Mudbound: a book review

Mudbound  by Hillary Jordan

Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

$22.95 publish date March 11, 2008

It amazes me that this is a debut novel. That just can't be right. How can Hillary Jordan be this accomplished on her first try? Plot, character, dialog, it all works. And more than that- she speaks with the voices of different characters in each chapter- taking turns as narrator! It is sophisticated, accomplished, complex, and intense.

Reading this novel is quite an experience. The only real issue here is the content of the story- a dark, tormented tale set in the Mississippi Delta in the days following the end of World War II. A troubled marriage, two veterans of the War, one white and one black, the presence of the Klan, a changing world but a community frozen in time- it's wonderfully well conceived. Henry wants to call the farm "Fair View", but Laura holds out for a more honest description: "Mudbound". To be honest, it was not what I really wanted to be reading right now.

But here's the thing, when a writer has this much talent and has something she wants to say, you listen. Or more accurately, you read. It ends up being not just about a time and a place, but more about what it is to be human. The pain that you experience from the story is that same pain you receive from a Greek Tragedy- a good pain that makes you a better person.

Thanks to Hillary Jordan for saying what she wanted to say. Thanks to Barbara Kingsolver- you remember her- for creating the Bellwether Prize for Fiction which "Mudbound" just won. (The Bellwether Prize is the largest U.S. award for an unpublished manuscript, and and is the only prize specifically promoting literature of social change) Thanks to Algonquin Books fo Chapel Hill for looking for new talent- and in this case, definitely finding new talent.

Okay, now I am going to go out and find something cheerful to read. But I have no regrets. I am grateful. And I would like to know what she is working on now.