March 11, 2008

Muddy Waters

“Mudbound,” by Hillary Jordan

Lazing on the porch all day. Sipping sweet tea from a Mason jar. Entertaining gentlemen callers.

Blame the gajillion times you’ve seen Gone with the Wind for your technicolor fantasy of Southern belledom.

But don’t miss Hillary Jordan’s heartrending debut novel, Mudbound, which exposes the darker, grittier side of plantation life.

Set in the Mississippi Delta in the 1940s, the tale is told from the perspectives of six characters from two very different families — one white, one black. There’s Laura, the sweet as cornbread, citified heroine who hates rural life; Henry, her pragmatic, land-obsessed husband; Jamie, Henry’s charismatic younger brother; Hap and Florence, the farm’s sharecroppers; and Ronsel, their war-torn son.

Jordan’s beautiful, haunting prose makes it a seductive page-turner, even while dealing with heavy stuff, like racism, war, infidelity, murder, and incest.

It’s about time someone gave a damn.

Available online at amazon.com or at your local bookstore.