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The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best Historical Fiction (2023)In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighbourhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows.
As these characters' stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town's white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community-heaven and earth-that sustain us.
As these characters' stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town's white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community-heaven and earth-that sustain us.
380 pages, Hardcover
First published August 8, 2023
About the author
James McBride
23 books6,219 followersJames McBride is a native New Yorker and a graduate of New York City public schools. He studied composition at The Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio and received his Masters in Journalism from Columbia University in New York at age 22. He holds several honorary doctorates and is currently a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. He is married with three children. He lives in Pennsylvania and New York.
James McBride is a former staff writer for The Washington Post, People Magazine, and The Boston Globe. His work has also appeared in Essence, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. His April, 2007 National Geographic story entitled “Hip Hop Planet” is considered a respected treatise on African American music and culture.
As a musician, he has written songs (music and lyrics) for Anita Baker, Grover Washington Jr., and Gary Burton, among others. He served as a tenor saxophone sideman for jazz legend Little Jimmy Scott. He is the recipient of several awards for his work as a composer in musical theater including the Stephen Sondheim Award and the Richard Rodgers Foundation Horizon Award. His “Riffin’ and Pontificatin’ ” Tour, a nationwide tour of high schools and colleges promoting reading through jazz, was captured in a 2003 Comcast documentary. He has been featured on national radio and television programs in America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
---from his official website
James McBride is a former staff writer for The Washington Post, People Magazine, and The Boston Globe. His work has also appeared in Essence, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. His April, 2007 National Geographic story entitled “Hip Hop Planet” is considered a respected treatise on African American music and culture.
As a musician, he has written songs (music and lyrics) for Anita Baker, Grover Washington Jr., and Gary Burton, among others. He served as a tenor saxophone sideman for jazz legend Little Jimmy Scott. He is the recipient of several awards for his work as a composer in musical theater including the Stephen Sondheim Award and the Richard Rodgers Foundation Horizon Award. His “Riffin’ and Pontificatin’ ” Tour, a nationwide tour of high schools and colleges promoting reading through jazz, was captured in a 2003 Comcast documentary. He has been featured on national radio and television programs in America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
---from his official website
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 19,543 reviews
September 3, 2023
James McBride is an accomplished saxophonist/jazz musician. I knew that going into the book. (Oh, digression--did you know that he also played with the band, The Remainders? That’s a band with other writers like Amy Tan, Dave Barry, Barbara Kingsolver, Stephen King, Maya Angelou and several others who played for charity and fundraising). Anyway, I mention his musicianship because I see it all over the pages of The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store.
This is the first book I’ve read by McBride (definitely more to come), so pardon my schoolgirlish, giggly first crush for the way that his writing lifts me up, how his words and characters opened my heart, only to break it, and then put it back together in a most absolute and tender way. James McBride is a kind, gentle soul, and his writing reflects this—his ability to bring the world together in a novel. He honors humanity. We are all connected, and this author compels that naturally from his characters. Now, how great is that, yeah?
I want to put this in your hands and promise you a magnificent reading experience. It starts off in a shaggy dog kind of way, with an ensemble of characters, several who possess whimsical names like Fatty, Big Soap, Monkey Pants, Dodo. And their names fit flawlessly to their nature. The story starts with a 1972 prologue—a human skeleton is found in an old abandoned well, and then the body of the story begins in 1936 in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, a place called Chicken Hill, where Jews, immigrants, and Black folks lived side by side, sometimes in harmony, other times in discord, but here’s the thing—the goodness of people, the kindness of their hearts—that is what ultimately rises to the top.
For the story to unfold, there has to be some sinister aspects, too—aren’t we still fighting the fight of ignorance, bigotry, corruption, meanness? But, in the McBride world, well, we also follow the long stretch of yarn as it wends around this way and that, through streets and backyards, dirt roads, onto hills and a shul and a church, through tunnels and a dance hall. And The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store.
I don’t need to rehash the plot, but there are a few fun facts about this book worth mentioning in a review. Such as, there are an abundance of characters introduced early on, and then again later on, before the plot actually launches. That’s the shaggy part. We don’t get to the plot too quickly—instead, Mcbride takes his time, builds the characters. They are already leaping off the pages by the time the plot rolls in.
There are subplots, too, but in the end, they all weave their chords and come together. McBride may slow your roll at first, but it’s a winning bonanza of breadth and depth, from the smallest detail to the broadest design. Scenes that seem initially inconsequential become key notes later on.
Early on, we meet the arresting Jewess, Chona. Chona is an unforgettable female protagonist—I’m keeping her in my journal of best. female. characters. ever. She is handicapped with a limp—but her limp doesn’t stop her strength of purpose, her fierce dignity, her bounteous benevolence, her gentle grace, and her consummate integrity. You will fall in love with her, just like Moshe, the theater and dance hall owner, did. Moshe and Chona dared to welcome change and inclusivity to their part of the world.
At this time, in the 1930s, Black people were almost exclusively cast in menial jobs. But Moshe books Black jazz bands to play at his theater, and successfully includes all tribes together at the dance hall, who “frolicked and laughed, dancing as if they were birds enjoying flight for the first time.” Chona runs the grocery store, and extends credit to anyone who can’t afford to pay; she rarely keeps a record of their debt. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store may lose money, but it is rich in goodwill and kindness.
Back to this being like a musical book—a jazzy book. Jazz music conjures that raspy, soulful, edgy flavor, blended from a mix of cultures and harmonies. McBride embraces those diverse, insistent, zingy, soul-stirring rhythms and blues into the narrative threads of his novel. I can hear the swing and the chase, the boogie and the blues, the sounds that go everywhere at once and jelly roll the story within a complex set of fusion and feelings. It’s also just a damned good story!
The narrative pulls you here and there, up and down, and when you meet Dodo, the sweet and barely teenaged deaf kid, your protective instincts will wrap yourself around him and never want to let him go. And, when Dodo meets Monkey Pants—well, this right there—the heart of the novel that will break you in pieces.
At times, I had a wellspring of tears—not just for joy or anguish. Sure, comedy and tragedy fill these pages. But McBride’s natural humanity and gentle nature is the colossal, phenomenal heart of the book. The author steps aside, he doesn’t ever intrude. The core of the narrative are the characters. Their cacophony becomes a coda for living large.
This tale made me want to be better, to do better, to open my eyes to all the missed connections, to fix the broken chords and forge new ones, and seek eternally to strengthen them. We are humanity, we are the essential substance to add love to the world, one modest good deed at a time. That is The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store.
This is the first book I’ve read by McBride (definitely more to come), so pardon my schoolgirlish, giggly first crush for the way that his writing lifts me up, how his words and characters opened my heart, only to break it, and then put it back together in a most absolute and tender way. James McBride is a kind, gentle soul, and his writing reflects this—his ability to bring the world together in a novel. He honors humanity. We are all connected, and this author compels that naturally from his characters. Now, how great is that, yeah?
