The title says it all. Hillary Jordan's book Mudbound describes characters sucked into the ooze partly of their own making and partly of what has happened to them in their time, place and circumstance, just as we all are. This might sound like a complete downer, and it certainly has some terrible moments, but it is a good read. A compelling storyline and characters we can relate to (even when we wish we can't) make it a fairly quick yet meaningful book.
The book begins and ends with the burial scene of Pappy, the twisted, hateful patriarch of the white McAllan family. He is being buried in the rain, in the sodden, lonely fields of Mudbound, the farm that his son, Henry, has finally purchased after a lifetime of saving and dreaming. Not even to dust or ashes, Pappy is going to mud.
Henry is the stalwart, stoic eldest son who marries Laura later in life. Laura, a college-educated almost-spinster, is uprooted from her city life to become a farmwife. Henry's younger brother Jamie is a charmer who comes back from World War II with a hole in his heart.
The black Jackson family shares the farm as one of the tenants. Hap Jackson is determined to make more of his life than the fate of a sharecropper. His strong, intelligent wife Florence partners with him to make his dreams come true. Their hopes and dreams are also invested in their oldest son, Ronsel, another WWII vet. Ronsel's "got a shine to him"--he hopes for further education and a different life. He has trouble adjusting to the racism and Jim Crow laws of his Mississippi home after feeling freed from some of it in Europe during the war.
The interred Pappy is not the only one trapped by the land. Sharecroppers are fettered to the land and their landlords. Henry is sucked in to the land by his own "landsickness," a desire for the land that goes beyond what he feels for his wife and family. Ronsel is embedded in a community that can't see past his skin color, but he can't leave because he must help his family farm.
The good women of the Neland book club spent some time talking about the structure of the book. It is told from six different points of view, so the chapters go from character to character, giving us insight into each of their thoughts. Sometimes the voices were not as distinct as we might wish. Books like The Help and The Poisonwood Bible have been stronger in this respect. While we might not always be able to discern the actual voice of each character, we still see their perspectives distinctly. Many times we wish we didn't have to hear exactly what they were thinking. Jordan stays true to the time and place, and the racism of even the less racist characters angered us as we read, even as we could empathize with other aspects of the characters.
None of the characters is a true out-and-out hero, though there is still potential. Each are mired in their own natures--each a strange cocktail of their own experience, knowledge, hate, love, compassion, fear and pride. Some come close to heroism at different points, but can't really pull it off. Which would probably be true for about 99% of the human race.
The story rings true in other ways, too. One strand of the history of the U.S. is that of people looking for freedom and land, and using what power they have to realize that dream, even at the cost of marginalizing others.
Jordan's novel won the Bellwether Prize, which is a prize awarded to a previously unpublished novel that supports social change. There was a bit of discussion about whether or not Mudbound is a bit heavy-handed, but the consensus seemed to be that it really wasn't.
I definitely recommend it. And I will say, if I had any illusions that I might enjoy being a farmwife (which I really don't--I'm too lazy and enjoy city comforts), they are gone forever. If nothing else, the book might make you more thankful for your toilet and shower. Hopefully it will also raise your consciousness on other issues as well.
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