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Fiction. Literature. HTML: The International Bestseller Now a major motion picture from Netflix, directed by Dee Rees, nominated in four categories for the Academy Awards. In Jordan's prize-winning debut, prejudice takes many forms, both subtle and brutal. It is 1946, and city-bred Laura McAllan is trying to raise her children on her husband's Mississippi Delta farmâ??a place she finds foreign and frightening. In the midst of the family's struggles, two young men return from the war to work the land. Jamie McAllan, Laura's brother-in-law, is everything her husband is notâ??charming, handsome, and haunted by his memories of combat. Ronsel Jackson, eldest son of the black sharecroppers who live on the McAllan farm, has come home with the shine of a war hero. But no matter his bravery in defense of his country, he is still considered less than a man in the Jim Crow South. It is the unlikely friendship of these brothers-in-arms that drives this powerful novel to its inexorable conclusion. The men and women of each family relate their versions of events and we are drawn into their lives as they become players in a tragedy on the grandest scale. As Kingsolver says of Hillary Jordan, "Her characters walked straight out of 1940s Mississippi and into the part of my brain where sympathy and anger and love reside, leaving my heart racing. They are with me still.… (more)
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Sharing such a common history and bond, these two
This is the first novel for Hillary Jordan, and it truly is incredible. Powerful, simplistic writing, characters that are fully developed and real, and a story that will haunt me for a long, long time. The story unfolds as seen through the eyes of different characters, each viewpoint is so evolved and complete that the reader has no difficulty in identifying the storyteller at any given moment. Like an engine coming down the track, we can see where we are coming from and where we are going in this potent story of racism and itsâ effects. Mudbound by Hillary Jordan is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it.
The book has several narrators: Laura, a Memphis belle who reluctantly moved to her husbandâs farm; Henry, her husband who loved his farm more than anything; Hap, one of Henryâs tenants; and his wife Florence, a superstitious midwife who could smell trouble a mile away. Added to this mix were Jamey and Ronsel â veterans who came home with a restlessness that could not be resolved on the farm.
At the root of this story was the racial injustice prevalent in the 1940âs South. Hap, Florence and Ronsel experience racism every day of their livesâ from deferring to their white neighbors to using the back door at the local store. Ronsel, after fighting for his country, could not readjust to the white-centric society. After discovering he fathered a child with a woman in Germany, Ronsel realized that the time to go was now.
However, the white people of this farming community had a different plan for Ronsel, who they found uppity and disrespectful. I donât want to give away too much, but Ronselâs ordeal was heart-breaking. He was a character I was rooting for, and I was disgusted with how he was treated by others.
Jordanâs characterization was spot-on. There were characters you loved, ones you felt sorry for and others you hated. It saddens me that racism is part of Southern history, but I believe itâs important to read stories, such as Mudbound, to remind ourselves about this struggle for equality. I highly recommend Mudbound to Southern book lovers everywhere.
This story, both delicate and brutal, is told from several different viewpoints. I didn't realize that at first, and found myself confused in the beginning because my preconceived idea was that this was Laura's story. But when does anyone's story exist in isolation? Such is the case here as the threads interweave to tell the tale. Though not easy to read because of the subject matter, Jordan's debut novel is a beautifully written story of heartbreak, hatred and survival
His wife Laura is happy living in the city and stunned when Henry makes the decision to move without consulting her. To make matters worse, Henry's mean and racist father will be accompanying them. Laura finds it impossible to learn to love the land and longs to return to the city. Upon seeing the home she is to live in, she remarks:
"To me, it looked no different from the other land we'd passed. There were brown fields and unpainted sharecroppers' shacks with dirt yards. Women who might have been any age from thirty to sixty hung laundry from sagging clotheslines while gaggles of dirty barefoot children watched listlessly from the porch. After a time we came to a shack that was larger than the others, though no less decrepit. It had a deserted air."
Not until the arrival of Henry's brother Jamie, a WWII bomber pilot who is trying to forget those years but is haunted by the demons of his past, does Laura see a reprieve from her discouraging situation.
Hap and Florence Jackson are tenant farmers on Henry's land. Their son, Ronsel, returns from the war to help his parents, and is reminded quickly of the cruelty of Delta justice.
Hillary Jordan's debut novel, winner of the Bellwether Prize for fiction, revolves around these characters, who tell the story from their own points of view. She expertly develops the themes of loss, forgiveness, and the fleeting idea of home and how its meaning changes according to time and circumstance. Jordan also deftly illustrates the idea of man vs. man and man vs. nature with distinct clarity. Laura decides to start her story at the beginning:
"My father-in-law was murdered because I was born plain rather than pretty. That's one possible beginning. There are others: Because Henry saved Jamie from drowning in the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. Because Pappy sold the land that should have been Henry's. Because Jamie flew too many bombing missions in the war. Because a Negro named Ronsel Jackson shone too brightly. Because a man neglected his wife, and a father betrayed his son, and a mother exacted vengeance. I suppose the beginning depends on who's telling the story."