I want to put this in your hands and promise you a magnificent reading experience. It starts off in a shaggy dog kind of way, with an ensemble of characters, several who possess whimsical names like Fatty, Big Soap, Monkey Pants, Dodo. And their names fit flawlessly to their nature. The story starts with a 1972 prologue—a human skeleton is found in an old abandoned well, and then the body of the story begins in 1936 in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, a place called Chicken Hill, where Jews, immigrants, and Black folks lived side by side, sometimes in harmony, other times in discord, but here’s the thing—the goodness of people, the kindness of their hearts—that is what ultimately rises to the top.
For the story to unfold, there has to be some sinister aspects, too—aren’t we still fighting the fight of ignorance, bigotry, corruption, meanness? But, in the McBride world, well, we also follow the long stretch of yarn as it wends around this way and that, through streets and backyards, dirt roads, onto hills and a shul and a church, through tunnels and a dance hall. And The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store.
I don’t need to rehash the plot, but there are a few fun facts about this book worth mentioning in a review. Such as, there are an abundance of characters introduced early on, and then again later on, before the plot actually launches. That’s the shaggy part. We don’t get to the plot too quickly—instead, Mcbride takes his time, builds the characters. They are already leaping off the pages by the time the plot rolls in.
There are subplots, too, but in the end, they all weave their chords and come together. McBride may slow your roll at first, but it’s a winning bonanza of breadth and depth, from the smallest detail to the broadest design. Scenes that seem initially inconsequential become key notes later on.
Early on, we meet the arresting Jewess, Chona. Chona is an unforgettable female protagonist—I’m keeping her in my journal of best. female. characters. ever. She is handicapped with a limp—but her limp doesn’t stop her strength of purpose, her fierce dignity, her bounteous benevolence, her gentle grace, and her consummate integrity. You will fall in love with her, just like Moshe, the theater and dance hall owner, did. Moshe and Chona dared to welcome change and inclusivity to their part of the world.
At this time, in the 1930s, Black people were almost exclusively cast in menial jobs. But Moshe books Black jazz bands to play at his theater, and successfully includes all tribes together at the dance hall, who “frolicked and laughed, dancing as if they were birds enjoying flight for the first time.” Chona runs the grocery store, and extends credit to anyone who can’t afford to pay; she rarely keeps a record of their debt. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store may lose money, but it is rich in goodwill and kindness.
Back to this being like a musical book—a jazzy book. Jazz music conjures that raspy, soulful, edgy flavor, blended from a mix of cultures and harmonies. McBride embraces those diverse, insistent, zingy, soul-stirring rhythms and blues into the narrative threads of his novel. I can hear the swing and the chase, the boogie and the blues, the sounds that go everywhere at once and jelly roll the story within a complex set of fusion and feelings. It’s also just a damned good story!
The narrative pulls you here and there, up and down, and when you meet Dodo, the sweet and barely teenaged deaf kid, your protective instincts will wrap yourself around him and never want to let him go. And, when Dodo meets Monkey Pants—well, this right there—the heart of the novel that will break you in pieces.
At times, I had a wellspring of tears—not just for joy or anguish. Sure, comedy and tragedy fill these pages. But McBride’s natural humanity and gentle nature is the colossal, phenomenal heart of the book. The author steps aside, he doesn’t ever intrude. The core of the narrative are the characters. Their cacophony becomes a coda for living large.
This tale made me want to be better, to do better, to open my eyes to all the missed connections, to fix the broken chords and forge new ones, and seek eternally to strengthen them. We are humanity, we are the essential substance to add love to the world, one modest good deed at a time. That is The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store.
September 5, 2023
So this was...not very good.
This is going to be another of those reviews where I open by saying I'm having a hard time articulating exactly what didn't work for me because on the surface it seems like this should be a tour de force. All the "classic novel" ingredients are here. But, having thought about it a bit I think that's the problem. The ingredients are here but nobody put them together very well.
The story, when there is one, begins in the ruins of Chicken Hill, a neighborhood in Pottstown, PA that was once home to a vibrant community of Jews and African Americans who lived and worked together, striving to build lives in a world that was happy to use their labor and ingenuity as long as they remembered their place.
Its the late 70's and following a hurricane most of Chicken Hill has been wiped off the map and in the ruins the police have discovered a man's skeletal remains. But who he is and why his bony hand was clutching a strange necklace is a mystery the police are unable to solve.
Its also a mystery I completely forgot about in this overstuffed, meandering narrative that takes pages and pages and pages to go absolutely nowhere.
James McBride is a beautiful writer. I mean that sincerely. But all the beautiful writing in the world can't make up for the endless parade of side plots and random character introductions that take the place of an actual coherent story.
Nothing happens in this book. It is positively maddening and very, very strange.
We're presented with a mystery; whose is the skeleton uncovered after the storm? Then for about 380 pages we are introduced to character after character after character who all have adorable folksy names and charming, convoluted, "hilarious" backstories that involve star crossed romance, traumatic family histories, or hair brained schemes that resulted in the weird nickname they now have or the strange limp they're walking with and it just goes on and on and on until I thought I was gonna scream. Then at around the 380 page mark McBride suddenly remembered the original plot and wraps everything up.
There's also a startling lack of setting for a book that feels like it should be a very visceral reading experience. The idea of the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is, I think, intended to be sort of the corner stone of the book. Its a store run by a Jewish woman who's sort of the "heart" of Chicken Hill. There's a lot of talk among other characters about how great she is but the reader never actually sees anything great happen. We also never really see the store, or Chicken Hill for that matter. Everything feels weirdly formless and void. There just isn't a strong sense of place at all. I couldn't tell you what anything looked like in this book.
I feel like this book had absolutely no editor or guiding hand of any kind saying "James I love what you're doing but you don't need forty supporting characters and they don't all need their own fifteen page origin stories."
I can't for the life of me work out what everyone else is seeing in this book that I'm missing.
This is going to be another of those reviews where I open by saying I'm having a hard time articulating exactly what didn't work for me because on the surface it seems like this should be a tour de force. All the "classic novel" ingredients are here. But, having thought about it a bit I think that's the problem. The ingredients are here but nobody put them together very well.
The story, when there is one, begins in the ruins of Chicken Hill, a neighborhood in Pottstown, PA that was once home to a vibrant community of Jews and African Americans who lived and worked together, striving to build lives in a world that was happy to use their labor and ingenuity as long as they remembered their place.
Its the late 70's and following a hurricane most of Chicken Hill has been wiped off the map and in the ruins the police have discovered a man's skeletal remains. But who he is and why his bony hand was clutching a strange necklace is a mystery the police are unable to solve.
Its also a mystery I completely forgot about in this overstuffed, meandering narrative that takes pages and pages and pages to go absolutely nowhere.
James McBride is a beautiful writer. I mean that sincerely. But all the beautiful writing in the world can't make up for the endless parade of side plots and random character introductions that take the place of an actual coherent story.
Nothing happens in this book. It is positively maddening and very, very strange.
