Marching to Zion: A Novel

by Mary Glickman

Overview

A family of Eastern European refugees finds a home in racially charged St. Louis in this sweeping historical novel from a National Jewish Book Award finalist.

In 1916, Mags Preacher arrives in the big city of St. Louis, fresh from the piney woods, hoping to learn the beauty trade. Instead, she winds up with a job at Fishbein’s Funeral Home, run by an émigré who came to America to flee the pogroms of Russia. Mags knows nothing about Jews except that they killed the Lord Jesus Christ, but by the time her boss saves her life during the race riots in East St. Louis, all her perceptions have changed.

Marching to Zion is the story of Mags and of Mr. Fishbein, but it’s also the story of Fishbein’s daughter, Minerva, a beautiful redhead with an air of danger about her, and Magnus Bailey, Fishbein’s charismatic business partner and Mags’s first friend in town. When Magnus falls for Minerva’s willful spirit, he’ll learn just how dangerous she can be for a black man in America.

Readers of Mary Glickman’s One More River will celebrate the return of Aurora Mae Stanton, who joins a cast of vibrant new characters in a tale that stretches from East St. Louis, Missouri, to Memphis, Tennessee, from World War I to the Great Depression. Hailed as “a powerful reminder of the discrimination and unspeakable hardships African Americans suffered,” Marching to Zion is a gripping love story, a fascinating angle on history, and a compelling meditation on justice and fate (Jewish Book Council).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781480435629
Publisher:	Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
Publication date:	11/12/2013
Pages:	262
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)

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.

Interviews

Seabrook Island, South Carolina. Originally from Boston, Massachusetts. 

Editorial Reviews

09/16/2013
In her third novel chronicling the experience of Jews in the South, Glickman (National Jewish Book Award Finalist for One More River) captures the untamed Midwest of the 1920s and ’30s, when the Mississippi offered an escape route and unleashed biblical wrath in the form of horrific floods. She follows the stories of two young upstarts: Mags Preacher, a plucky black girl bent on making it as a beautician in St. Louis, and Magnus Bailey, the first person Mags meets in the big city—a dapper, smooth-talking black man who is in love with Minerva, the adopted daughter of a Jewish man named Fishbein, who runs the funeral home where Mags finds work. Glickman puts Minnie and Magnus’s love affair through trial after trial: “They hurtled along a primrose path strewn with brambles sharp as arrow tips, studded with insurmountable boulders, crisscrossed by poisoned streams.” In describing their downfall, she eventually focuses on the glimmering citadel of Eretz Israel and Zion as a paradise of tolerance—“a solution to all our troubles,” Fishbein says. But religion isn’t the only thing that stirs Glickman to fervor: she writes in a high-drama, no-holds-barred style when it comes to romance. The result is a preachy yet entertaining novel about sins of the flesh and the redemptive power of belief. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

“This moving novel . . . handled with credibility by the talented Glickman . . . is sustained by the rich period detail and by strong and fully realized characters.” —Booklist

“Coincidence or not, the publication of Marching to Zion on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of The March on Washington is a powerful reminder of the discrimi­nation and unspeakable hardships African Americans suffered. . . . Marching to Zion is a memorable story, with a very clear message that the journey is not over.” —Jewish Book Council

“Readers who are interested in Southern historical novels examining black-white relationships and those who enjoy good storytelling are the natural audience here.” —Library Journal

“Religion isn’t the only thing that stirs Glickman to fervor: she writes in a high-drama, no-holds-barred style when it comes to romance. . . . [An] entertaining novel about sins of the flesh and the redemptive power of belief.” —Publishers Weekly

“Glickman skillfully conveys the struggles of African-Americans and Jews during this era.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A powerful tale of love, hatred, violence, hope, and regeneration. At its center, lives entwined, are a black man and a Jewish refugee, each as staunch and tenacious as the Zion they both seek.” —Sonia Taitz, author of The Watchmaker’s Daughter

