Octavia Butler's Kindred
Butler is one of those authors I've always meant to read, but my lack of interest in sci-fi has put her on the backburner. Then I read a description of this one and honestly, it's not sci-fi at all, it's really kind of straight-up fantasy, about a young (black) woman in 1976 who keeps getting sucked back to the early 1800s to save the life of a young (white) boy--who's one of her ancestors. But it's not all life-saving, as she becomes a part of the household--and what kind of role is there for a young black woman? Butler spares no punches and parts of this are completely horrifying to read--mainly because of their historical accuracy. This is a weirdly great companion to all the things I've been reading about Django Unchained--and now that I've finally read this, I can see how it's influenced a few other books I've read. Powerful stuff, though the narrative voice is occasionally over-explainy. A-.
2 comments:
Just catching up on some blog reading, so I just now saw this. I love Octavia Butler, but most of her other works are a lot more in the science fiction genre. I'm especially fond of Lilith's Brood trilogy, but it's definitely science fiction and kind of weird at times :)
Yeah, that's basically why I've never read her--you know sci-fi is not really my thing. But time travel is right up my alley!
Post a Comment