Kindred Initial Reaction

I am thoroughly enjoying Kindred thus far. As much as I love Vonnegut's writing, it's a nice change to read something a little more grounded. Though time travel is also thrown in this novel, this time it's more believable and has more merit since it's a self proclaimed science fiction book, and I completely trust the sanity of the characters of this novel. With Billy Pilgrim, everything's happening more or less in his head and even in the book people, like his daughter, think he's  crazy. I also find this book easier to relate to since not only is Dana a young female, but the book was actually written in the late 1970s when Butler was in her thirties so her writing style is more what I'm used to from just reading "young adult" books I suppose you could call them.

One thing I thought was particularly interesting in Kindred is how long it takes for us to learn that Kevin is white. I suppose his super light eyes may have been a tip off (since I don't know many non-white people with eyes that aren't brown), and that scene where he asks Dana "Do I really look like that patroller?" since, obviously the patroller is white. It's not until 50-some pages in, through the story of how Dana and Kevin met, that we get a sense of what Kevin looks like, including the fact that he's white. I also think it's interesting that once we learn that Kevin's white, we aren't likely to forget it so quickly; especially once he is transported back to Maryland with Dana. Once he's in Maryland, his and Dana's relationship is completely transformed. He has to pretend to be Dana's master in order to protect her and that must be a really hard dynamic to take on, especially for Dana. We don't really see any tension at all between Dana and Kevin when they're in L.A., but once they're back in 1815 Maryland, that's all that matters to the people there so there's the constant reminder that Kevin is a white man and Dana is a black woman. It really doesn't help anything that Kevin's story involves buying Dana and pretending like he's going to free her when really he's "planning" on selling her in Louisiana and is just sleeping with her now because he can. Having to play that scenario out would be really demeaning since Kevin is her husband.

All in all, Kindred looks like it's going to be a really good read. It'll be interesting to see how this time-traveling experience changes (if it does) Kevin and Dana's relationship.