Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

Mudbound was the novel pick this month for the book club.  In it, Hillary Jordan does a nice job of forging white and black cultures together in rural Mississippi.  The book takes place in the years  surrounding World War II.

Laura is a woman aged in her early thirties - past her prime in her time - who has all but given up on the dream of marriage and motherhood is courted by Henry in her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.  Henry, an older gentleman of southern born heritage, asks for her hand in marriage.  Shortly after the arrival of their second daughter, Henry brings his dream of life on the farm alive, dragging his family into the deep, wet Mississippi Delta, saddling them with a farm house with no electricity or indoor plumbing.  Added to the lost luxuries, Henry drops his hateful father into the home with them.

The story takes us back and forth between Laura and Henry, Hap and Florence, black tenants that came with the purchase of the cotton farm, Jamie, Henry's younger brother, and Ronsel, Hap and Florence's eldest son.  Both Jamie and Ronsel have only just returned from overseas tours.  While the 1940's should seem like a year where slavery was long extinct, it was not in certain parts of the south and pits these two families against one another.  What bursts forth on the pages of this novel is a story of a power struggle between black and white, husband and wife, the dangerous Delta, and the vast emotional barrage of two soldiers sharing similar war experiences but ultimately forced to oppose one another on the sole basis of racial differences.

This story was an easy, fast-paced read that dove deeply into the lives of seven people and their offspring.  The narrative was told through six distinct voices and continued to climb to climax.  It was not a novel I would have normally picked to read on my own but I am thankful it was a recommended pick and I had an opportunity to experience it.  Pick up a copy and check it out for yourself.