Rick Riordan's Reviews > Kindred

After reading Parable of the Sower, I had to go right out and buy Butler’s most famous novel Kindred. I was not disappointed. It is amazing that this book was written in 1976 and feels just as fresh and timely in 2016. Dana, a young African American woman who has just started a career as a writer in California, is suddenly and inexplicably yanked back in time to Maryland in 1815, where she must save a white boy named Rufus from drowning.

This becomes only the first of many time traveling episodes for Dana. She quickly realizes that Rufus is one of her own ancestors, mentioned in the family Bible. Somehow, they are connected across time because they are kindred. To assure her own future, Dana must keep Rufus alive until he has children who will some day be Dana’s family line. Unfortunately, Rufus gets in a lot of trouble.

Only moments pass in the modern world each time Dana is called away, but months or even years pass in the world of 1815. Dana watches Rufus grow from a little boy into an adult slave owner who inherits his father’s plantation. She tries her best to influence Rufus’ development, but can she overcome the poisonous institution of slavery that infects everyone it touches?

The novel is a potent metaphor for the modern African American experience and the American experience in general. We may be lulled into the feeling that we have advanced, that we have made progress as a society. But at any moment, we may be yanked back into the past and reminded of where we came from. That heritage of slavery, exploitation and racism is an integral part of our national identity, and it is never far below the surface. It can overcome us in an instant. Like Dana, we must be constantly on guard, well-equipped and ready to be yanked out of our supposedly modern and enlightened existence to deal with the ugliest parts of our nature. We are kindred with the Americans of 1815, whether we like it or not.