Home in the Morning by Mary Glickman

A powerful debut from a new literary talent, this novel tells the story of a Jewish family confronting 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. 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. 

Check out Mary's author profile on Open Road Media's website! 

Below you can find the Twitter discussion of Home in the Morning with author Mary Glickman that took place September 14, 2011. Make sure to follow Jewish Book Council (@jewishbook) for more Twitter Book Club events!


JewishBook: And so it begins! WELCOME to September's #jbcbooks book club w/ author @maryglickman, here to discuss her amazing novel Home in the Morning!

JewishBook: Remember that there will be a #bookgiveaway involved for one lucky participant at the end of our session! #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: @JewishBook Hello everyone, happy to be here! Bring it on!#jbcbooks

JewishBook: So @maryglickman, let’s dive right in with the biggest question-- what inspired you to write Home in the Morning? #jbcbooks

JewishBook: If you're involved, remember to write a "." or "/" before the @handle so everyone can see what you write! @MaryGlickman #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: @JewishBook Well, I grew up in the North and moved to the South and found my bliss. When I had to move back North, I . . . #jbcbooks

OpenRoadMedia: RT @JewishBook: WELCOME to #jbcbooks w/ @maryglickman, here to discuss Home in the Morning! There will be a #bookgiveaway at the end!

nitsudssor: Checking out #jbcbooks. You should too!

MaryGlickman: realized people up North didn't understand the New South at all, were stuck in a kind of Hollywood Jim Crow image. And Yankee. .#jbcbooks

JewishBook: Welcome @nitsudssor! #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: Jews had no concept of the Southern Jewish Experience. The civil rights era seemed a perfect place to address this. #jbcbooks

BookGal102: .@maryglickman What sort of research did you do to develop the story? Did you know much about Southern Jewish life in the 50s/60s? #jbcbooks

JewishBook: It does often seem like Northern Jews don't realize Southern Jews could possible exist! Would @jcchouston agree? #jbcbooks

JewishBook: So @maryglickman why did you pick Mississippi as the central location for the story? #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: .@bookgal102 I'm old enough to remember the highlights of the Civil Rights Era, but as to Southern Jewish Experience. . . #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: during that time, I researched through the College of Charleston's Judaica Dept's fabulous collection of oral histories of . . . #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: Southern Jews. There are many academic texts and journalistic books on the era. Plus, my heart is Southern. . . #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: Something of natural instinct to understand was going on, too. #jbcbooks

NaomiFirestone: Twitter Book Club with @maryglickman is happening RIGHT NOW at @jewishbook #jbcbooks

ebooklit: Shoutout to @CofC! RT @MaryGlickman: I researched College of Charleston's Judaica Dept's fabulous collection of oral histories #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: .@jewishbook - Mississippi was the ground zero of some of the most volatile and significant events of the era. Also, once . . . #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: I read about Rabbi Perri Nussbaum, I knew I had to include his world in my story. The Black Power movement was born in Miss. . . #jbcbooks

ebooklit: The Jewish experience in the South? I think @myers_dg would have some valuable insights as well. #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: .@ebooklit I don't know him. I do know Stuart Rockoff and Eli Evans. But thanks for the heads up! I'll be checkin him out! #jbcbooks

nycbook: .@maryglickmanTell us more about Rabbi Perri Nussbaum, please #jbcbooks

elesscom: Where were you first published? How did you "make a name" for yourself? Break into the big leagues? @MaryGlickman@OpenRoadMedia #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: @nycbook. Perri Nussbaum was one of the heroes of the civil rights era. He paid for his outspoken support of African . . . #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: American rights by having both his home and synagogue bombed. A tragic and brave man. #jbcbooks

JewishBook: For those of you following this #jbcbooks convo, @MaryGlickman's (e)book is on sale @AmazonKindle amzn.to/p7d3Lq!@eBookNewser

JewishBook: .@maryglickman so were any other characters based off people you knew (or knew of?) #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: @nycbook Perri Nussbaum was a lifeline to civil rights workers imprisoned at Parchman Farm, smuggling correspondence in and . . . #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: still talking about Perri here! out of the prison, he formed the Committee of Concern of clergy in Jackson, etc. #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: .@Jewish books - Really, everyone I know! I like to take stories I hear from folks, observances I make and twist them around. . #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: Change gender or age or status or race. The incident or characteristic will change with those twists until I've got a new. . . #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: personage all my own. For example, people who know tell me my husband is an awful lot like Stella! #jbcbooks

JewishBook: .@MandellJCCArts thanks for the Twitter Book Club RT! We're talking to @MaryGlickman now! #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: All my life, I've been the kind of person strangers tell their life stories to. I don't know why. I'm that person on the. . . #jbcbooks

OpenRoadMedia:.@elesscom We're sure @MaryGlickman will have more to say! We published Home in the Morning—her debut—in 2010 bit.ly/lYPsI5 #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: subway listening intently to a weeping stranger. I've collected a lot of material on human behavior that way I think! #jbcbooks

BookGal102: .@maryglickman Re: the poem at the beginning-- was the story you wrote influenced by first reading the poem “Ride On Moses?” #jbcbooks

JewishBook: haha! well our favorite character had to be Jackson's cousin Mickey Moe- which character did you most enjoy writing? #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: .@bookgal102 = No, it came much later. My publisher wanted a new title and I started looking through spirituals for one. . . #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: Ride on Moses has a message I really liked. About putting old sins on the shelf and shaking oneself. Like the NEw South #jbcbooks

