Books Set in North America: American South: St. Louis, Missouri and Memphis, Tennessee

Marching to Zion, by Mary Glickman (2013)

This historical novel delves into the struggles of Jews and African-Americans in the early half of the 20th Century.  The book begins when Mags Preacher, a young African-American woman, leaves her home in the rural countryside and moves to St. Louis, Missouri.  She has dreams of learning the beauty trade so she can open a salon back in her hometown.  The first person she encounters upon arriving in St. Louis is Magnus Bailey.  The only job she can get is working with Mr. Fishbein, a Jewish refugee who runs a funeral home that serves the Black families in the town.

Fishbein had fled Eastern Europe amid the pogroms that killed his wife and child.  When he left Europe, he brought with him his adopted daughter, Minerva, known as Minnie.  She had lost her family in the violence against Jews.  Seeing her family killed experiences as a very young girl caused her to be a very troubled young woman after arriving in America.

Mags is happily working at the funeral home and eventually marries George McCallum, the manager, and they live in a small apartment attached to the funeral home.  After the violent race riots in St. Louis in 1917, Fishbein’s funeral home is totally destroyed.  Fishbein and Mags barely escape with their lives, but George is killed.  Mags then disappears from the story.

The novel moves from Mags Preacher to the very troubled love story between Minnie, a fiery red-head Magnus.  Interracial relationships were criminal offenses at the time.  Fishbein, Minnie and Magnus move from St. Louis to Memphis to looking for a safer place to live.  The novel describes life for Jews and African-Americans during the Depression through the mid-1930s.  Fishbein realizes that there is no safe place for Jews in America, especially for his troubled daughter and her lover, Magnus.

After I finished the book, I realized that Mags Preacher, the young woman at the beginning of the story had completely disappeared.  What happened to her?

Read: August 8, 2023

3.5 Stars

Books Set in North America: United States, Nashville, Tennessee

No One Knows, by J. T. Ellison (2016)

 

No One Knows, by J.T. Ellison is a fast-paced thriller.  The novel begins on the day that Aubrey Hamilton’s husband, Josh, has been officially been declared dead.  He disappeared 5 years earlier, shortly before amending his life insurance policy listing Aubrey as the beneficiary of his $5M policy.  His mother, Daisy, however, always had an intense dislike of Aubrey and threatens to contest the policy.

 

Josh disappeared on the eve of his best friend’s wedding.  Aubrey and Josh were to attend separate bachelor parties, but Josh never showed up at the groom’s party.  What happened to him?

 

All that was left was a large pool of blood in their home.  Aubrey was immediately cast as suspect in foul play and was tried for his murder.  She was subsequently acquitted, but the experience, along with her past encounters with law enforcement left her shattered and bitter.

 

As we delve into the shared history of Josh and Aubrey, we go back and forth in time from Aubrey’s troubled childhood.  Her parents were killed in a car accident when she was a young child and Aubrey spent much of her childhood living in a foster home.  Her best friend there was her foster brother, Tyler, who became a druggie and minor criminal.  Josh had his own childhood traumas.  He grew up believing that his biological father was dead and was adopted by Tom, his step-father.

 

It was serendipity that Aubrey ran into Chase Boden, a man who resembles Josh.  After a one-night stand, Aubrey finds herself falling for him.  Chase claims to be from Chicago but is always just a few short minutes away from Aubrey.  What are his motives?

 

Aubrey begins to hear rumor that Josh is still alive, so seeks to find out more of his past.  The story is told from many points of view: Aubrey, Daisy, Josh, Tom, Chase … There is also Meghan, the care-free spirit who owns the coffee shop where Aubrey works to supplement her salary as a Montessori teacher.

 

Ultimately, the ending left me unsatisfied.  The ending just come to any logical conclusion.

