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 farm–a place she finds foreign and frightening. In the … 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 not–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 Barbara 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.”
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A well-written story written from several characters’ points of view in the South during the time of segregation. It is though a story of unremitting gloom so wouldn’t suit if you’re looking for something uplifting or cheerful. That being said, it had me hooked.
A gripping and phenomenally well-written story about the complexities of human character, Mudbound shows how the pervasive cancer of racism plays out between the interwoven fates of two Southern families.
Hilary Jordan’s novel Mudbound was recently made into a very compelling movie. I must confess, I found the novel through the movie, which is the opposite of how it usually (and should) happens. Mudbound takes on a variety of salient topics, utilizing a number of unique voices. The book is narrated by different characters in the novel. The writing, like the topics it addresses, is graphic and visceral. It was a quick read, and surprisingly, I think the movie did the novel proper justice, which is not often the case.
The novel tells the story of two different families brought together by economic necessity on the one hand, and by the shared experiences of their favorite sons on the other. The McAllans are a white, upper-class Memphis family whose husband Henry (trained as an engineer) decides to move them down to the Mississippi Delta so that he can take up his true life’s calling: to own and work a cotton farm. The farm’s tenants include the Jackson family, a black family that has resided in the Delta since the days of slavery. Henry MacAllan is old school and not much of one to socialize with black people. Laura, on the other hand, relies on Florence Jackson, the wife of Hap Jackson, to help her run the household and they develop a cordial relationship based strictly on mutual respect, not friendship. The families’ relationship becomes more complex and entwined when Henry’s younger brother Jamie and the Jackson’s oldest son Ronsel return from the war in Europe. Jamie is suffering from extreme PTSD and he is miserable in Mississippi. Ronsel, who acquitted himself admirably in the war also suffers, but most of his suffering stems from the delusion that he fought the war partially so that blacks could live better lives in the America after the war. This delusion is made clear before he has even spent one hour back in his hometown. Jamie and Ronsel, bonded by their shared experiences, become friends, spending evenings drinking together in an old sawmill, thus breaking all the old Delta taboos about race relations. Meanwhile, the intrigue heightens due to the mutual attraction between the young, dashing Jamie and his sister-in-law Laura.
Jordan chose to tell the story from the perspective of all six main characters, and this makes for interesting reading, as the chapters flip from person to person. We get to hear from the husbands (Henry and Hap) and from the prodigal sons returned from war in Europe (Jamie and Ronsel), but the true heart and soul of the narrative are the two voices of the family matriarchs, Laura and Florence. In fact, I would have preferred the entire narrative was conducted by these two women. Jordan paints a realistic picture of tenant farming in rural Mississippi during the Jim Crowe era, and it is not pretty. Jordan’s prose, however, is far from prosaic, and the reader is drawn into the story by the beautiful language. Her characterizations of rural medical care, farming, race relations, returning veterans, as well as her references to the seminal Mississippi flood of 1927 (which people in that region still speak about today), are all well researched and highly descriptive.
The denouement of the story (which takes place in the aforementioned sawmill) is violent and tears both families asunder, but the arc of the story leads to no other solution than violence and unhappiness. The name Mudbound is given by Laura to the farm that Henry drags her to from her comfortable life in suburban Memphis. Laura says, “When I think of the farm, I think of mud…I dream in brown.” The novel is indeed befitting of a title like Mudbound, as it casts dark shadows on the nature of men and women leading lives that seem to promise no graceful conclusion.
This was a powerful and moving novel. The multiple points of view worked well (and that’s a tricky thing to handle). The characters came alive in their settings, and it was a very believable take on that historical moment of social change, or lack thereof.
Edgy, gritty, raw. Loved the characters. Really loved the story.
So intense. Wonderfully written, so upsetting. So tragic, but feels very realistic- and it just wasn’t that long ago. Usually, I avoid watching movies before I read the book- but it was on Netflix and my whole family could agree on it- so I had watched it a few months back, but it had been a while, and plus the writing is so good that it was a pleasure even as I sort-of-remembered what was about to happen. Everyone should read this book- so that we don’t forget.
This is a powerful, yet poignant, work that presents adultery, incest, and racism, along with family, love and compassion. Although it is filled with poignant issues, it ends with some contentment and a ray of hope.
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan – the characters are still with me and I will reread this book, but I will not go to see the movie.
Blurb:
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 farm—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 not—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.
http://www.darlenejonesauthor.com
Good read. Movie good also.
The story took place in Mississippi during the 1940’s. It makes one wonder if anything has changed since then.
Thoroughly enjoyed!
I really enjoyed this book, I liked how she writes!!!
I am recommending this book to all my friends. Great characters, unforgettable story. The story compares two men ,and the people in their lives, who come home from the war one black and one white and how the lives they come back to are so different. Ronsel, eldest son of the black sharecroppers, no matter his bravery in defense of his country, he is still considered less than a man in the Jim Crow South. Jamie comes home to a different life and the two become friends when it was not accepted. The story starts with a teaser for the ending, but you will never guess the whole story.