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Book Review of Mudbound

Mudbound
Mudbound
Author: Hillary Jordan
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Hardcover
Helpful Score: 1


Mudbound is a well-written story about a bleak time in American history--the 1940s in Mississippi under Jim Crow laws. Life is hard on the cotton farm that is setting for Mudbound, hard for Laura who misses the simple luxuries of her city life in Memphis and for Florence and Hap, the black sharecroppers on the farm. Prejudice and inequality are rampant. But the intensity of the novel accelerates when Laura's brother-in-law, Jamie, and Florence and Hap's son, Ronsel, return from World War II combat. One is haunted by the trauma of war and seeks solace in booze. The other is challenged by a hatred and inequality that he thought he had defeated in Europe. In the end, bigotry and cowardice combine with tragic results.