From Congers to Mississippi

Local indie favorite Big Red Books will be hosting author Adam Gussow as he presents his novel My Family and I: A Mississippi Memoir on Sunday, May 18th at 4:00 p.m.. The Congers native who has now lived in Mississippi for over 20 years shared his excitement with Community Editor Sierra Lidén surrounding the story his book tells, and the fresh perspective he hopes to bring in a challenging time. 

Even with his time in Mississippi, Gussow maintains a strong connection to Rockland, frequently coming back to visit family and friends. Gussow’s mother, Joan Dye Gussow, an American academic, author, and pioneer of nutrition in the United States, lived in Piermont until her passing in March of 2025. A proud alumni of Rockland Country Day School, Gussow states “I was the valedictorian and a townie, so make what you will of that”. Gussow is also a self described runner, who finds familiarity in the Rockland Lake trails, the same trails he used to run as a teenager. “It’s unchanged, fifty years later,” nostalgia tinting his voice. When not running, Gussow has had a life long love affair with music and is a well known blues harmonica player. He applauds The Turning Point and John McAvoy for their support in his musical adventures over the past 20 years, and for always giving him a space to play. 

Gussow’s heartstrings will forever be tied to Rockland, but his whole heart holds full time residence down South in Mississippi. For Gussow, he has found the contemporary deep South to be fertile ground for the kind of life he wants for his family. There, him and his wife Sherrie and son Shaun have created that life.

Regarding the title, Professor Gussow shared a little grammar lesson after interactions with readers who asked, “Shouldn’t it be ‘My Family and Me?’” Gussow said that when the phrase is followed by a verb, the phrase becomes my family and I. This was a purposeful choice from Gussow, who said “I wanted to show that we were active agents [in our lives].” 

Gussow described his book as a love story. He noted that attendees should prepare to be surprised at how their preconceived notions regarding interracial marriage and life in contemporary Mississippi will be challenged or even undone by his writing. 

In a poll conducted by Gallup, “Americans’ attitudes about interracial marriage have changed dramatically over the past 55 years, moving from the point in the late 1950s when disapproval was well over 90%, to the point today when approval is approaching 90%.” Even with approval rising drastically in the U.S., Gussow said that he found only one other book where a white man spoke on his interracial marriage. “And that struck me as a very strange thing…why would nobody do that? My wife’s wonderful. We have a wonderful marriage. And I thought, you can either live that privately, or you can say you know what? I’m going to tell people. I’m going to give people some good news from Mississippi.” 

Gussow has always considered himself a progressive, “old school” liberal, but over the last fifteen years found himself distanced from his political identity. Instead, he has shifted focus to a concept crystallized by Martin Luther King Jr. called Beloved Community. While he promises to talk more on it during his Sunday event, Gussow asked readers to “Think about what it might mean to live a reconciled life in racial terms.” He hopes his story encourages a middle ground between the far left and far right, and helps others find their own political voice and home.

Gussows said that his search for the Beloved Community took place not only in his marriage and family, but in his musical family. Sterling McGee, otherwise known as Mr. Satan was Gussow’s musical half on the streets of Harlem in the 1980s and 1990s. The two went wild with the blues, and in 2018 a film titled Satan & Adam premiered on Netflix, If you’re lucky, Gussow might even bring out his harmonica to dazzle attendees with his skills. 

Gussow’s son Shaun is carrying on the musical tradition of his father and is currently finishing up his freshman year as a music performance major at Ole Miss. Shaun plays trombone, euphonium, and occasionally the electric bass with his dad’s musical trio.

While chatting with the RCT, a different kind of music filtered through the phone speakers from a thousand miles away. Birds chirped and twittered and sang as Gussow spoke, sitting out on his back porch describing his view. “It’s just vividly green… it’s a little bit like Maine or Vermont, just very beautiful.” 

Of course, like any born and bred New Yorker, we had to talk about the traffic. Gussow lamented the thick traffic of the surrounding NYC area, laughing as he said “You can feel everybody getting crazier… If I’ve got to go to Memphis and it’s 80 miles, I can get there in 80 minutes. If you’re a car person who hates traffic, [Mississippi] is a great place to be.” This comes on top of the benefits of friendly people and shrimp and grits, a dish Gussow wishes he could indulge in every day (don’t we all!). “If you’re somebody from the New York suburbs and you can’t imagine ever living down South, then you need to actually buy my book and understand how life could be,” said Gussow. 

Not only is his book for New Yorkers interested in life in the South, but also for people “…who know that we’re in a different world and are looking for somebody to give them a little bit of counsel by sharing their own story.” A story defined by Gussow as full of love, laughter, and cowboy boots. 

When not writing memoirs, Gussow works as a Professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi. You can hear more about his memoir at Big Red Books on May 18th from 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Learn more about the event at bigredbooks.net/events