“KINDRED” BY OCTAVIA E. BUTLER Kindred was the very first book by Octavia Butler that I read. Unlike many science-fiction writers, she spends no time discussing the dynamics of time travel, which for a tale of this emotional magnitude, is a good thing. Kindred is hard book to read and it leaves you with so many questions; I have never looked at history in quite the same way. That is the hallmark of good writing, …showed first 75 words of 443 total…

…showed last 75 words of 443 total…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. --