From My Father's House

J.N. Sullivan's protagonist, Ruth Jean, is an adolescent white girl whose high spirits and self-confidence lead her to reach out to Cora, a young black woman who wanders into her father's grocery store. They form an unusual relationship for the segregated 1920s. As Ruth Jean's life, her emotions, and her family become wrapped up in the turmoil of Cora's troubles, the girl learns about culture and society, about friendship and love, and about the importance of family and faith.
The characters move through a world so different from today's world in many ways. Daily routines, the rhythm of life, how things get done have changed dramatically with time. We hope and believe that some things in society have changed for the better. But people at their core are driven by the same passions in a timeless and universal way. Everybody wants to feel loved and be happy. From My Father's House reads like a memoir, putting the reader into small town life in a bygone time. Yet its plot carries the two main characters to a climactic turning point of insight that sets them on a trajectory leading beyond the pages of the novel.