Home in the Morning - by Mary Glickman (Paperback)

About the Book

A Jewish family confronts the tumult of the 1960s and the secrets that bind its members together. Jackson Sassaport is a man who often finds himself in the middle. He journeys from his childhood as a coddled son of the Old South on to his struggle as a young man eager to find his place in the civil rights movement while protecting his family.

Book Synopsis

A Southern family confronts the tumult of the 1960s, and the secrets that bind its members together, in a novel by a National Jewish Book Award finalist. Jackson Sassaport is a man who often finds himself in the middle. Whether torn between Stella, his beloved and opinionated Yankee wife, and Katherine Marie, the African American girl who first stole his teenage heart; or between standing up for his beliefs and acquiescing to his prominent Jewish family's imperative to not stand out in the segregated South, Jackson learns to balance the secrets and deceptions of those around him. But one fateful night in 1960 will make the man in the middle reconsider his obligations to propriety and family, and will start a chain of events that will change his life and the lives of those around him forever. Home in the Morning follows Jackson's journey from his childhood as a coddled son of the Old South to his struggle as a young man eager to find his place in the civil rights movement while protecting his family. Flashing back between Jackson's adult life as a successful lawyer and his youth, Mary Glickman's riveting novel traces the ways that race and prejudice, family and love intertwine to shape our lives.

Review Quotes

"Home in the Morning kept me home all morning and most of the afternoon as well, since I couldn't stop reading it. This story of a nice Jewish boy from Mississippi and his struggles to forge an identity and find love during the early years of the civil rights movement was so vivid to me that I was startled to realize that half a century has passed since those traumatic days. Mary Glickman displays great skill in interweaving different decades and locales into a moving love story that is also an insightful exploration of the complexities and confusions that result from clashing cultural norms --northern and southern, black and white, male and female, Jewish and Christian, working class and ruling class. Anyone weary of the stereotypes that often pass for the history of that era will want to read this gripping novel."
--Lisa Alther, bestselling author of Kinflicks

"It's not often that a first-time novelist introduces a world unknown. Home in the Morning sits at the nexus of southern Jews and shantytown Afro-Americans on the eve of desegregation. In the heat of that historic night, Mary Glickman traces one man's struggle with three women and a conscience--a treasury of tension and compassion."
--Norman Lebrecht, author of Song of Names, Winner of the 2002 Whitbread Prize

Advance praise from readers:
"Like fine cloth, Mary Glickman weaves a delicate tale of four interwoven lives, from 1950s to 1990s Mississippi. As a Yankee Jew I have always found stories about growing up Jewish in the deep south fascinating. The relationships of Southern Jews and African Americans during the time of Freedom Fighters is also of great interest to me. The author's photo-real descriptions brought these characters and situations to life for me, and I look forward to seeing a film made of this story. All four main players are fully formed, interesting, and leave me wanting more about their continuously, but often changing, relationships with each other."
--Lisa Kalb Schaffer, freelance producer (Boston, MA)

"Home in the Morning is a remarkable, powerful tale of a Jewish family living in Mississippi. The main character, Jackson Sassaport, is portrayed with so much honesty, vulnerability, and strength that Mary Glickman invites you to know him intimately. Her style of writing is unique, as the book begins in the "present" and then takes you on a journey from childhood through maturity with all the political, familial, and social encounters along the way. The dialect embraces you--with the southern drawl you can hear it in your mind as you read each word...it immerses you. As the book progresses it moves to the North and she allows you to feel the political and social differences in an unassuming manner. The characters were developed beautifully. Very careful thought was put into depicting all the idiosyncrasies, nuances, and development of the situations, characters and their relationships. There is almost a virgin quality to the freshness of the writing."
--Susan I. Levine, Manager, Quest Diagnostics (Boston, MA)

"Do you tell the truth to someone if you know it will hurt them or others, or do you bury it, where it haunts you, sometimes for the rest of your life but only you suffer the despair? This is one of the ethical issues Mary Glickman brings to life in her story set in our country's most troubled time, a time when ethical issues where the lens that filtered all conversations. Completely absorbing, Glickman weaves a story of strong characters, all human, all flawed, all caught in their own struggles. Once you pick it up, you will be caught in their lives until the truth sets you free."
--Susan Hobart, Elementary School Teacher (Madison, WI)

About the Author

Born on the South Shore of Boston, Massachusetts, Mary Glickman studied at the Université de Lyon and Boston University. She is the author of Home in the Morning; One More River, a National Jewish Book Award Finalist in Fiction; Marching to Zion; An Undisturbed Peace; and By the Rivers of Babylon. Glickman lives in Seabrook Island, South Carolina, with her husband, Stephen.