We're presented with a mystery; whose is the skeleton uncovered after the storm? Then for about 380 pages we are introduced to character after character after character who all have adorable folksy names and charming, convoluted, "hilarious" backstories that involve star crossed romance, traumatic family histories, or hair brained schemes that resulted in the weird nickname they now have or the strange limp they're walking with and it just goes on and on and on until I thought I was gonna scream. Then at around the 380 page mark McBride suddenly remembered the original plot and wraps everything up.
There's also a startling lack of setting for a book that feels like it should be a very visceral reading experience. The idea of the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is, I think, intended to be sort of the corner stone of the book. Its a store run by a Jewish woman who's sort of the "heart" of Chicken Hill. There's a lot of talk among other characters about how great she is but the reader never actually sees anything great happen. We also never really see the store, or Chicken Hill for that matter. Everything feels weirdly formless and void. There just isn't a strong sense of place at all. I couldn't tell you what anything looked like in this book.
I feel like this book had absolutely no editor or guiding hand of any kind saying "James I love what you're doing but you don't need forty supporting characters and they don't all need their own fifteen page origin stories."
I can't for the life of me work out what everyone else is seeing in this book that I'm missing.
September 12, 2023
Unpopular opinion here, but I just couldn't get into this book. I put it down several times and finishing it felt like a chore. There were too many characters and subplots that went nowhere. At the end this was a mishmash of opportunities that took pages and pages and pages to go absolutely nowhere.
February 7, 2024
Don’t be fooled that this novel begins with a mystery. It’s 1972 at a construction site in Pennsylvania and a skeleton and a mezuzah are found . It’s just so much more than that. Moving back in time to the 1930’s, I found a beautiful story of connections, of community, of caring, of respect, of friendship. But it’s also far from a perfect world in Pottstown , PA where as in life there are physical disabilities, corruption, racism, down right evil . Yet, it doesn’t feel heavy handed in its messaging . It’s even pretty humorous at times, while packing a punch at our society.
There’s quite a cast of characters with complex relationships and it’s sometimes hard to keep track of all of them. The lovely and inimitable Chona, a brave twelve year old deaf, Black boy named Dodo, the clever and sweet Monkey Pants, Nate, Addie, Fatty and Big Soap and so many more - many more favorites, but too many to mention. Black and Jewish, making up the fabric of Chicken Hill section of the town - so different in their culture and beliefs, yet so much the same in their humanity and moral compasses, and their hearts when it came to doing the right thing.
There’s a touching friendship that leads to communication that seemed all but impossible. It will break your heart at first and put it back together. A slow moving story , but so very worth it . At first I took away a half star because I was impatient, but I realized that this story gave me hope that sometimes feels impossible to find in this world. The Epilogue - oh my heart - so perfect and beautifully written. I read it twice and cried.
There’s quite a cast of characters with complex relationships and it’s sometimes hard to keep track of all of them. The lovely and inimitable Chona, a brave twelve year old deaf, Black boy named Dodo, the clever and sweet Monkey Pants, Nate, Addie, Fatty and Big Soap and so many more - many more favorites, but too many to mention. Black and Jewish, making up the fabric of Chicken Hill section of the town - so different in their culture and beliefs, yet so much the same in their humanity and moral compasses, and their hearts when it came to doing the right thing.
There’s a touching friendship that leads to communication that seemed all but impossible. It will break your heart at first and put it back together. A slow moving story , but so very worth it . At first I took away a half star because I was impatient, but I realized that this story gave me hope that sometimes feels impossible to find in this world. The Epilogue - oh my heart - so perfect and beautifully written. I read it twice and cried.
August 17, 2023
At the opening of “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store,” Pennsylvania state troopers find a skeleton at the bottom of an old well. Such putrid circumstances promise a grim tale, but this is a book by James McBride. If anyone can make those moldy bones dance, it’s him.
Ever since his memoir, “The Color of Water” (1995), became a fixture of American literature, there’s been an element of exuberance bordering on the miraculous in McBride’s work. Vitality thrums through his stories even in the shadows of despair. “The Good Lord Bird,” his irrepressible novel about abolitionist John Brown, rightly won a National Book Award in 2013. And “Deacon King Kong,” about a sprawling cast in and around a Brooklyn housing project, was one of the great joys of 2020.
“The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” confirms the abiding strength of McBride’s vernacular narrative. With his eccentric, larger-than-life characters and outrageous scenes of spliced tragedy and comedy, “Dickensian” is not too grand a description for his novels, but the term is ultimately too condescending and too Anglican. The melodrama that McBride spins is wholly his own, steeped in our country’s complex racial tensions and alliances. Surely, the time is not too far distant when we’ll refer to other writers’ hypnotically entertaining stories as McBridean.
His new novel takes place before and during the Depression, in a ramshackle Pennsylvania neighborhood called Chicken Hill, where Jewish immigrants and African Americans cling to the deferred dream of equality in the United States. Moshe Ludlow is a wannabe impresario from Romania married to Chona, a polio survivor with a pronounced limp. He has a radical idea: The goyim won’t like it, but what if he opened his All-American Dance Hall and Theater to Black patrons?
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
Ever since his memoir, “The Color of Water” (1995), became a fixture of American literature, there’s been an element of exuberance bordering on the miraculous in McBride’s work. Vitality thrums through his stories even in the shadows of despair. “The Good Lord Bird,” his irrepressible novel about abolitionist John Brown, rightly won a National Book Award in 2013. And “Deacon King Kong,” about a sprawling cast in and around a Brooklyn housing project, was one of the great joys of 2020.
“The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” confirms the abiding strength of McBride’s vernacular narrative. With his eccentric, larger-than-life characters and outrageous scenes of spliced tragedy and comedy, “Dickensian” is not too grand a description for his novels, but the term is ultimately too condescending and too Anglican. The melodrama that McBride spins is wholly his own, steeped in our country’s complex racial tensions and alliances. Surely, the time is not too far distant when we’ll refer to other writers’ hypnotically entertaining stories as McBridean.
His new novel takes place before and during the Depression, in a ramshackle Pennsylvania neighborhood called Chicken Hill, where Jewish immigrants and African Americans cling to the deferred dream of equality in the United States. Moshe Ludlow is a wannabe impresario from Romania married to Chona, a polio survivor with a pronounced limp. He has a radical idea: The goyim won’t like it, but what if he opened his All-American Dance Hall and Theater to Black patrons?
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
August 5, 2023
My first McBride! I really enjoyed the setting and how he created this little world all the characters inhabited. I wish there had been a focus on fewer characters so we could've gotten to know them a bit more deeply. Or this would have made a great interconnected short story collection. Something about the plotting/pacing took me out of the story from time to time, with the various tangents to try and explain certain issues or provide context to a character's situation. If this had been a bit shorter or had more of a focus in the first 100-150 pages, I would've liked it a bit more. Still an enjoyable read that I'd recommend if you want something that's both heartwarming and hard-hitting.
