''The Kin of Ata are Waiting for You'' (1971) is a novel by American writer

Dorothy Bryant Dorothy Bryant (1930–2017) was an American novelist, playwright, essayist and feminist writer. Bryant was known for her mysticism, mystical, feminism, feminist and fantastic novels and plays that traverse the space between the real world and ...

. It deals with the idea of how the negation of

dreams A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, alth ...

as a guide to life affects the real world. Author

Alice Walker Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was aw ...

has described it as "one of my favorite books in all the world". The book has been cited in a number of academic articles and text-books in the fields of philosophy, psychology, and law. The book was first published as a

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

by Evan Press in 1971, under the title ''The Comforter: A Mystical Fantasy.'' Although it was initially rejected by major publishing houses, despite the success of the author's first novel, its publication led to the inception of Bryant's private publishing business, the Ata Press. ''Kin'' was subsequently picked up for publication by

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

, a major publisher, and has remained in print for over 30 years. The novel has a cult following among

feminists Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male poi ...

, psychologists, and teachers of religious studies.

Plot summary

After murdering a lover, and crashing his car while fleeing the scene of the crime, a ruthlessly "successful" man is transported to an unknown island (called Ata) whose location is never revealed, the implication being that it doesn't physically exist in our world. The island is inhabited by people he gradually learns are deceptively primitive. Every aspect of their waking lives is governed by their dream life. Initially in conflict with their ways, the unnamed protagonist, according to Bryant, "is dragged kicking and screaming to his own salvation." He gradually comes to realize that the people of this island support and maintain the real world through their dreaming, and that he needs to incorporate this world view so he can successfully return to his former life. It can be read as an allegory of spiritual growth, and shows the influence of modern anthropological writings on

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

and the writings of psychologist

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...

Reception

Spider Robinson Spider Robinson (born November 24, 1948) is an American-born Canadian list of science fiction authors, science fiction author. He has won a number of awards for his hard science fiction and humorous stories, including the Hugo Award 1977 and 198 ...

praised the novel as "a deeply spiritually rewarding book" featuring "some of the cleanest, sparest, ''simplest'' prose I've seen all year.""Galaxy Bookshelf", ''

Galaxy Science Fiction ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published in Boston from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by a French-Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Editi ...

'', July 1977, p. 97

References

*Corvo, K., and Johnson, P. J. (2003). "Vilification of the “batterer” How blame shapes domestic violence policy and interventions", ''Aggression and Violent Behavior''.

External links

Holt Uncensored - online literary review column by Patricia Holt
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kin Of Ata Are Waiting For You 1971 American novels 1971 science fiction novels American novellas San Francisco Bay Area literature Feminist science fiction novels Novels set on islands American fantasy novels American philosophical novels Utopian novels Random House books Self-published books