Audiobook Review: Kindred
Author: Maibella Rhoiden
Kindred
by Octavia Butler
audiobook: 11 hours
narrated by: Kim Staunton
About the Book
Dana and Kevin are married writers who have just bought their first home. While they are still moving in, Dana gets dizzy and passes out. When she wakes up she finds herself outside near a river where a young boy is drowning. She pulls him from the water, saving his life, then finds herself looking down the barrel of a shotgun held by the boy's father who thinks she is trying to kill his son. Then POOF! she's back in her new new house. Kevin has no idea why his wife disappeared, and neither does Dana. Soon it happens again, and then again and again over the next few days. Each time Dana is gone longer. She soon realizes that she is not simply moving through space, she is moving through time as well. Somehow that young boy she saved, Rufus, calls her back through time whenever he is in a life-threatening situation and Dana arrives just in time to save his life. This situation is crazy enough but what makes it so much worse is that Rufus is a young white plantation owner living in the early 1800s and Dana is an African American woman from the 1970s.
My Thoughts
I first heard of Octavia Butler through a post at Tor.com. I immediately added her Pattern series to my reading list. Then I read this Tor.com post about her time travel/slavery novel, KINDRED, and I knew this would be the next book I picked up to read (or rather, to listen to).
Oh Octavia Butler! WHY have I not read you before?! You are wonderful, simply wonderful!
(Do you get the idea that I liked this book, maybe just a little?)
I don't usually read books set in the American South during any time period and I can't recall the last pre-Civil War book I read (other than GONE WITH THE WIND, and we all know how very realistic that book is ... *sarcasm*) so this was definitely a break from my usual reading habits. I listened to this while driving and let me tell you, I did NOT want to get out of the car at all.
Let me explain what is so wonderful about this book ...
As a white female living in a relatively non-racist community there are things that I will simply never understand about racism, things that I will never personally experience. Many times authors write about racism in a way that doesn't help me to understand it any better than I already do. Butler's writing was different. The fact that her main character is coming into her slave life from a safe, comfortable, and generally (somewhat idealized) non-racist home/work life allowed Butler to show the readers the reality of slavery through modern eyes. Dana was shocked and horrified over the same things that I would be shocked and horrified over; our reactions mirrored each other in a way that helped me understand the horrors of slavery as I never have before.
More than that, Butler didn't make things easy for Dana in any of the ways I expected she would. I expected Butler to protect her main character, give her a way to keep from getting hurt, give her someone to watch over her, give her something, ANYTHING, to help her. This consistently did not happen, and every time it didn't happen I was forced to acknowledge the realities of life as a slave - sometimes there simply are no choices, no way to escape a situation.
One other thing that made the book hit home for me is that is takes place in Maryland. The main setting is a town called Easton which is about an hour from my house. Other parts of the story take place in Baltimore, which is 20 minutes north of me. Stories like those described in the book (minus the time travel, of course) took place practically in my back yard.
This is an amazing book, one that I've been recommending to people since I got through the first few chapters. I would recommend it to teens as an excellent way to learn to understand slavery except for the repeated use of the "n" word; it makes sense in the context of the book, but you'll have to decide for yourself whether it is appropriate for the teen in your life. There is also some sexual violence in this book, so beware of that as well.
About the audiobook
he audiobook was narrated by Kim Stuanton and she did an excellent job. She had different accents and voices for the various characters in the book which made it easy to keep track of who was talking. She also conveyed the emotions of the characters very clearly, something not all narrators can do.