[Thank you to Riverhead for the early copy for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Release date: August 8, 2023]
[Thank you to Riverhead for the early copy for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Release date: August 8, 2023]
August 29, 2023
3.5 for me. On one hand I love McBride's writing. But on the other hand, boy does he need a stronger editor. This one had so many digressions that the detours had detours. Frequently I'd have to catch myself with a "now where were we?" And the repetition was over the top. The same stories and anecdotes were brought up over and over again. These characters already knew this stuff so mentioning it more than once for the reader made no sense. But, the basic story of a small community on Chicken Hill, interrace relations, and oh yes a mystery, were excellent! Though I honestly wondered if McBride was going to remember to tell us what happened and solve the mystery!
August 16, 2023
The story is set in the community of Chicken Hill, Pennsylvania which is a poor neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans live. In this town is The Heaven & Earth Grocery story which is run by kindhearted Chona and her husband Moshe. Moshe also owns a small music theatre in town.
When the white people and a local doctor who is a part of the KKK come looking for a young black boy named Dodo who is unable to hear or speak, to send him to a horrendous state institution, Chona and her friends in the community worked together to keep him safely hidden.
As these Chicken Hill residents' stories coincide it becomes clear how much the people who live on the outside of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town's white establishment played in it, the story shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community--heaven and earth--that sustain us.
The story alternates between the 1930s and the 1970s.
Our communities shape us into who we are as people and In The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, McBride illustrates our vital need as humans for community. I loved the fact the town is almost a character itself in this story and I truly enjoyed discovering all the resident's backstories and how they are all connected. While reading this, I learned a lot about the Jewish community from the 1930s and I also enjoyed learning about how both the black and Jewish residents worked and lived together to create an extraordinary neighborhood.
I listened to the audiobook version which is narrated by the incredible Dominic Hoffman (who previously narrateded Deacon King Kong, Homegoing, The Starless Sea). If you decide to give The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store a try, I highly recommend this format.
By James McBride will be available on August 8 from Riverhead Books.
When the white people and a local doctor who is a part of the KKK come looking for a young black boy named Dodo who is unable to hear or speak, to send him to a horrendous state institution, Chona and her friends in the community worked together to keep him safely hidden.
As these Chicken Hill residents' stories coincide it becomes clear how much the people who live on the outside of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town's white establishment played in it, the story shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community--heaven and earth--that sustain us.
The story alternates between the 1930s and the 1970s.
Our communities shape us into who we are as people and In The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, McBride illustrates our vital need as humans for community. I loved the fact the town is almost a character itself in this story and I truly enjoyed discovering all the resident's backstories and how they are all connected. While reading this, I learned a lot about the Jewish community from the 1930s and I also enjoyed learning about how both the black and Jewish residents worked and lived together to create an extraordinary neighborhood.
I listened to the audiobook version which is narrated by the incredible Dominic Hoffman (who previously narrateded Deacon King Kong, Homegoing, The Starless Sea). If you decide to give The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store a try, I highly recommend this format.
By James McBride will be available on August 8 from Riverhead Books.
August 29, 2023
When James McBride – a superlative writer who is the son of a Jewish mother and a Black father – explores the uneasy alliance between Blacks and Jews in the 1930s, it’s a cause of celebration.
I went into this book with exalted expectations. I closed the last page strung out and hopeful and filled with admiration. Once again, this talented author has created a community, brought it into focus, and encouraged me to love nearly every one of its flawed characters.
And what an amalgam of characters it is! Right from the start, we meet Jewish theater manager Moshe Ludlow and his outspoken wife Chona, who live above the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store in a neighborhood called Chicken Hill.
Quickly – and partially because of Chona’s largesse – the grocery store becomes a sort of melting pot. There are “colored maids, housekeepers saloon cleaners, factory workers, and bellhops.” Also gangsters, the prejudiced rural doctor who marches proudly with the Ku Klux Klan, recently fired Italian laborers, ex-cons, and crooked politicians. Among all of these is a 12-year-old orphaned boy named Dodo, who is stone deaf after a stove explodes a few years back.
Dodo is a sweet boy and a fast learner. He is also wanted by the state of Pennsylvania, who is determined to shut him away in the most notorious institution around. Chona agrees to take in the boy and hide him in plain sight. But her love and compassion may not be enough.
James McBride’s set-up is not unlike Richard Russo’s in his recent Somebody’s Fool, although the writing style and plot lines are very different. Both create a world of overlapping characters, focusing in on each and then focusing out again to define how they fit into a broader world. McBride’s goal is to illuminate the comradeship and sometimes, the distrust, of people who have been exclude from the Land of Liberty. In doing so, he shines a harsh light on racial, religious and social identity.
The magic of this novel is that while exposing the worst of us, McBride also illuminates the best of us. There is true hope and humanity at work here, even while brutal truths are strongly at play. While McBride is no Pollyanna – some people are just not meant for redemption – he implies that many of us are, and when the chips are down, we will try a little harder.
I loved this book and the author’s ability to wring out emotion while staying clear-eyed about our complex racial and religious history. I’ve come to believe that James McBride is just genetically incapable of writing a bad book. Do yourself a favor and read it.
I went into this book with exalted expectations. I closed the last page strung out and hopeful and filled with admiration. Once again, this talented author has created a community, brought it into focus, and encouraged me to love nearly every one of its flawed characters.
And what an amalgam of characters it is! Right from the start, we meet Jewish theater manager Moshe Ludlow and his outspoken wife Chona, who live above the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store in a neighborhood called Chicken Hill.
Quickly – and partially because of Chona’s largesse – the grocery store becomes a sort of melting pot. There are “colored maids, housekeepers saloon cleaners, factory workers, and bellhops.” Also gangsters, the prejudiced rural doctor who marches proudly with the Ku Klux Klan, recently fired Italian laborers, ex-cons, and crooked politicians. Among all of these is a 12-year-old orphaned boy named Dodo, who is stone deaf after a stove explodes a few years back.
Dodo is a sweet boy and a fast learner. He is also wanted by the state of Pennsylvania, who is determined to shut him away in the most notorious institution around. Chona agrees to take in the boy and hide him in plain sight. But her love and compassion may not be enough.
James McBride’s set-up is not unlike Richard Russo’s in his recent Somebody’s Fool, although the writing style and plot lines are very different. Both create a world of overlapping characters, focusing in on each and then focusing out again to define how they fit into a broader world. McBride’s goal is to illuminate the comradeship and sometimes, the distrust, of people who have been exclude from the Land of Liberty. In doing so, he shines a harsh light on racial, religious and social identity.
The magic of this novel is that while exposing the worst of us, McBride also illuminates the best of us. There is true hope and humanity at work here, even while brutal truths are strongly at play. While McBride is no Pollyanna – some people are just not meant for redemption – he implies that many of us are, and when the chips are down, we will try a little harder.
I loved this book and the author’s ability to wring out emotion while staying clear-eyed about our complex racial and religious history. I’ve come to believe that James McBride is just genetically incapable of writing a bad book. Do yourself a favor and read it.
