Thoughts on Kindred
I really love reading Kindred . It’s one of the best books I’ve read. Mr. Mitchell wasn’t lying when he said it’d be hard to put down, I’ve often caught myself reading ahead. It’s a mixture of the plot and the way that Butler writes that makes it such a good book. Kindred is able to do more as a fictional narrative than a strictly factual historical account. Dana’s account of her time in the past are much better at talking about slavery than a history textbook, at least in my opinion. A history book is usually very detached from what it’s describing and doesn’t really get at the full reality of the situation. It also doesn’t evoke the same feelings that a book like Kindred does, which I think is vital for a person to understand the extent of the atrocities. One example of this is the scene where Dana witnesses the beating of Alice’s father. It’s one thing to read that slave patrollers whipped slaves, and another to read “I could literally smell his sweat, hear every rag...