I was so intrigued by this book, its author, and its premise!! This was one of the 12 "Priority Reads" I assigned myself in 2022, and I am very glad I finally got around to reading it.
I love a good time travel story (hello, Outlander Fan Extraordinaire here). But I picked up this one as sort of a Should Read title. I read somewhere that this was the first published science fiction novel by an African American woman (publication date is 1979). Really?? Yes, really. There were very few science fiction novels that had been published at that time, meaning too that there were few stories not aimed at young white males in any genre, much less science fiction. So this is an important novel for more reasons that just the excellent story. Butler herself was a fan of Ray Bradbury's work, and read and wrote science fiction stories from childhood on. She once said it never really occurred to her to look for work by people who looked like her for inspiration, she just kept writing and the stories kept coming - she was a writer. And now, she herself is an inspiration to us all.
This was not an easy read, but it was fascinating in its telling, in its structure, in its almost dry emotional state that comes through as you read about a modern black woman who is inexplicably and suddenly pulled back in time by a young boy who needs her help - a young white boy whose family owns slaves in the antebellum South.
Yeah, yikes.
What she experiences and why lends to a very good story. And a very good discussion of slavery, the realities as well as we can know them, and what she (Dana) sees verses the white man who also travels with her if she is touching him when she is called back. And she is called back, several times.
I found the story very interesting in its presentation of different perspectives. For instance, there is a comment that the definition of a fair man is dependent on the time in which he lives, and also on the time in which the definer lives. That is actually a pretty heavy statement. The reader, and Dana too, become embroiled in the lives of those in the past, and her presence and actions have serious repercussions for those around her. Her last trip leaves her seriously injured (not a spoiler, it's in the first line of the book), and the reason WHY is a bit mysterious. Connections to the past are explored if not fully explained, which is part of the mystery/sci-fi-ness of this novel.
A bit factual in presentation, less emotional for what she is telling about (and some of what she tells you about is very difficult to read and imagine happening, but it did, all the time), but probably a pretty good portrayal of the white people who were clueless to their own cruelty to their slaves because they really did view black people as property, like an animal. To the masters, the slaves were assets meant to bring profit and breed more workers. Stark history, but history nonetheless.
A good, important read. It is not all terror and beatings. They do come into play, but the whole reason why Dana is even involved in this is interesting and it definitely makes for a good read!
Quotes that stayed with me:
They walked past "slave children who chased each other and shouted and didn't understand yet that they are slaves."
"She didn't kill, but she seemed to die a little."
"Slavery was a long process of dulling."
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