September 8, 2023
The story starts out in 1972, Pottstown, PA.. workers are clearing a lot for a townhouse development, and discover a skeleton at the bottom of a well along with a Jewish mezuzah … an elderly Jewish man is questioned .. he still lives on Chicken Hill at the site of the old synagogue. As the investigation begins, Hurricane Agnes comes through and wipes away the crime scene.
Then the story jumps back to 1925..and we meet quite the cast of characters.. many immigrant Jews living alongside many Negroes and Italians who live on and near Chicken Hill.
It’s a novel of race and prejudices, everyone from shoemakers to gangsters… such characters..
This novel is infused with much humor, considering whats going on in and around Chicken Hill.
I loved it!
Then the story jumps back to 1925..and we meet quite the cast of characters.. many immigrant Jews living alongside many Negroes and Italians who live on and near Chicken Hill.
It’s a novel of race and prejudices, everyone from shoemakers to gangsters… such characters..
This novel is infused with much humor, considering whats going on in and around Chicken Hill.
I loved it!
August 20, 2023
8/18/23 - The no spoilers tl;dr:
While I didn't hate The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, I did finish it feeling frustrated with McBride's plotting and prose- and there was a lot more "she breasted boobily down the stairs"-style characterization than I expected. It read like a first draft that desperately needed an editor to say, "please trust your reader to make meaning out of your story, you don't need to bludgeon them over the head with Significance."
ETA acknowledgement that McBride's analysis of race and class, and his puncturing of the myth of The American Dream is absolutely on point; but that he shoehorns it in at the expense of the story he ostensibly wants to tell.
Spoilers after this point:
Plot ⚫½⭐/⭐⭐
TH&EGS begins with a prologue framing device set in 1972*, almost forty years after the rest of the narrative. It sets up a mystery that unspools over the rest of the book. While this creates some suspense, it is overcome by the shaggy dog nature of the narrative, with practically every character introduction and interaction veering into tangents and backstory. While there is pleasure in these detours, they sap momentum and create drag, as does the extremely bloated cast of characters. McBride tries to set up a villain, the "Son of Man", but has so little room for him that his vile actions and sudden death have almost no impact.
Another source of drag on the plot is the messy structure of the climax, with elements of the action jumping back and forwards in time without indication of what was happening when. I have no problem with non-sequential storytelling, but if it's done haphazardly like this it just ends up a mess and drains the juice out of the mystery set up by the prologue. In general the pacing was a mess.
Finally, Part I of the book makes a feint towards a gentle magical realism that would have been much more interesting to see play out through the rest of the story. Unfortunately the rest of the story plays out in a heavy-handed and mechanistic fashion, yoked to the constraints of the prologue.
*Fwiw it bugged me that the prologue was written so conversationally, and that there was no further attention paid to who the conversants might have been.
Prose ⚫⚫/⭐⭐
Too clever by half, straining for profundity, and loaded with clunky period slang (I never have seen the phrase "the who-shot-John business" once before, but now I've read it enough to last me the rest of my life), the quality of the writing was the biggest disappointment for me. It was clear from the start that McBride was eager for this to be A Great American Novel full of Meaningful Important Observations, and wow did it get old quick.
Chona's death at the end of Part II was the worst offender: the genuinely meaningful death of a character I had developed a real affection for was used as a springboard to launch a diatribe against how the kids these days are addicted to their cell phones! I shit you not.
It also is the single worst sentence I've ever read in any book: "In death, Chona had smelled not a hot dog but the future, a future in which devices that fit in one's pocket and went zip, zap, and zilch delivered a danger far more seductive and powerful than any hot dog, a device that children of the future will clamor for and become addicted to, a device that fed them their oppression disguised as free thought."
WTF?!??
People ⚫⭐/⭐⭐
The real shame of the desperate grasping towards allegorical depth is that many of the (admittedly overstuffed) cast are delightful, and well developed. I would have loved a book in which they were set free to actually be in a story, rather than act out a morality tale about The Truth About America. It baffled me that Malachi, who was set up in the first portion of the book to be a pivotal character disappears abruptly and almost entirely; although honestly most of the characters simply fade away from the narrative as soon as they're done pushing their block of plot into place.
Place ⚫⭐/⭐⭐
There's some good description, but McBride's Pottstown never cohered in my mind. And his limitations really drag down the climactic sequence of events, in which unfortunately much hinges on the very specific physical placement of plumbing pipes.
Ptwist ⚫⚫/⭐⭐
The mystery set up by the prologue is no mystery at all: the skeleton found in the well is exactly who you think it's going to be (Doc Roberts) after you've read thirty pages. The emancipation of Dodo from Pennhurst is the definition of an anticlimax. And the entire book drags terribly from how desperately McBride wants it to be meaningful. Roberts' death, like Chona's, sends us into a tangle of run-on sentences declaiming school shootings and yacht owners.
It's just so heavy-handed, and it's a damn shame because McBride has great observations and analysis about race and class, and he's morally correct about the nature of America, and its history and future. But this book fails as a novel precisely because he does not trust his readers to reach those conclusions without cramming them into his story in 24pt bold italicized font.
************************************************
8/14/23 - ¼ through, and so far it's not grabbing me. Maybe it'll jump into gear once all the place-setting is through.
There are some moments that make me wonder about the editing process - for instance the town doctor/KKK member gets described two or three times in almost the same words a couple of chapters apart, and some of the discursive descriptive paragraphs feel forced. Also some internal consistency questions, esp about the date of death of one of the mother of one character. If the book is an homage to an oral storytelling tradition, fine, but if so it wasn't made clear.
8/16/23 - ETA: Just finished Part II, and dropping my review down to two stars for the moment because I'm flabbergasted and disappointed that McBride decided to play the death of one of the central characters as a diatribe against smartphones. Just incredible. A moment arises with genuine emotional impact and truth, and all of a sudden I'm reading about how capitalism and pop culture erase history, and that the kids these days are all addicted to the Internet?!? JFC
8/17/23 - ETA: Finished it, will try to write a full review tomorrow. I wish I could give it three stars, as it's not quite the failure that two stars indicates, but it's absolutely a clunker. Badly needed an editor, who could have told McBride to trust his readers enough not to beat them over the head with explanations of his allegories; and that the climax is a dog's breakfast of a mess.
While I didn't hate The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, I did finish it feeling frustrated with McBride's plotting and prose- and there was a lot more "she breasted boobily down the stairs"-style characterization than I expected. It read like a first draft that desperately needed an editor to say, "please trust your reader to make meaning out of your story, you don't need to bludgeon them over the head with Significance."
ETA acknowledgement that McBride's analysis of race and class, and his puncturing of the myth of The American Dream is absolutely on point; but that he shoehorns it in at the expense of the story he ostensibly wants to tell.
