Book Title:  Mudbound

Author:  Hillary Jordan

Publishing Company: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Year:  2008
# of Pages:   326
ISBN:  978-1-55468-192-1
$22.95 

Reviewed By: Deborah Ground Buckner (Kansas City Correspondent - USA) 

Hillary Jordan presents a character-rich first novel that will stick to a reader's memory like Delta mud.  Mudbound is the story of two families and their fateful interactions in post-World War II Mississippi. 

Laura McAllan, married long after the age when Southern ladies were expected to marry, has a happy life with her husband, Henry, a veteran of World War I.  At home in Memphis, with her family living nearby, Laura is content raising her two young daughters.  Then one day Henry announces he has purchased a farm in Marietta, in the Mississippi Delta.  Within two weeks, the family is transplanted to a ramshackle house with no indoor plumbing where tenant farmers help to work the land.  If that is not a sufficient blow, Henry also announces they must take in Pappy, his lazy, evil-minded father. 

In the Delta, the McAllans become acquainted with the Jackson family, black tenant farmers who worked for the previous family and continue on with the new owners.  Hap Jackson, like Henry, shares a dream of owning his own land and sees himself, as a one-quarter tenant farmer already risen above a sharecropper.  Hap is also a minister to a black congregation.  His wife, Florence, is the community midwife and works at housekeeping for the McAllans as well..  Their twelve-year-old twin sons help their father work the land while their little girl accompanies her mother to the McAllan home.  Their eldest son, Ronsel, is away in the Army, serving as  sergeant in a tank crew.

Henry's younger brother, Jamie, is also overseas, serving in the Army Air Corps.  Jamie and Ronsel are bonded in many ways.  Each is the shining star of his family, each is recognized for heroic service, and each is learning of a way of life-and death-far different from the experiences of their families in the Delta.  When they return and discover their similarities, they also discover anew the racism that permeates the post-World War II South. 

Jordan brings each character vividly to life.  Reminiscent of William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, each chapter jumps in viewpoint from one character to another.  The story continues without break, since each character tells his or her segment as it occurs in chronological order, keeping the reader engaged as the plot unfolds.  It is a technique that creates sympathy for the characters, shedding light on their actions as they are rooted in their thoughts and experiences.  For example, even though Henry acts unilaterally in purchasing the farm and forcing his family to move to such primitive circumstances, it is impossible to dislike him, because Jordan so clearly presents his perspective. 

Ronsel, Jamie, Henry, Laura, Florence, and Hap are unforgettable characters.  Their stories keep the pages turning and will keep readers thinking for some time after the last page is read.