 

Spoiler Alert:  I felt that Meghan should have played a greater role in the novel’s resolution.  Furthermore, when Josh did appear, his behaviour over the past 5 years changed him from the loving husband to a mean, bitter and controlling man.  We also learn that Daisy had been briefly been married before she was married to Josh’s father.  She had a brief affair and gave birth to a son, who turns out to have been Chase.  Thus, it was no coincidence that he resembled Josh and that he “bumped” into Aubrey.  Then, we learn that Aubrey was in on the disappearing scheme all along.  Sorry.  Up until the last few pages, however, I enjoyed the book.  I probably won’t seek out other books by this author, however.

 

Read:  May 15, 2021

 

3 Stars

 

 

Books Set in the North America: United States: Tennessee

The Jew Store, by Stella Suberman (1998)

This book is part-memoir, part-fiction.  The author her family’s life in a small rural Tennessee town where they were the only Jews.  She changed the name of the town and the names of some of the townspeople to protect their identities.  Since much of the story occurred either before she was born, or before she was old enough to have a clear memory, had a clear memory, much is of the book is based on her imagination as to what actually happened.  The family lived in Tennessee from 1920 until 1933.  The author was barely 11 when her family moved away.

That said, this family memoir is probably not unlike the story of many Jews living in the rural south.  As she notes, many small southern towns had “Jew” stores – dry-goods stores run and operated by the town’s only Jews.  

Aaron and Rebe Bronson had both immigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe/Russia.  Aaron was a self-described natural born salesman.  He set off for Nashville, Tennessee, where he had hoped to make his fortune.  He soon discovered that there were already many Jewish-run stores there; and was convinced to move to the small town of Concordia.  He and his young family arrived in Concordia in 1920 and were taken in by Miss Brookie, an eccentric agnostic who believed in being kind to others.

While Miss Brookie was understanding, none of the other townspeople had ever seen Jews before and were convinced they were a different species.  On the eve of the new store opening, Miss Brookie tells him that it will go well, provided the Klan approves.  The book goes into detail of the tensions between the towns people and the Bronson’s fears of anti-Semitism.  The book also describes the tensions between the white and Black population, often in terms that are very disarming.

Aaron named his store “Bronson’s Low-Priced Store”.  Once the store is open, however, most of the town comes to respect the Bronson’s.  Reba, however, fears for her children and wants them to grow up in a Jewish environment.  When the Depression came, Aaron fought to keep the town going, thereby winning the respect of most of the town.

I found this to be a charming story filled with humor.

Read:  January 23, 2021

4 Stars

Books Set in the United States: American South: Tennessee

Before We Were Yours, by Lisa Wingate (2017)

Beginning in the 1920s, Georgia Tann (1891 ~ 1959) ran a fraudulent adoption agency using
the Tennessee Children’s Home Society as a front for her business in child trafficking.  Tann
would steal children from poor families and sold them to affluent families all over the country.  

Before We Were Yoursis a fictional account of four children who were taken from their
loving parents and placed under the care of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society.

The novel alternates between the present and 1939.  In the present, the protagonist is
Avery Stafford.  She is from a prominent South Carolina family and her father is a politician
and is involved in a re-election campaign.  While assisting with her father’s campaign, she
meets May Crandall, an elderly woman in a nursing home.  She sees a photograph in May’s
room that looks amazingly like Avery’s grandmother, Judy.  Judy has dementia and hints at
some scandal and a mysterious link to May Crandall. Judy, however, is unable to elaborate
further.  This causes Avery to search for the story behind the photograph.

In 1939, Rill Foss and her sibling lived with their loving parents on a boat on the Mississippi
River.  Rill and her sibling are stolen and sent to the Tennessee Children’s Home
Society orphanage.  Life in the orphanage is harsh ~ rules must be followed and
punishment is severe. Rill hopes that her parents will come and rescue her and her sibling.
She tries to keep her family together despite the danger and uncertainty of life in the orphanage.

The two stories are told side-by-side.  As Avery seeks to learn about her family’s history, May
seeks to find her sibling.

There is a side story of a romance, which didn’t quite mesh well with the narratives of Avery
and Rill.  That said, however, this is a wonderful novel that exposes a piece of history.

Read: May 25, 2018

4 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Tennessee

The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II, by Denise Kiernan (2013)

Read: November 14, 2015

4 Stars