew they would happen - but it still made for a difficult read at times.  Dana is beaten and whipped - yet still has the clarity to know that she has it easy by slave standards.   She is forced to do things she finds unthinkable by her modern way of thinking - including pressuring a young slave girl into a realtionship with Rufus in order for her ancestor to be born.  All the while, she finds herself thinking of the plantation more and more as "home" and her modern life as a stop-over.  Both she and her husband (who is pulled back with her at one point and forced to spend 5 years in the past when he is left behind) have trouble settling back into the modern world. 

Unsettling to read - but rivieting.  Butler is a wonder, one of the few black women science fiction writers. Her work is phenomenall. This book is probably her most accessible, even if you don't like science fiction.

If you like this, try reading: Beloved by Toni Morrison; anything else by Octavia Butler (she really is a wonderful writer!)