Spoilers after this point:
Plot ⚫½⭐/⭐⭐
TH&EGS begins with a prologue framing device set in 1972*, almost forty years after the rest of the narrative. It sets up a mystery that unspools over the rest of the book. While this creates some suspense, it is overcome by the shaggy dog nature of the narrative, with practically every character introduction and interaction veering into tangents and backstory. While there is pleasure in these detours, they sap momentum and create drag, as does the extremely bloated cast of characters. McBride tries to set up a villain, the "Son of Man", but has so little room for him that his vile actions and sudden death have almost no impact.
Another source of drag on the plot is the messy structure of the climax, with elements of the action jumping back and forwards in time without indication of what was happening when. I have no problem with non-sequential storytelling, but if it's done haphazardly like this it just ends up a mess and drains the juice out of the mystery set up by the prologue. In general the pacing was a mess.
Finally, Part I of the book makes a feint towards a gentle magical realism that would have been much more interesting to see play out through the rest of the story. Unfortunately the rest of the story plays out in a heavy-handed and mechanistic fashion, yoked to the constraints of the prologue.
*Fwiw it bugged me that the prologue was written so conversationally, and that there was no further attention paid to who the conversants might have been.
Prose ⚫⚫/⭐⭐
Too clever by half, straining for profundity, and loaded with clunky period slang (I never have seen the phrase "the who-shot-John business" once before, but now I've read it enough to last me the rest of my life), the quality of the writing was the biggest disappointment for me. It was clear from the start that McBride was eager for this to be A Great American Novel full of Meaningful Important Observations, and wow did it get old quick.
Chona's death at the end of Part II was the worst offender: the genuinely meaningful death of a character I had developed a real affection for was used as a springboard to launch a diatribe against how the kids these days are addicted to their cell phones! I shit you not.
It also is the single worst sentence I've ever read in any book: "In death, Chona had smelled not a hot dog but the future, a future in which devices that fit in one's pocket and went zip, zap, and zilch delivered a danger far more seductive and powerful than any hot dog, a device that children of the future will clamor for and become addicted to, a device that fed them their oppression disguised as free thought."
WTF?!??
People ⚫⭐/⭐⭐
The real shame of the desperate grasping towards allegorical depth is that many of the (admittedly overstuffed) cast are delightful, and well developed. I would have loved a book in which they were set free to actually be in a story, rather than act out a morality tale about The Truth About America. It baffled me that Malachi, who was set up in the first portion of the book to be a pivotal character disappears abruptly and almost entirely; although honestly most of the characters simply fade away from the narrative as soon as they're done pushing their block of plot into place.
Place ⚫⭐/⭐⭐
There's some good description, but McBride's Pottstown never cohered in my mind. And his limitations really drag down the climactic sequence of events, in which unfortunately much hinges on the very specific physical placement of plumbing pipes.
Ptwist ⚫⚫/⭐⭐
The mystery set up by the prologue is no mystery at all: the skeleton found in the well is exactly who you think it's going to be (Doc Roberts) after you've read thirty pages. The emancipation of Dodo from Pennhurst is the definition of an anticlimax. And the entire book drags terribly from how desperately McBride wants it to be meaningful. Roberts' death, like Chona's, sends us into a tangle of run-on sentences declaiming school shootings and yacht owners.
It's just so heavy-handed, and it's a damn shame because McBride has great observations and analysis about race and class, and he's morally correct about the nature of America, and its history and future. But this book fails as a novel precisely because he does not trust his readers to reach those conclusions without cramming them into his story in 24pt bold italicized font.
************************************************
8/14/23 - ¼ through, and so far it's not grabbing me. Maybe it'll jump into gear once all the place-setting is through.
There are some moments that make me wonder about the editing process - for instance the town doctor/KKK member gets described two or three times in almost the same words a couple of chapters apart, and some of the discursive descriptive paragraphs feel forced. Also some internal consistency questions, esp about the date of death of one of the mother of one character. If the book is an homage to an oral storytelling tradition, fine, but if so it wasn't made clear.
8/16/23 - ETA: Just finished Part II, and dropping my review down to two stars for the moment because I'm flabbergasted and disappointed that McBride decided to play the death of one of the central characters as a diatribe against smartphones. Just incredible. A moment arises with genuine emotional impact and truth, and all of a sudden I'm reading about how capitalism and pop culture erase history, and that the kids these days are all addicted to the Internet?!? JFC
8/17/23 - ETA: Finished it, will try to write a full review tomorrow. I wish I could give it three stars, as it's not quite the failure that two stars indicates, but it's absolutely a clunker. Badly needed an editor, who could have told McBride to trust his readers enough not to beat them over the head with explanations of his allegories; and that the climax is a dog's breakfast of a mess.
January 7, 2024
A Christmas present. One of several books my daughter gave me. A cultural study with a character driven plot that's almost undiscernible as you move slowly from one scene to the next. Normally, books like this cause me to slowly rip my hair out in big bloody wads. A process that can be even more painful than a boring book. However, I fortunately found this book to be a pleasant read, so no hair pulling was required.
I did, however, deduct 1.5 points for the overuse of italics. One of my pet peeves. Therefore, my rating is 3.5.
I did, however, deduct 1.5 points for the overuse of italics. One of my pet peeves. Therefore, my rating is 3.5.
September 10, 2023
Probably one of the worst books I’ve ever read. Long, boring, no plot line, 40+ characters (some of which were unnecessary) and explanations so long I felt like the author was trying to hit a word count or something. Couldn’t even tell you what the plot was and frustrated I wasted my time.
November 18, 2023
McBride's new book opens with a mystery, something I didn't know about before opening the page because I try to avoid spoilers. A few chapters later, I had forgotten about the mystery. That's due partly because focus of the plot doesn't remain on it, but more so because I had become consumed with the current characters and there individual storylines. I learned something about myself while reading this book, even if I'd rarely thought about it before: I unknowingly expect a main protagonist, or a continual story arc that builds towards the end. McBride creates differently – and does it well. Each character introduced feels like a main character in those moments, because in the moment they are. The focal point builds, but from many directions instead of a singular line. The goal of the plot is not to simply reveal the mystery found at the beginning, but to know each person. Their unique differences, their struggles, the good given, the bad received – and all of that is here. Even without spending a significant amount of time with an individual character, I found myself devastated at an unexpected loss. Same occurred with the opposite. I was elated for and with those who prevailed, or those who had simply found attachment to another person. That last bit may be what this book is all about.
September 1, 2023
I considered not finishing this book numerous times, but I was very invested in Dodo’s story and wanted to find out more about Bernice. Instead, there were a lot of side characters introduced. Ultimately, I felt the book suffered from too many characters and subplots.
February 21, 2024
James McBride is one of those authors that makes me appreciate I have a day with nothing going on that I can devote entirely to reading his book straight through. That was the case with his Deacon King Kong (DKK) when I was stuck in a hotel lobby during a rainstorm, and that is the way today, which I spent in 1936 in the Chicken Hill section of Pottstown, PA, with Mr. McBride and his cast of characters. His deep knowledge and appreciation of music, as a performer and as a composer, is evident here, showcasing its role in American life and how it plays out in his imagination, adding a layer of richness to the immersive narrative. As with DKK, there is an above the mark collection of humanity, each with distinct personality and involving backstory. His own story includes working with people with disabilities, and he incorporates this factor into the narrative with compassion and humanity. Highly recommended.
