I asked myself why I came here to this wretched place. Why did I
surround myself with death, insanity and decay? Like everyone else
who dwelled there, I had been discarded. I had no choice, nowhere
else to go. "Kindred" is a literary portrait of the
difficulties author Fatimah Broxton faced as a young girl, who
grows up feeling like an outsider in her own family. The product of
a drug-addicted biological mother and a ruthless adopted mother,
differences in bloodlines and emotional sensibilities make for the
near destruction of a fragile girl's self-esteem. A childhood
filled with abuse leads to eating disorders, nightmares, and
thoughts of suicide. The only bright spot in her life is the happy,
sweet, and, above all, religious grandmother, who brings some sense
of normalcy. From being beaten with broom handles and whipped with
the branches of a forsythia bush to becoming a talented young
writer, Broxton's life makes for a chaotic blend of
self-hatred, emotional longing, and an unexplainable will to
triumph. The stories in "Kindred" illuminate the miracle
of the human capability to love and forgive, despite the brutal
treatment from the one person Broxton loves most - her mother.
