Kindred

Of course, I've heard about Octavia Butler but I'm surprised she never really registered with me before. Then again, she's known as a science fiction writer and if you've known me for any length of time, you know that science fiction isn't really a genre I gravitate towards. My daughter kept raving about Kindred so I looked more closely at the synopsis and thought, "Oh, that sounds interesting!" Now I need to take a closer look at what else this author has written as I really enjoyed her writing style and her storytelling.

Here's the synopsis from goodreads. It will give you an idea of what I thought might be interesting to me.

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...

I've read my fair share of slave narratives, both fictionalized and non-fiction. In Kindred, however, the time travel aspect and first person narrative pull you into the story in a way that other somewhat similar books have. It allowed a contemporary telling of a story of days gone by. That made for a very interesting twist.

The character development is so rich. Issues of race are handled differently in other books that I've read. Butler really delves into our shared slavery history - that of black Americans and white Americans - which adds yet another dimension.

Kindred  is definitely a worthwhile read.