I'd like to add that as the year spins to a close, this was my favorite book of the year despite a very diverse, beautiful list to choose from.
Added -- Read for the second time due to book club choice. Loved it just as much in audio.
I'd like to add that as the year spins to a close, this was my favorite book of the year despite a very diverse, beautiful list to choose from.
Added -- Read for the second time due to book club choice. Loved it just as much in audio.
April 28, 2024
Rating: 6 stars/Pulitzer level
James McBride is gifted; not only as a storyteller but as a human being. His ability to pluck at our heart strings, inspire and engage with unique yet relatable characters, premise and plot are akin to the most heralded authors in publishing. With this remarkable work, he leaves the reader breathless and in awe along with a sense of hope and possibility.
In my humble opinion, there are few authors that possess these traits, though Toni Morrison, Hemingway and Steinbeck come to mind. This is such a magnificent story it belongs on the short list for a Pulitzer. After finishing it last night, I sat and contemplated for a while thinking of the themes of redemption, love, community, family and humanity. To say it had a evocative impact is a vast understatement.
When a crew of construction workers in 1972 were digging a foundation in Pottstown, PA and discovered a skeleton in an area known as Chicken Hill, its story goes back to the 1930's. This area was a melting pot of immigrants that included Jews, Italians, Polish and others with an area 'designated' for 'coloreds'. Being a black author, McBride is well acquainted with the difficulties people of color faced and illuminates it throughout the narrative.
Its here that Chona Ludlow runs the Heaven and Earth Grocery store that caters to the neighborhood's quirky population assisted by her Romanian husband, Moshe, owner of the area's ONLY integrated dance hall. The Jewish couple's golden hearts and ability to see all as equals puts them in the crosshairs of white Christian America; among them a local doctor and 'discrete' member of the Klan. When word gets out the state is hunting for a young deaf black child nicknamed "Dodo" who Nate Timblin and his wife Addie harbor, the reader is immersed into the struggles the neighborhood residents cope with in an effort to protect what is rightfully theirs. McBride has created one of the most unique cast of characters imaginable, each with back stories that intertwine. Whether psychic, plumber or owner of the local jook joint, they make for a memorable story.
Given the countless elements of the narrative that highlight the heart felt sense of community and how they unite, I feel it important NOT to share plot points, characters and specifics, aka spoilers. This is a book that must be experienced if you appreciate the art of storytelling. If you've yet to read Deacon King Kong or The Good Lord Bird I'd suggest you add these as well.
While writing is an art form and individual tastes vary, hope, love and community are the basis for life itself. Do yourselves a favor and move this to the top of your list. Blessings
12/21/23 update. Just saw it took FIRST PLACE in the Best Books of 2023 on Amazon! And in my opinion it should be short listed for a Pulitzer too!
James McBride is gifted; not only as a storyteller but as a human being. His ability to pluck at our heart strings, inspire and engage with unique yet relatable characters, premise and plot are akin to the most heralded authors in publishing. With this remarkable work, he leaves the reader breathless and in awe along with a sense of hope and possibility.
In my humble opinion, there are few authors that possess these traits, though Toni Morrison, Hemingway and Steinbeck come to mind. This is such a magnificent story it belongs on the short list for a Pulitzer. After finishing it last night, I sat and contemplated for a while thinking of the themes of redemption, love, community, family and humanity. To say it had a evocative impact is a vast understatement.
When a crew of construction workers in 1972 were digging a foundation in Pottstown, PA and discovered a skeleton in an area known as Chicken Hill, its story goes back to the 1930's. This area was a melting pot of immigrants that included Jews, Italians, Polish and others with an area 'designated' for 'coloreds'. Being a black author, McBride is well acquainted with the difficulties people of color faced and illuminates it throughout the narrative.
Its here that Chona Ludlow runs the Heaven and Earth Grocery store that caters to the neighborhood's quirky population assisted by her Romanian husband, Moshe, owner of the area's ONLY integrated dance hall. The Jewish couple's golden hearts and ability to see all as equals puts them in the crosshairs of white Christian America; among them a local doctor and 'discrete' member of the Klan. When word gets out the state is hunting for a young deaf black child nicknamed "Dodo" who Nate Timblin and his wife Addie harbor, the reader is immersed into the struggles the neighborhood residents cope with in an effort to protect what is rightfully theirs. McBride has created one of the most unique cast of characters imaginable, each with back stories that intertwine. Whether psychic, plumber or owner of the local jook joint, they make for a memorable story.
Given the countless elements of the narrative that highlight the heart felt sense of community and how they unite, I feel it important NOT to share plot points, characters and specifics, aka spoilers. This is a book that must be experienced if you appreciate the art of storytelling. If you've yet to read Deacon King Kong or The Good Lord Bird I'd suggest you add these as well.
While writing is an art form and individual tastes vary, hope, love and community are the basis for life itself. Do yourselves a favor and move this to the top of your list. Blessings
12/21/23 update. Just saw it took FIRST PLACE in the Best Books of 2023 on Amazon! And in my opinion it should be short listed for a Pulitzer too!
March 5, 2024
James McBride has created a raucous world filled with energy, frustration and hope. He imagines quirky vibrant characters that cavort through the narrative while evoking a desire to know them more intimately.There is a pervasive aura of controlled chaos that holds the reader in thrall as one becomes immersed in McBride’s version of history, allegory and social vision.
In 1972, State Troopers find a skeleton at the bottom of a well in the impoverished Chicken Hill neighborhood of Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Unraveling the conundrum of the long concealed cadaver is the portal that allows the reader to enter a boisterous world. James McBride is the offspring of a black father and a Jewish mother.He is also an accomplished musician. His novel pulsates with the sounds and inflections that embody both his musical inclination and his richly fused cultural heritage.
The heart of the story occurs prior to and during the Depression and gradually unfolds the town’s personal and social tensions that prompted the decades long skeletal entombment.Moshe Ludlow, a Romanian immigrant and struggling showman, courts and marries Chona, an attractive and empathetic woman whose character has been forged by a childhood bout of polio that has left her with a permanent limp. Their Chicken Hill neighborhood is populated by African Americans and first generation Jewish immigrants who live in close proximity in a town where prejudice and animosity coexist with hope and a tenuous belief in American stated ideals.Moshe and Chona are the ethical heartbeat of the neighborhood.They confront adversities and difficulties with resilience, compassion and a touch of ingenuity.
McBride is in no hurry to unravel his story.He introduces a dazzling array of characters from all strata of the town and allows their voices to reveal the tensions of race, xenophobia and cupidity that plagued America in the thirties and still persist today.
