Mudbound by Hillary Jordan (and completed challenge)

After her 30th birthday, Laura thinks she is destined to be an old maid. However, when she meets Henry McAllan, who is several years her senior, she finds a man who is strong, knows what he wants, and will make a good husband. Two daughters and several years later, Henry makes the decision to buy a farm in the middle of Mississippi and move his family (including his crotchety father), whether they want to go or not. His original house plans fall through, and the McAllan family is forced to live in the old farmhouse with no plumming, electricity, and when it rains (as it often does in the Mississippi Delta), they are completely cut off from town. Racism is prevalent in this time, and old Pappy McAllan always has something nasty to say about the Jacksons (the black share tennants).

Life on the farm is hard, and Laura has a difficult time trying to adjust. When Henry's younger brother Jamie returns from the war (WWII), she feels a lift in her spirits, as he is handsome, charming, and easy to love, even though he has a drinking problem. When Ronsel, the son of the Florence and Hap Jackson also arrives home from the war, trouble starts brewing. Though he is a war hero, and has been treated as one for the past few years, back home, he is seen as just another black sharecropper. He is reminded that he is not allowed to use the front door of the store, and cannot ride in the front seat of a white man's car. He and Jamie strike up a friendship, as they feel a camaradarie from being soldiers in the war. However, in this town, it is not ok for a white and black man to be friends, no matter the circumstances, and this causes serious problems not only for Jamie and Ronsel, but also for their families.

Mudbound is written through alternating perspectives--Laura, Henry, Jamie, Ronsel, Florence and Hap. Hillary Jordan does an excellent job with this, and the reader is able to feel and understand the different characters' throughts and actions much better than if the story was told in third person. The tone of the novel is often bleak, but true to the situation that each particular character is experiencing. Mudbound has a true southern ring, with the descriptions of the landscape, the day to day lives of the people, and the dialect.

I would describe Mudbound as a poignant story, full of despair and hate, but also of love and hope. Hillary Jordan wrote a memorable first novel, which won the Bellwether Prize for fiction. I would definitely recommend Mudbound, and I am hoping Jordan is working on a second book!

Date Completed: August 3, 2008

Number of pages: 324

Read these other reviews of Mudbound: Thoughts of Joy, An Adventure in Reading, Maggie Reads. If you've read and reviewed it, please let me know and I'll add your link!

This is the third and final book for Maggie's Southern Reading Challenge. The three books I read were:

Mother of Pearl by Melinda Haynes

Can't Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan.

While I enjoyed all three, Mudbound was definitely my favorite. I think I read more Southern fiction that I originally thought, which makes sense since I am a southerner! Maggie is such a great host and held several fun contests along the way! Thanks for a fun challenge, and I look forward to participating next year!

One more thing...Maggie is holding a unique contest called State of the Mule. Sadly, one mule in Mudbound met his death by gunshot wounds--page 109. "Then I'm gone send hail big as walnuts down on that mule, making that mule crazy, making it break its leg trying to bust out of there...the next morning after you put that mule down and buried it..." (this passage sounds a bit odd, as Hap is speaking as God after he experiences a series of bad luck). Poor little mule :(