“A literary triumph, and easily the best novel I have read this year. Mary Glickman’s story of hope burns brightly through the darkness, driven by characters fighting to maintain dignity above all else.” —Sandi Krawchenko Altner, author of Ravenscraig 

“Mary Glickman gives us a nuanced image of our twentieth-century selves, our society woven into stunning art. I see the Mississippi floods, the Jewish and African American dance of interconnection, and ultimately our paired journey toward Zion.” —Carolivia Herron, author of Thereafter Johnnie and Nappy Hair



“This moving novel . . . handled with credibility by the talented Glickman . . . is sustained by the rich period detail and by strong and fully realized characters.” —Booklist

“Coincidence or not, the publication of Marching to Zion on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of The March on Washington is a powerful reminder of the discrimi­nation and unspeakable hardships African Americans suffered. . . . Marching to Zion is a memorable story, with a very clear message that the journey is not over.” —Jewish Book Council

“Readers who are interested in Southern historical novels examining black-white relationships and those who enjoy good storytelling are the natural audience here.” —Library Journal

“Religion isn’t the only thing that stirs Glickman to fervor: she writes in a high-drama, no-holds-barred style when it comes to romance. . . . [An] entertaining novel about sins of the flesh and the redemptive power of belief.” —Publishers Weekly

“Glickman skillfully conveys the struggles of African-Americans and Jews during this era.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A powerful tale of love, hatred, violence, hope, and regeneration. At its center, lives entwined, are a black man and a Jewish refugee, each as staunch and tenacious as the Zion they both seek.” —Sonia Taitz, author of The Watchmaker’s Daughter

“A literary triumph, and easily the best novel I have read this year. Mary Glickman’s story of hope burns brightly through the darkness, driven by characters fighting to maintain dignity above all else.” —Sandi Krawchenko Altner, author of Ravenscraig 

“Mary Glickman gives us a nuanced image of our twentieth-century selves, our society woven into stunning art. I see the Mississippi floods, the Jewish and African American dance of interconnection, and ultimately our paired journey toward Zion.” —Carolivia Herron, author of Thereafter Johnnie and Nappy Hair

From the Publisher

2013-10-01
Characters are kicked to the side of the road with little afterthought in Glickman's (One More River, 2011, etc.) tale of forbidden love and intolerance, set in the South during the early 1900s. When Mags Preacher arrives in St. Louis in 1916, the young black woman dreams of one day owning a beauty shop. Armed with a $10 loan and directions to a boardinghouse, she finds work in Fishbein's Funeral Home, which caters to black customers and seems to be a good, if unusual, place to learn her trade. Mags' hours are spent preparing bodies in the basement beside George McCallum, the manager, whom she marries after a brief courtship. The funeral home was once owned by George's relatives but was sold to a Jewish émigré whose disturbed daughter, Minerva "Minnie" Fishbein, witnessed the massacre of her biological family during anti-Semitic pogroms in Eastern Europe. Magnus Bailey, a handsome black dandy who made the original loan to Mags, is Fishbein's business partner and good friend, and he also happens to be the object of Minnie's affection. Affected by extreme acts of racism, Fishbein sells the business and leaves St. Louis. Mags, who has a newborn daughter by this time, is dropped off at her cousin's home and, after being the central character in the narrative for more than a quarter of the book, pretty much becomes a nonentity. With nary a backward glance, the others travel to Memphis and take center stage. Acutely aware that an interracial relationship can only spell disaster, Magnus lies to Minnie and flees the area, and Minnie tries to follow him. Her journey results in a pivotal experience that affects the course of her life and convinces Magnus that he must take responsibility for their future. (He disappears and works for years in menial jobs before returning to Minnie.) Glickman skillfully conveys the struggles of African-Americans and Jews during this era, but the love story between Magnus and Minnie lacks credibility and emotion. The author abandons the most relatable character in the narrative to focus on a weaker, less interesting--and in many ways, more predictable--story.

Kirkus Reviews