Forever Young

One thing that really shocked me when I was reading Kindred was the time when Dana was back in the twentieth century and she said that Rufus was now 25 and she had what would have been her 27th birthday while she was back in the past. The idea of Rufus and Dana being almost the same age astounded me. Maybe this is why the idea of a relationship between them doesn't sound as icky to Rufus as to readers, but it still surprised me.

I guess the whole time I was reading the book the picture in my mind of Rufus was always of someone in his early teens, at the latest a boy in his late teens. The first impression we get of Rufus is really in the scene with the draperies catching fire and he seems very much like a preteen/early teen in that scene. He is still very impressionable and curious. From Dana's perspective and our perspective not much over a year passes from that scene to the end of the book, so it seemed to me like he stayed the same age much the same as Dana stays the same age.

Also, his behavior doesn't change a whole lot from that scene with the draperies. He becomes less curious and more hardened, but he still lets his emotions get the better of him and he still acts like a spoiled child when he doesn't get what he wants. He doesn't really mature at all throughout the book. The idea of Rufus being a father (not that he was a very good one) seems very strange to me, he seems closer to a kid than a dad. Especially compared to his own Dad he seems young and insecure. Even his red hair contrasts with his dad and makes him seem more childish in my mind.

What makes me even more squeamish about the seeming age difference between Dana and Rufus is the way they talk to each other. Rufus and Dana talk to each other in more of a mother-son relationship instead of a peer relationship, and this doesn't go away as they get older. Dana is always trying to steer his morals and Rufus wants to do what he wants without disappointing Dana. For all these reasons, I felt uncomfortable with the possibility of a relationship between a seeming child in Rufus and someone who acts even older than her 27 years in Dana.