Mudbound
Posted by Merry Mao on April 18th, 2008
Title: Mudbound
Author: Hillary Jordan
Summary: Halfway into Hillary Jordan’s debut novel, Mudbound, I knew that she had earned a place on my “Must Read Authors” list. This is a wonderful, beautiful, brutal, tragic, richly painted novel that is worthy of all of its high praise.
It’s the Mississippi Delta in the 1940’s. The story opens as Henry and his brother Jamie are trying desperately to bury the body of a man, their father. Slowly, the reader is drawn into the lives of the six people who set in motion the events that lead to this man’s death. Laura and Henry McCallan are struggling with day-to-day life on a farm; Hap and Florence Jackson, the black sharecroppers who live and work on the McCallans’ farm, must deal with racism and the unforgiving conditions of the labor they face every day. Each family awaits the return of a war hero, and each family is brought to its knees as their wounded veterans come home and try to resume a “normal” life.
Before it was even published, Mudbound was the winner of a literary prize, the Bellwether Prize for Fiction. Barbara Kingsolver, the founder of the award, had this to say of Hillary Jordan: “her characters walked straight out of 1940’s Mississippi and into the part of my brain where sympathy and anger and love reside, leaving my heart racing. They are still with me.”
And they are still with me as well.
Recommended by: Mary, Reference Librarian
June 17th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
This emotional and historical novel takes place in the 1940′s in the tumultuous deep south. A young couple uproot their city lives to become farmers on the Mississippi Delta. The hardships of this new primitive life are complicated by dramatic and sensitive racial and family issues. Mudbound’s unique writing style adds to the allure of this terrific novel. Mudbound is told by a different character in every chapter. Could not put this book down. A great read for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Joyce Carol Oates.
January 6th, 2010 at 11:37 pm
[...] Mudbound by Hillary Jordan [...]
July 29th, 2010 at 10:59 pm
[...] Jordan, Hillary: Mudbound [...]
August 5th, 2011 at 5:04 pm
[...] you like this, try this: Mudbound by Hillary [...]