This book was a very quick read. It was interesting but choppy and in the end I was left wondering what the point was exactly. ( )

A book that explores love, friendship, class divides, and racial issues. The story was interesting but a bit choppy the way that each chapter jumped from present to past. The characters were well developed. A decent summer read. ( )

Although Home in the Morning touches briefly on generations before the mid-20th century, its main story spans the turbulent and transitional period between the early 1950’s through the 1990’s in the town of Guilford, Mississippi. The story revolves around the Sassaport family, a Reform Jewish family, living in the Deep South during this period. There are very few Jewish families living in Guilford, as there were in the small Southern town where I grew up. To read my full review, go to http://popcornreads.com/?p=1056 ( )

Several thought provoking issues here, including: 1960’s Mississippi, civil rights movement, Jews in the South, relationship among black and white children and adolescents, stereotypes and perceptions of each other by northerners (“Yankees”) and southerners, and then all of these, but thirty years later, along with promises broken and kept, secrets, dysfunctional families, marriage and friendship. Set primarily in the mid-60’s and the mid-90‘s, this story traces the relationship between Jackson Sassaport of Guillford, Mississippi, the son of a Jewish doctor, and his wife Stella, also Jewish, and the daughter of a Boston businessman, and Lil’ Bokay, a black child “paid” to play with Jackson, who later led a Christian based civil rights group, and Katherine Marie, his one and true love, who worked as a maid in Jackson’s household and who Jackson always had a crush on. These four are very likeable characters, each dealing with the challenges their status imposes as young people in the 60’s and then as middle aged adults in the 90’s. Integrity, love and loyalty bind these people through the years. But the passion they feel for the civil rights movement, for justice and for the people they love just doesn’t come through. The author weaves the 60’s and 90’s stories nicely enough, with just the right emphasis on the plight of blacks in the south and a light touch on the comparison to the outsider status of Jews in Mississippi. But somehow the story is “sterile” and that’s a disappointment given its strong and emotional themes.

Thanks to LTER for the opportunity to read and review this book. ( )

I very much liked this book. The characters were all really interesting. My only disappointment was that I didn't feel like I was told the whole story. In fact, what seemed the most life-changing parts of the characters' lives (the 20 years that Stella and Katherine Marie didn't speak - the time that Bokay spent in jail - the bad brother, what happned to him during that time?) were just glossed over at the end of the book and summed up. I would have enjoyed the book more if it hadn't ended so abrubtly. ( )