Kindred

Short review: Kanye should read this book.

Long review: The only other Butler novel I've read is Dawn, which I basically couldn't put down. I'll say right off that I enjoyed that book a lot more than this one and felt that her Butler's very logical, methodical writing style better serves sci-fi with a lot of moving parts. The very unadorned prose felt a little bare in this case, with Dana often feeling one-note and almost perversely logical. But that's just style and really only affected my enjoyment of the story and less the story itself.

The story is fascinating. Slavery is one of those historical horrors that have been rehashed over and over in popular culture so much that it almost doesn't seem real. The subtleties of it are often lost in the historical retelling, becoming a horror show that your mind shuts off. Kindred is all about the subtleties of slavery, really bringing home a power imbalance that perverted both master and slave. I've never read Uncle Tom's Cabin, but I'd never really thought that much about the relationships that would form between people on opposite ends of the power spectrum and all the complications that that entails. The human in people recognizes the human in others, but that voice can be shut up.

At points I did want to shake Dana for what she forgave Rufus for, and it did stretch my suspension of disbelief, but I can see it as a coping mechanism. It's exhausting to live in anger, to fight back constantly, much easier sometimes to forgive and let things happen, an instinct that Dana has to actively fight against.

There's a lot more going on in this book. It's definitely one I'll be chewing on for a while, and while I didn't always love the writing, the subjects explored have so much dimension that I know I'll keep coming back to it.

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