NextbookPress: Book club alert: Check it out NOW #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: .@Jewish Book - I loved Mickey Moe so much I couldn't let him go. So my new novel, coming out Nov 1st, features Mickey Moe as. .#jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: one of two principal characters. But I enjoyed writing them all. Bubba Ray was fun. And Jackson's mama and daddy. Flawed. . . #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: characters are always entertaining to write. #jbcbooks

BookGal102: .@MaryGlickman Interesting! I wasn't sure if it was a chicken/egg thng. Were there othrs u you were deciding btwn or it stood out? #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: .@bookgal102 It stood out mostly because most spritiuals have a lot of Jesus in them. That really wouldn't do for Morning! #jbcbooks

BookGal102: .@MaryGlickman That makes sense :) #jbcbooks

nycbook: .@MaryGlickman Ohhh can you tell us more about your new novel with Mickey Moe? #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: @nycbook. It's called One More River and it's about Mickey Moe's back story. About his romance with his wife Laura Anne and. . . #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: their quest to discover the true identity of his father, who died in WWII. After Bernard Levy's death in the war, it was . . . #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: discovered he was an imposter. So there's his story and MM's story intertwined. It covers the two most transformative 20th. . . #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: century events in the South: The great Mississipi flood of 1927 and the Civil Right Era. MM's daddy is a really unexpected. . . #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: character, I think. When ever I hear the song "He was a friend of mine" I think of him and get weepy still. #jbcbooks

BookGal102: .@maryglickman How do you think time has changed Jewry in America? (technology, ability to travel) Do you think there have been #jbcbooks

BookGal102: .@MaryGlickman ...big changes in Southern Jewry from the time at which the book ended to now? #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: .@BookGal102 = Well, they're still southern! They're genteel and cultured and love stories. But most Southerners are weary. . . #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: of the image of themselves as racist cowards. They'd like to leave the past in the past. Honestly, it's been my experience. . . #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: that race relations here are better than up North. But Northerners don't know that or see it. #jbcbooks

elesscom: Was in South & Southwest for a bit, & never got used to shalom y'all or blessings w a Southern accent @MaryGlickman@openroadmedia #jbcbooks

nycbook: .@MaryGlickman I know you enjoyed writing Bubba because of his flaws. He pretty much gets away with everything in the end... #jbcbooks

nycbook: .@MaryGlickman ... was there a reason why you let him off so easily? #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: .@elesscom. Big smile for you! You know in Jackson, the Institute for Southern Jewish Living answers the phone "Shalom y'all." #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: .@nycbooks. Are you talking Bubba Ray? Like most black sheep of the family (and we've all got one), he just goes on and on. . . #jbcbooks

nycbook: .@MaryGlickman Yes, Bubba Ray! Sorry (was saving characters) #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: That's realism. I know people want to see him punished. But would you want to live inside his soul? Punishment enough! #jbcbooks

nycbook: .@MaryGlickman I hear you! #jbcbooks

OpenRoadMedia: Loving this #jbcbooks convo—"You know in Jackson, the Institute for Southern Jewish Living answers the phone 'Shalom y'all' —@maryglickman

elesscom: My rabbi interned in the South, sometimes says, "Y'all y'all" is an expression. Can you define? @maryglickman @OpenRoadMedia #jbcbooks

BookGal102: .@maryglickman Some of your characters end up changing their names during the story, how impt is “having roots” to this story? #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: .@elesscom Sure. It's a collective with emphasis. Y'all is used for more than one person, never to address the singular person.. #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: So when you say all you all it's like mama yelling for the kids outside to "come on in, all you all. It's time to bencht licht!" #jbcbooks

JewishBook: This has been great, we're going straight to read @maryglickman's One More River. Thnx to @openroadmedia & everyone involved! #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: .@bookgal102 - having roots was part of the Af Am story. Very impt. And for southern Jews, having roots is essential. . . #jbcbooks

elesscom: LOL MT @MaryGlickman it's like mama yelling for the kids outside to "come on in, all you all. It's time to bencht licht!" #jbcbooks

MaryGlickman: We're all about our people! Now I see I have permission to go. Got an appt downtown or would hang out longer! #jbcbooks

OpenRoadMedia: Well done, @MaryGlickman! RT @JewishBook: This has been great, we're going straight to read One More River. Thnx to all involved! #jbcbooks

JewishBook: Thx 4 joining #jbcbooks & @maryglickman 2day! Follow@jewishbook & RT til 6 for a chance to win Home in the Morning- SIGNED! #bookgiveaway

erikadreifus: Looks as though I've just missed a nice #JBCBooks chat. So sorry.

JewishBook: It's ok @erikadreifus. You can read the transcript :) #jbcbooks And, join us next time--we missed you!

erikadreifus: MT @JewishBook Join us Nov 8th at 12:30 to talk w/ Wayne Hoffman, & discuss his newest novel Sweet Like Sugar! #JBCBooks

ebooklit: RT @JewishBook: Thx 4 joining #jbcbooks & @maryglickman 2day! Follow @jewishbook & RT til 6 for a chance to win Home in the Morning-SIGNED!

elesscom: @OpenRoadMedia just bought @maryglickman's Home in the Morning online! #characterswelcomedastheysayonTV #jbcbooks

mandelljccarts: so sad I missed @MaryGlickman & #jbcbooks but thrilled that she will be @MandellJCC_CT on 4/9/12 to talk about Home in the Morning

JewishBook: Follow @jewishbook & RT til 6 today for a chance to win@maryglickman's Home in the Morning- SIGNED! #bookgiveaway #jbcbooks

jcchouston: Don't think they like Jews saying "y'all" RT @JewishBook: It often seems like Northern Jews don't realize Southern Jews exist! #jbcbooks


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