Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

A-
Authors first book!

General Summary:
Mudbound is a book about racism in the United States. When Roosevelt was president, it was the first time Black soldiers were allowed to fight in war. Eleanor Roosevelt was a supporter of civil rights and convinces her husbands administration to allow black men to go to war for out country. Thought they did not have mixed company's , black soldiers were allowed to fight on the line. This was a big step for America - it had many critics, as the KKK was still a driving source of prejudice in America. But while away at war, black and white soldiers united and formed strong bonds - knowing that they were all putting their lives on the line for one America.

Mudbound is the story of two men and their families- one black(Ronsel) one white(Jamie). When the war is over and they both come home - they are forced to confine to racial lines and social prejudices because of the their color. Lines they were not used to recognizing when they were in Europe. Jamie's family consists of his brother, the farmer, his brothers wife (Laura), and his father - who is a member of the KKK and a mean, selfish old man. Ronsels family consists of his father, mother(Florence) and two siblings. Ronsels family works for Jamies family on the farm. We also find that Ronsel has a girlfriend and a child in Europe - the girlfriend is white.

There are many shocking side stories and relationships, but for this book I am not going to be a spoiler! The book starts out with a burial of the old man and then back tracks - making you wonder throughout the whole book how it is going to come to that point.


The book is written from a different characters perspective each chapter - mostly Laura's perspective. Which allows you to build a relationship with each character!

In my opinion:
Hillary Jordan is a very detailed and talented writer. She uses foreshadowing and symbolism similarly to Fitzgerald. I felt a connection to each of the characters in the book. Because of the way she chose to write this book I felt like I got the whole story threw different characters eyes. She always seemed to find the right combination of words to make me feel strong emotions and understanding for the characters and situations - whether it was compassion, anger, love, and even indifference. There are many twists in the story that you don't see coming until you are there and then you can look back and feel what lead up to it. Every character has their turn to tell parts of the story except for the old, father. But threw all the other characters views and explanations I felt strong distrust and anger towards him as a person.
Jordon does a good job of building up a connection between the men - while at the same time making the reader feel the anxiety of the safety of them because they chose to mix racial lines with a friendship. At times I felt for their safety, I wished they would just stop being friends because it really would make their lives easier and everyone would stop watching them. The men did not stop because they understood what each other had been threw and seen at war and they really did not see color as a part of that bond.
It is interesting to me that US was so far behind Europe with racial lines. Ronsel was a black solider who was planning on marrying a white girl - the mother of his child in Europe. It is portrayed that at that time, in Europe, it was not an issue to have a bi racial marriage, where at the same time, in the US it was unheard of openly and could lead to horrible racism.

Eye opening!