It is impossible to believe that this is Hillary Jordan's first published novel. Her storytelling abilites are only surpassed by her lyrical writing and nothing can prepare you for the stunning conclusion. Highly recommended.
Ronsel is returning not to a heroâs welcome, but to a township full of people anxious to put him in his place â some to fulfil their own sense of propriety, some out of hatred, others for Ronselâs âown good healthâ. The racism in this novel swings from entrenched and frustrating to harrowing and awful but while it is, in a sense, the theme of the book, it is Laura â the young white mother of two small girls â on whom the focus of the book falls, her relationships with Henry, the husband obsessed with the soil he owns, with Pappy, her sly and bitter father-in-law, with Florence, Ronselâs mother, who reluctantly comes to work for her and with Jamie, whose charm and warmth â now a shell inside which he suffers the resulting guilt of piloting a bomber during the war â makes Laura respond in ways she cannot even wish to control
The format of âMudboundâ can seem a little clumsy at times; switching from one characterâs POV to another necessitates some overlap on events, and sometimes this meshing is a little awkward; where it matters, though, Jordan picks up the threads and makes them work for her rather than against; and this is really the only flaw in this first novel. Overall, it is engrossing.
Each character has been drawn with a flair for finding sympathy in the reader â as Laura herself reminds us, each story begins with another and another, each personâs attitude and reactions in some way built by others before them. The story is mesmerising and tense and I will gladly read Jordanâs next book in the hope of more strong storytelling.
Really?
Surely if Kingsolver is awarding an author a prize, it shouldn't be for a book she more or less edited. Just seems wrong.
Having said that, MUDBOUND is certainly a work that addresses issues of social justice, and so if that is the overriding criteria, then I suppose I holds, but it says nothing about the quality of the novel itself, does it?
I enjoyed the book, as a quick read. The multiple points of view is well handled, although by the end I thought the narrative would have been better served by fewer perspectives. So many voices watered down the tension, for me. As well, this story of two brothers and one woman has been told many times before, and better -- I'm thinking of ON THE NIGHT PLAIN by J. Robert Lennon -- so there was little new there. Nor was there much new in the portrayal of racism in the south. Jordan competently describes it, and certainly the climax scene is as horrific and terrifying as one might imagine, but it's not new territory.
I kept thinking there was a deeper, more thoughtful book lurking just under the surface that Jordan didn't quite get to. However, perhaps this is harsh criticism. It is her first novel and frankly, it's much better than THE HELP, which uses 'eye-dialect' and never really strikes a realistic chord when focusing on the African American characters (I understand the film manages this better, but I didn't see it). Jordan does better here, infusing her black characters with dignity and a simmering rage that rings utterly true. Still, Ronsel, one of the POV black characters, makes a decision at the end of the book which is unexplained, and I found that odd.
In spite of this criticism -- that the book should not be awarded a prize from someone so closely associated with it, and that there is little new here -- I think Jordan has a wonderful eye for character detail, and a fine prose style. I'll look for more of her work in the future.
Memphis bred, Laura McAllen never expected to marry, but then Henry comes along and treats her with love and kindness. Although she doesn't know what
Henry is handsome, quiet, and college educated. My brother Teddy brought him to dinner because they got along so well at work. At 41 years, Henry was working for the Corps of Engineers building bridges, levees, and airports in the outlying area of Memphis. Well, from the looks I gathered at dinner, he was ready to build a fence around me. How little did I know.
We married, settled down in our own house in Memphis, and I had two little girls. Things again were comfortable until December 25, 1945. On arrival to the annual Christmas dinner at the home of Henryâs sister, Eboline, in Greenville, Mississippi, we were affronted by Pappy, my cantankerous father-in-law who informed us, âEbolineâs husbandâs gone and ruint Christmas, killing himself on the eve of Jesusâ birth.â
After weeks of settling Ebolineâs affairs, Henry returned home in a new truck. Before I could quiz him, he shocked me with a passionate kiss. This is not my Henry, something was foul. He then blurted out, âIâve bought a farm!â
The plan was simple. Live in a rental house close to Eboline in Greenville, and Henry would commute to the farm 40 miles away. Pappy would be moving in with us, since Ebolineâs move to a smaller house, and I would put up with his criticism of me and the girls.
