Mudbound

By: Hillary Jordan

Narrated by: Ezra Knight, Kate Forbes, Joseph Collins, Tom Stechschulte, Peter Jay Fernandez, Brenda Pressley

Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Hillary Jordan's mesmerizing debut novel won the Bellwether Prize for fiction. A powerful piece of Southern literature, Mudbound takes on prejudice in its myriad forms on a Mississippi Delta farm in 1946. City girl Laura McAllen attempts to raise her family despite questionable decisions made by her husband. Tensions continue to rise when her brother-in-law and the son of a family of sharecroppers both return from WWII as changed men bearing the scars of combat.

©2008 Hillary Jordan (P)2008 Recorded Books

The story and characters are very real.

The character development is excellent. They reminded me, several times, of the stories I heard growing up about my own great grandparents.

May this South never rise again.

I grew up in the South. I lived there during the Forties and Fifties, which is the time period of this book. Because of the year of my birth, I never went to school with black children. I never sat beside a black person on a bus nor in a church. Now I am quite elderly and have not lived in the South for many decades. And yet, this book brought back feelings of shame, anger and bottomless sorrow about the cruel injustice that was part of that too recent history of our nation. Hilary Jordan recounts a part of that Jim Crow era with subtlety, depth and understanding.

Jordan opens her story with the burial of an old white man, father of the owner of a small cotton farm on the rural outskirts of a tiny town in Mississippi. All of her major characters are presented at this gathering. The sharecroppers, Hap and Florence Jackson and their children, twin boys and adult son Ronsul; the owner, Henry and his family, his wife, Laura, two young daughters, his younger brother, Jamie, and his father, Pappy, who still clings to the past social order of the Old South.

This opening event sets the tone of the society in which they live. How can Henry ask and expect Hap to help him bury Pappy, who played a major part in the lynch mob that destroyed the sharecropper’s son? How can Hap agree to help put the coffin into the wet, muddy grave, and also offer to read a few words from his own Bible. It is hard not to sympathize with his wife Florence’s passion to destroy the old man totally.

How can our society compound the injustice of the Jim Crow era by using young black men to fight and die in our wars and expect them to accept the same second class treatment when they return home? We see the hope for change in the beginning of a friendship between the two war vets, Ronsul and Jamie. How could young men who were accepted as equals in other countries cope with the same old yassa massa treatment back home.

Laura, is described as an almost old maid, sweet and effective, but not pretty. She grows in courage, maturity and self-confidence as she cares for her family and her home (no running water, no electricity) in the Mississippi Delta mud and tries to shield the Jacksons and her daughters from her father-in-law, She learns about her own emotions, strengths and ability to create her own joys. This book is very well written. I recommend it to the old and the young. It will touch emotions such as injustice, anger and sadness that we still experience as we read world news today.

I wish there more more audiobooks like this!

Mudbound grabbed you from the beginning and kept you enthralled and engaged until the end. While I wouldn't compare it to "The Help' which was done below, I would say the pace of this book and the great story is well worth the credit or even paying in full.

A REFRESHING BOOK IN THE AUDIBLE REPERTOIRE

I'm a prolific Audible.com customer (1,400+ books so far) but I tend to shy away from books about racism in America. But, every now and then, a book comes along which is honest, hard-hitting yet balanced and emotional. This is such a book. The characters, black and white, male and female, young and old, are well-developed and each tells his or own story from their perspective, which is then woven into the rich tapestry that is "Mudbound". Like the best-selling audiobook "The Help", African-American narrators are used here to depict the black characters, giving the overall narration of the book a rich, deep, resonance - like a good gumbo. I cannot stand audio books where white people try to imitate black voices - they always sound like the minstrel stereotypes so evident in modern depictions, saying stuff like "Jive turkey" and "Right on!", something I've never heard a black person say in all of my 62 years! While we as a people have learned to talk "proper", there's not a single actor who can accurately imitate our voices, especially from times where we were forced to keep our eyes averted and respond with a respectful "Yassuh, Massa". This book, which tells a moving story of what it was like living in the deep South after World War II, is only made better by the excellent production. Even when the African-Americans have to "bow down" to the white man with "Yo' is righ", Cap'n", it's done here with self-respect and a self-awareness which lets the listener know that we're just playing the white man's game. Only a black narrator can provide this level of accuracy. I've listened to way too many audiobooks - even classics - which are ruined by the narrator. Mudbound" is really a tale of prejudice and hate and unnecessary cruelty by one race to another. However, if one can get pass the pain felt by blacks and the embarrassment felt by whites of hearing "nigger" over and over and over again, and just listen to the rich depiction of the people, the locations, and the era, you will find a riveting book of human suffering and survival. Here the "good" white people are still honestly racist behind closed doors and the black people will be grinning in the face of white man while planning how to kill him. Nobody is all good or all bad - just like in life. It's rare to find a white author who thoroughly understands how blacks reacted and triumphed over such racist things like a black man risking his life in WWII, only to come home to his parents' sharecropping farm and be treated like an animal. (Somebody told Jordan how we react when talked to like a slave - if you DEMAND a glass of water, we'll get it from the toilet, all icy and cold, for you!) Here we are portrayed as a strong race who learned how to live with overt racism long after we were supposed to have equal rights. After finishing this book - I wanted to read a sequel and a prequel to this book. Or another such literary and audio masterpiece like "The Help" and "Mudbound". More, PLEASE!!!

Excellent read

This was one of those books I couldn't wait to listen to - on a walk, cleaning house, driving in my car, I had it on. Wonderful reading voice - best I've heard since "The Help." Different voices for the different characters. Powerful and gripping story - it will make you ashamed of your country, but it teaches you so much. I convinced my book club to read it after I listened to it - thought-provoking book to discuss.

People as true as any you personally would know...

Why ever listen to dribble? I don't, and my recommendation of "Mudbound" is designed for others who feel the same way. Excellent story development, people who sound and act like "real" people would, a setting in place and time that is (hopefully) never to be repeated. The various readers did an excellent job of reading their parts with the conviction, or lack thereof, which was true for their particular character. Women played an active, if not central, role in the story and were portrayed in a manner consistent with women of that time period. Neither maudlin nor pollyanna-ish in it approach, Mudbound tells a clear and concise story of life in rural Mississippi following World War II in a way that elicits interest, revulsion, and compassion. Splendid. Heartfelt. True.

well done

This audio was very well done, extremely well narrated. A much darker story than 'The Help'. I loved the different voices for the characters -- really helps to define them.

Different narrators for each character!

I enjoyed reading the book but needed to review it for an upcoming bookclub. Audio seemed the easiest. Hearing the story in all the different voices was almost like radio theater! Definately worth the read and to listen to...even better!!

Good audio book

Parts of this book are very hard to listen to because the events are likely to make you very uncomfortable, but it's a good story, albeit sad in parts but ultimately uplifting and redemptive. Highly recommend.

very good book!

couldn't stop listening. well performed with so many different voices. I would recommend this book to anyone.