Very engaging story about life on a Mississippi delta farm shortly after the end of WWII.

Hillary Jordan successfully depicts events from the points of view of several characters: landowner Henry and his city-bred wife Laura; Henry's charismatic brother Jamie; sharetenants Hap and Florence; Hap and Florence's son Ronsel. Jamie and Ronsel, both veterans, return to their families and manage to forge an unheard-of interracial friendship based on little more than the horrors of war.

Another pivotal figure is Henry and Jamie's father Pappy, an embittered man unable to deal with any change to the social order. The title of the book literally describes what happens to Pappy. Unlike the other characters, Pappy is never allowed the chance to narrate events. This was a good decision: hearing his hateful voice would have been torture. I can't imagine that his inner thoughts would have made the reader feel any sympathy towards him.