The rental house was a two-story Victorian with wrap-around porch and azaleas in front. As we climbed the steps, we noticed a light on. While Henry worked the key, a man opened the door from inside, and he wasnât happy. See, the house was sold to him the previous week which made us trespassers.
Out of 300 dollars and forced to live in one of the sharecropper's houses on the farm, Iâm not happy. Matter-of-fact, Iâm constantly angry. Dang dirt is in our clothes, laying atop all the furniture, and giving us all tans. Even my tow-colored sweet babies have brown hair. When Henry suggests we call the place âFair Fieldsâ my mumbled answer becomes family legend. âMore like Mudbound.â
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan is one of the best southern novels I have read in years. Better than "The Secret Life of Bees," she has successfully written a racial tale akin to Flannery OâConnor and Erskine Caldwell. The perfect book for discussion, too.
It begins with two brothers digging a grave in the pouring rain for their father. We then go
Two of the characters, Jamie and Ronsel, are returning World War II heroes. Jamie was a pilot, and Ronsel was a tank commander. While they have much in common, including what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder, they are separated by the great divide of race which, in 1940âs Mississippi, is all-important. Their experiences during and after the war contribute to the plot advancement of this novel.
Laura and Henry own a farm in Mississippi. While Henry loves farming and farm life, Laura has nicknamed the farm âMudboundâ. She is stuck in a ramshackle farm house with her two young daughters and Henryâs father, Pappy. When Jamie returns from Europe, he joins their household. Ronsel is the son of Florence and Hap, Henryâs tenant farmers.
So the events of the novel lead eventually to the death of Pappy. Unfortunately we never hear Pappyâs voice. He really is the central character. I get that heâs dead from the start of the novel and therefore can make no contribution to the flashbacks. And yes, he is a mean, ornery racist, but if the book were structured differently, we might have had some insight into his character. He remains two-dimensional and dull. I just think the main character should be more interesting.
So-I recommend Mudbound, but not whole heartedly.
I really can't understand the excitement this book has generated as everything in the book seemed inevitable, it was humourless, and trite. But, I still liked it.
The author uses multiple narrators to tell parts of the story from their own perspectives, recounting the build-up of events that led to tragedy, so I knew from the beginning that it would not have a "happily ever after" ending. Even though I could see the flaws in each character, I developed a degree of sympathy for each one because I had been given a glimpse of the inner person -- except for Henry's father, Pappy, who is the only adult in either family who was not one of the story's narrators. I never felt any sympathy for him.
One aspect of the book continues to nag at me. The author several times contrasted the racism Ronsel endured among the rural and small town Mississippi whites with the acceptance he found among European women. I wasn't in England or Germany during World War II to see how African American soldiers were treated there. I was in England several decades later, though, and observed how Indian, Pakistani, and West Indian residents were treated by some of the white British citizens. The Jim Crow South did not have a monopoly on racist attitudes. Even though the German women in the novel were more accepting of Ronsel and other African American soldiers, one of the reasons the American G.I.s were in Germany was the persecution of Jews under the Hitler regime. Racism can flourish in any place in any era. Books like this one remind us of its evils and warn us against committing the same sins.
Laura has resigned herself to life as a spinster when she meets Henry
Mudbound opens with Henry and his brother Jamie burying their father on the farm. Jordan's descriptions paint tangible pictures. " The soil was so wet from all the rain it was digging into raw meat". Laura's description of the farm also paints a vivid picture. "When it rained, as it often did, the yard turned into a thick gumbo, with the house floating in it like a soggy cracker"
From that opening scene, we relive how Henry and Jamie came to be burying their father. Each character has a voice in the telling of the story. Henry, Jamie, Laura, Florence and Hap - the black tenant farmers on the McAllan farm and Ronsel - their son. Ronsel and Jamie have both just returned home from the war. Both men have been changed by their experiences and form an unlikely friendship. In the Jim Crow south, this is unacceptable and drives the story to it's inevitable conclusion.
I could not put this book down. The characters,their lives, emotions and upheaval are so richly painted. The historical facts of the deep south in the late 1940's are woven into this stunning debut novel. Jordan's writing captured and held me until the last page. I cannot wait to read her next novel.
Mudbound evoked strong emotions in this reader. The past is still happening.
Jordan won the 2006 Bellwether Prize awarded to literature of social change. This founder of this prize is Barbara Kingsolver.
I found myself so engrossed in this book that it was almost like I wasnât reading, more like watching a play or a movie. The language flowed so beautifully. The characters were true to what they were portrayed as. I look forward to future books from Hillary Jordan.
This is the kind of writing and story-telling that I simply canât put down once I get started. The quote from Barbara Kingsolver on the cover is âThis is storytelling at the height of its powersâŚ.Hillary Jordan writes with the force of a Delta storm.â How true.