Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Review of ½ of Kindred
Dana gets flogged to the future & yanked back when her great....grandfather tries raping her great....grandmother. The flogging is useful to drive home what a moral travesty slavery was. Just impossible to imagine any American being flogged today, but flogging was common for slaves (& military men) to impose discipline at one point in our history. In contrast to a slave, who has brine tossed on his back right after his whipping, Dana takes aspirin and soaks in a warm tub to help remove her shredded clothing; such pampering would never have possible for any punished slave.
Despite her showing her white ancestor that blacks can be intelligent and well educated and kind, Rufus does not appear to be on his path of becoming an abolitionist - instead he's a bit of a drunkard and an attempted rapist and still whiny. So much for influencing history in a positive direction.
Like many novels & movies, the book starts with the end of the book so we know that both Dana & her husband survived - in a somewhat damaged fashion - so obviously Dana reunites with him after leaving him stranded in an ante bellum border state for years (nice unexpected plot twist there which adds an added element of suspense).
Well the book has drawn me in enough, that I'm going to find out if B.O.T. and jigsaw puzzle building mesh - hopefully will complete the novel by the end of the work week (1 day early).
Despite her showing her white ancestor that blacks can be intelligent and well educated and kind, Rufus does not appear to be on his path of becoming an abolitionist - instead he's a bit of a drunkard and an attempted rapist and still whiny. So much for influencing history in a positive direction.
Like many novels & movies, the book starts with the end of the book so we know that both Dana & her husband survived - in a somewhat damaged fashion - so obviously Dana reunites with him after leaving him stranded in an ante bellum border state for years (nice unexpected plot twist there which adds an added element of suspense).
Well the book has drawn me in enough, that I'm going to find out if B.O.T. and jigsaw puzzle building mesh - hopefully will complete the novel by the end of the work week (1 day early).
