First impressions mean a lot; they can set the tone for interactions to come. This is true in both our everyday lives from business to friendships to dating. So it gains to reason that this is the same when we open books for the first time and experience authors we've never read. This was my first interaction with Octavia Butler and this introduction was completely marvelous. Kindred is the story of a young African American woman named Dana who unknown to her is supernaturally linked to her young slave owning ancestor. She ends up traveling back in time to save him, over and over again. First she saves him from drowning, then from burning down his home and then she tries to save from his times; save him from himself.
The young man, Rufus, is very much a product of his environment and the times. He sees slaves as property and himself as the master of his small part of the world as he grows. Dana is just there to help him, to serve him. The graphic novel covers everything that you can imagine when it comes to the topic of slavery. From tearing apart families, to treating human beings as chattel, to the back breaking and sometimes demeaning work that slaves had do. The book didn't prepare me for hoping that Dana would succeed in changing her ancestor. I rooted for both of them and while I think she made some difference it surely was not enough. I am very much looking forward to reading more of Butler's work. This book left me hungry for more and I promise to read the full length novel this book was adapted from during the summer.
Here's what I learned: I learned from Butler's work that it takes courage to confront inhumanity in the way Dana did. It takes courage and a strong stomach to write about a past so painful that as Claudia Rankine teaches us "the body has memory of". Butler wrote of a topic I myself rarely want to think about let alone write about. It takes a great writer to make the past comes alive and jump off the page. Sadly, I feel just from this brief introduction that Butler is not as appreciated as she should be in American literary circles and culture.
I would suggest this book to anyone interested in historical fiction and sci fi. I gave this book 5/5 stars on Goodreads.com.
*I read this book as a part of The Lemonade Syllabus*
Below are a few quotes/images from the book.
