Bagels & Grits: A Jew on the Bayou
Jennifer Anne Moses left behind a comfortable life in East Coast Jewish society to move with her husband and children to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Searching for connection to her surroundings, she decided to volunteer at an AIDS hospice. But as she encountered a culture populated by French Catholics and Evangelical Christians, African Americans and Cajuns, altruistic nurses and nuns, ex-cons, street-walkers, impoverished AIDS patients, and healers of all stripes, she found she had embarked on an unexpected journey of profound self-discovery. In a keenly observed memoir that embraces both pathos and humor, Moses takes us into a world that is strange and sad but also suffused with the holy.
"Beautifully weaving both her personal crises and her family history into a larger discussion of the challenges facing contemporary Judaism, Moses creates a moving portrait of a thoroughly modern woman struggling to make sense of, and to live up to, the faith of her forebears."
— Lorraine Glennon, Ladies Home Journal
"Moses's prose is lyrical and fresh. After finishing this book, readers may wish they could sit down over a bagel and grits and visit with her."
— Publishers Weekly
"Moses has created a moving spiritual memoir, one in which the writing shimmers with emotion but is honest, powerful, and carefully crafted."
— Jewish Book World
"Bagels and Grits is one of the most moving spiritual memoirs I've ever read. From beginning to end it held me enthralled."
— James Wilcox, Director of Creative Writing, Louisiana State University