Multi-Voice Novels

So, I'm going to go back to a previous class where we talked about multi-voice books. I have read many multi-voice books, however two stick out to me as being unique and books I would highly recommend. First, I read Mudbound by Hillary Jordan this summer and immediately fell in love with it, I read it in two days. Mudbound is about a well off family, city-bred Laura, and her husband Henry, that moves to a farm, where they live in a house with no running water or electricity because it is Henry's dream to own and work on a farm. Each chapter of the book tells someone else's part of the story, the voices include that of the family that moves to the farm, and of an African-American family that owns a plot of land on the farm and pays for what they harvest, and try to sell their crops. This is an amazing story told after World War II and shows how prejudice and segregation still exists. Towards the end of the book each person has a very short chapter, and it is up to the reader to figure out what has happened and to put the pieces of the story together through the information that each character gives.

The second book is called Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. I read it in high school, and it has since become one of my favorite books. This book is told by three people, and each person has a different story. When you read the book, each person has a different chapter title, and it has to do with their story, but does not reveal the person's name. The reader doesn't actually learn the names of the characters until very late in the book. As you read, you feel yourself gravitating towards one character, their story will become your favorite of the three (each reader has a different favorite portion). As you read you begin to notice minor connections between the three, but still cannot figure out what is going on. When you finally finish the three characters will all be connected in a way you never expected. I highly recommend this read for anyone, it is an amazing book.