It Begins

When I first started Kindred, I really enjoyed the straightforwardness of the novel. I liked the fact that it was an easy read, unlike so many other books we have explored. While I do appreciate and understand why many authors choose to write dense books in hard to follow styles, it is nice to read one that does not require much unpacking. I can actually understand what every sentence means in a very real way, instead of having to ponder it abstractly. After Mumbo Jumbo and, to a lesser extent, Ragtime, I have no complaints about this. I much prefer simple reading that holds a lot of deeper meaning such as in The Sun Also Rises. Thus, I really liked the style of Kindred.

I also really liked the prologue of the book. It starts out in utter confusion with Dana having lost her arm. The scene is hectic and presented without context; it is the perfect way to start the story. The reader is immediately hooked. How did Dana come to have her arm stuck in the wall? What happened that she cannot even try to tell the cops? How did she lose a year of her life? These questions that are provoked by the opening of the book promise a continued interest on the reader’s behalf in the novel. By starting after the action of the story, Butler eschews a traditional setup for a novel in favor of something more akin to Slaughterhouse-Five, like Vonnegut, she tells the end of the story at the beginning, which doesn’t actually spoil the plot, but makes the reader much more interested in seeing how the protagonist reached this place. I really enjoy Butler’s use of this device, and I thought her writing at the beginning of the book was both well done and engaging.