287 pages

Langue : English

Publié 4 avril 2003 par Beacon Press.

ISBN :
978-0-8070-8369-7
ISBN copié !

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5 étoiles (4 critiques)

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...

24 éditions

a publié une critique de Kindred par Octavia E. Butler

Timeless

5 étoiles

Incredibly written for a book. It is amazing to think it was written in the 1970s. The story is just captivating, characters so realistic, and the time travel elements very well done. I learned about slavery growing up but never in this way and in so much detail. Dana describes it well when she witnessed the past vs watching it in media, or reading about it in a history textbook. While the story is fictionalized the events described are very real and you find how insidious slavery was and how it not only became normalized in the 1800s. It did not shy away from black bodies being a human currency and the words and treatment alike slaves and "freed slaves" were subjected to. No one is safe. It is a systemic issue that still exists today and while we have made great strides, the effects have still rippled through time. …

Still powerful almost half a century on

4 étoiles

Avertissement sur le contenu Minor plot information

a publié une critique de Kindred par Octavia E. Butler

Such an original and captivating storyline

5 étoiles

What a book. I was drawn in by the horrifying scenario that Dana found herself trapped in, but the examination of how slavery was so normalized, and how evil the institution of chattel slavery was.

I happened to have been in the middle of this book when a conspiracy theorist, racist member of my extended family brought up how whites are unfairly blamed for slavery. It made me realize that while the practice of owning people as slaves is gone, the same anti-black philosophy is still thriving among white men.

The idea that my family member or his ilk would tacitly endorse the return of slavery is slim, but, in finding themselves in Kevin's shoes might think similarly that "Hey, this isn't as bad as I thought it would be..."

Sujets

  • African American women -- Fiction
  • Slaveholders -- Fiction
  • Time travel -- Fiction
  • Slavery -- Fiction
  • Slaves -- Fiction
  • Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Fiction
  • Southern States -- Fiction