Editorial Reviews
From 500 Great
Books by Women; review by Donna Nichols-White
Kindred utilizes the
devices of science fiction in order to answer the question "how could
anybody be a slave?" A woman from the twentieth century, Dana is repeatedly
brought back in time by her slave-owning ancestor Rufus when his life is
endangered. She chooses to save him, knowing that because of her actions a
free-born black woman will eventually become his slave and her own
grandmother. When forced to live the life of a slave, Dana realizes she is
not as strong as her ancestors. Unable to will herself back to her own time
and unable to tolerate the institution of slavery, she attempts to run away
and is caught within a few hours. Her illiterate ancestor Alice succeeds in
eluding capture for four days even though "She knew only the area she'd been
born and raised in, and she couldn't read a map." Alice is captured, beaten,
and sold as a slave to Rufus. As Dana is sent back and forth through time,
she continues to save Rufus's life, attempting during each visit to care for
Alice, even as she is encouraging Alice to allow Rufus to rape her and thus
ensure Dana's own birth. As a twentieth-century African-American woman
trying to endure the brutalities of nineteenth-century slavery, Dana answers
the question, "See how easily slaves are made?" For Dana, to choose to
preserve an institution, to save a life, and nurture victimization is to
choose to survive.
Book Description
Dana, a modern black woman, is
celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is
snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the
antebellum South. With more than 100,000 copies in print, Kindred is a
classic time travel novel by an acclaimed African-American science fiction
writer.
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