This book was a surprisingly good read! Set in the South just after WWII, it deals with racism, financial and physical struggle, friendship, and love.
Memphis bred, Laura McAllen never expected to marry, but then Henry comes along and treats her with love and kindness. Although she doesn't know what to expect from marriage, she learns and accepts her new husband. Then he drops a bomb - they are moving to a farm in the Mississippi Delta. He never consulted her and she is fiercely angry,but won't show it. She bites her tongue & hopes for the best, but the farm is a disaster and she is devastated. On top of this, her lazy, opinionated, and miserable father-in-law will be living with them as well. She is appalled at the situation, until Jamie, her brother-in-law returns from the war to live on the farm with them. He is the bright light in her life, and she realizes that she is in love with him. Jamie returns her feelings, but is a disaster, emotionally, due to the war. He drinks too much, he sleeps around, but the real issue is that he makes friends with Ronsel, the son of the black share-farmers on their land. Even though Ronsel fought in the war, is polite, and well-behaved man, he is still treated as a lower class citizen in this small Mississippi town. Their friendhip is entirely unacceptable to many of the leading white men in town, including Laura's father-in-law. The events that occur in this book are shocking, yet so close to the truth that it is scary. ( )

Slow to get into, but by the end transformative in a way that was deeply satisfying. This book stayed with me. ( )

Each chapter is told from a different person's perspective. Laura marries Henry but gets more than she bargains for when Henry moves her from the city to a remote farm (no water or electricity!) where she also has to try to get along with Henry's Pappy who is a very ornery man and his charming brother Jamie. One of their tenants on the farm is Hap, his wife Florence and their children, including their grown son Ronsel who has been serving in the first Black infantry in WWII. A great plot that the author unfolds in an effortless way. A truly good story that I kept wanting to get back to. ( )

loved it... so vived ( )

Mudbound starts off in an ominous mood, with two brothers burying their father. The weather in the Mississippi Delta has been rainy for the previous three days, but they have finally gotten the break in the weather they were looking for, so the brothers decide it's best if they complete the necessary digging as quickly as possible... In a shifting, kaleidoscopic viewpoint, the story is told piece by piece, while suspense builds. Laura McAllan's voice holds the package together - she both begins at the true beginning and fills in some of the details left out of the other characters' chapters. We soon discover that the old man is both abusive and racist, and that even his own family despises him.

Being a resident of the real Mississippi Delta, I feel obligated to point out that the author has taken some liberty with her geography. In reality, there is a Marietta, Mississippi - near which the story says the farm, Mudbound, is located - but Marietta is not as close to Greenville as Ms Jordan would have you believe. I will forgive her that discrepancy for giving us this wonderful novel... a little slight of hand with the location of the towns mentioned doesn't harm the story...

Mudbound has the flavor of a historical novel blended with mystery and suspense all in the same tightly written package. The characters are fully fleshed and of both types, those you love and those you love to hate. Long before the story ends, you'll figure out what's inevitably going to happen... yet there's still a compulsion to continue reading. A surprise is buried in the twisted ending which will leave you feeling both shocked and devastated, yet that ending is wholly appropriate to this compelling tale.

This isn't a YA book by any stretch of the imagination and is also not recommended for those sensitive to violence. Yet with that caviat in mind, I do recommend this book to the majority of readers looking for something that doesn't fit into the "light and fluffy" category.

This review has also been published on Dragonviews ( )