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BookBrowse Reviews Mudbound: In Jordan's prize-winning debut novel, set in 1946 Mississippi, prejudice takes many forms, both subtle and brutal

Mudbound
by Hillary Jordan
Paperback, Mar 2009,
336 pages.
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I hungrily raced through Mudbound in just two days, a whirlwind, fiction-filled 48 hours in which I loathed to put the book down. In the non-reading hours I worked or drifted to sleep with Hillary Jordan's six narrating characters chattering on gently in my head. Alternating narrators is tricky business, but Jordan pulls it off seamlessly, immediately commanding her characters to life. The strength of their voices erases the fingerprints and guiding hand of the writer, making every move in the gripping drama, every turn of phrase or detail in the prose emerge as entirely the handiwork of each character.

At the heart of Mudbound is Laura, an educated city-spinster turned reluctant-farmer's-wife. Her husband, Henry McAllan, rescues her from one kind of loneliness only...
Beyond the Book
Mudbound won the 2006 Bellwether Prize for Fiction, a prize fully-funded by author Barbara Kingsolver, awarded to previously unpublished first novels that address issues of social justice. The prize, awarded in even-numbered years, consists of a $25,000 cash payment to the author of the winning manuscript, and guaranteed publication by a major publisher. The Bellwether Prize is the only major North American endowment or prize for the arts that specifically seeks to support literature of social responsibility.

Mudbound is Hillary Jordan's first novel....
This review was originally published in March 2008, and has been updated for the March 2009 paperback release. Click here to go to this issue.
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