The juxtaposition of these elements creates a story that is laced with both despair and hope. McBride is unstinting in laying bare the cracks in the vision of the American Dream. At the same time, he offers recurring rays of hope through the actions of his protagonists. Moshe names his theatre The All American Dance Hall and books Black jazz acts that are open to the town’s black residents.Chona runs the grocery store that is housed below their living quarters. The store is called The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store and radiates the aspiration that the intersection of community and diverse roots might be a mediating factor that arrests the development of virulent racism and prejudice.
I have assiduously avoided revealing much about the plot and characters in this novel. Instead, I have tried to impart the feel of this work and encourage the reader to delve into the almost Victorian swirl of the characters and circumstances of this bighearted narrative. Ultimately the voices in this novel offer a lilting vision of hope and inclusion that persistently peeks through the baser instincts of mankind.
In 1972, State Troopers find a skeleton at the bottom of a well in the impoverished Chicken Hill neighborhood of Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Unraveling the conundrum of the long concealed cadaver is the portal that allows the reader to enter a boisterous world. James McBride is the offspring of a black father and a Jewish mother.He is also an accomplished musician. His novel pulsates with the sounds and inflections that embody both his musical inclination and his richly fused cultural heritage.
The heart of the story occurs prior to and during the Depression and gradually unfolds the town’s personal and social tensions that prompted the decades long skeletal entombment.Moshe Ludlow, a Romanian immigrant and struggling showman, courts and marries Chona, an attractive and empathetic woman whose character has been forged by a childhood bout of polio that has left her with a permanent limp. Their Chicken Hill neighborhood is populated by African Americans and first generation Jewish immigrants who live in close proximity in a town where prejudice and animosity coexist with hope and a tenuous belief in American stated ideals.Moshe and Chona are the ethical heartbeat of the neighborhood.They confront adversities and difficulties with resilience, compassion and a touch of ingenuity.
McBride is in no hurry to unravel his story.He introduces a dazzling array of characters from all strata of the town and allows their voices to reveal the tensions of race, xenophobia and cupidity that plagued America in the thirties and still persist today.
The juxtaposition of these elements creates a story that is laced with both despair and hope. McBride is unstinting in laying bare the cracks in the vision of the American Dream. At the same time, he offers recurring rays of hope through the actions of his protagonists. Moshe names his theatre The All American Dance Hall and books Black jazz acts that are open to the town’s black residents.Chona runs the grocery store that is housed below their living quarters. The store is called The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store and radiates the aspiration that the intersection of community and diverse roots might be a mediating factor that arrests the development of virulent racism and prejudice.
I have assiduously avoided revealing much about the plot and characters in this novel. Instead, I have tried to impart the feel of this work and encourage the reader to delve into the almost Victorian swirl of the characters and circumstances of this bighearted narrative. Ultimately the voices in this novel offer a lilting vision of hope and inclusion that persistently peeks through the baser instincts of mankind.
April 19, 2024
There is always something sweet and saucy about this award-winning author. And this particular book is the winner of the National Book award. Not that this has ever influenced my feelings about a book. But I do enjoy reading this author’s books!
This story opens with the discovery of a skeleton buried in a well in Pottstown, Pa. in 1972. Instead of a simple whodunit, the novel leads readers back further in time to the 1920’s and 30’s where Jewish, Black and immigrant folks made their homes in a place called Chicken Hill, a neighborhood in Pottstown. A community of people bonded by love and duty. This is where McBride begins his epic journey for readers.
And believe me it was a journey. One I took my time reading.
I also recommend taking out a piece of paper for any reader to begin a list of characters, because everyone will play a part that will lead to “something” later.
Of course, if you are looking for a cut-to-the-chase kind of storyline, you have come to the wrong author and wrong book. This isn’t McBride’s style. He has a reason to introduce many characters into his story, and sometimes when you think you have everyone all settled in, all of a sudden, he brings on a new character into the mix.
So, even if we think as readers we are wanting to move on and have this story get to the point, don’t count on it. McBride isn’t done with us, yet! There is a reason he wants to build his community…we just need to be patient. And to be honest, this reader, wasn’t always patient. (No matter how much I adore this author!)
The skeleton at the novel’s start is almost forgotten as the story lives in the town’s past, but, don’t fret. McBride will lead readers back to them bones…eventually.
Bottom line…this is a message novel.
McBride is asking readers to look hard at how racial and class divides manifest. He wants us to ask ourselves: how do we truly allow ourselves to be known and seen?
In many ways, even if it is a slow burn novel, it is also charming, smart, heart-blistering and heart-healing. There is a lot of love amongst these characters.
McBride is also showcasing the changing country. Immigration. Migration. Violence. Segregation. Community.
Which even if he isn’t asking us as readers, we can’t help but take a hard look at what is going on now – and hope that with love and community we can take action to come together to possibly love humanity better.
And ask ourselves…Will it ever be possible to overcome prejudice?
“Every act of living was a chance for *tikkun olam, to improve the world.”
*The Hebrew translation for tikkun olam is “repairing the world – when it is felt that the world is broken, we are given the opportunity to repair it.
McBride’s novel confronts prejudice and celebrates his character Chona’s belief in tikkun olam. (She is the beautiful Jewish American).
If you decide to read this one…Remember to make that list of characters! 🤓
4.5 stars rounded up.
This story opens with the discovery of a skeleton buried in a well in Pottstown, Pa. in 1972. Instead of a simple whodunit, the novel leads readers back further in time to the 1920’s and 30’s where Jewish, Black and immigrant folks made their homes in a place called Chicken Hill, a neighborhood in Pottstown. A community of people bonded by love and duty. This is where McBride begins his epic journey for readers.
And believe me it was a journey. One I took my time reading.
I also recommend taking out a piece of paper for any reader to begin a list of characters, because everyone will play a part that will lead to “something” later.
Of course, if you are looking for a cut-to-the-chase kind of storyline, you have come to the wrong author and wrong book. This isn’t McBride’s style. He has a reason to introduce many characters into his story, and sometimes when you think you have everyone all settled in, all of a sudden, he brings on a new character into the mix.
So, even if we think as readers we are wanting to move on and have this story get to the point, don’t count on it. McBride isn’t done with us, yet! There is a reason he wants to build his community…we just need to be patient. And to be honest, this reader, wasn’t always patient. (No matter how much I adore this author!)
The skeleton at the novel’s start is almost forgotten as the story lives in the town’s past, but, don’t fret. McBride will lead readers back to them bones…eventually.
Bottom line…this is a message novel.
McBride is asking readers to look hard at how racial and class divides manifest. He wants us to ask ourselves: how do we truly allow ourselves to be known and seen?
In many ways, even if it is a slow burn novel, it is also charming, smart, heart-blistering and heart-healing. There is a lot of love amongst these characters.
McBride is also showcasing the changing country. Immigration. Migration. Violence. Segregation. Community.
Which even if he isn’t asking us as readers, we can’t help but take a hard look at what is going on now – and hope that with love and community we can take action to come together to possibly love humanity better.
And ask ourselves…Will it ever be possible to overcome prejudice?
“Every act of living was a chance for *tikkun olam, to improve the world.”
*The Hebrew translation for tikkun olam is “repairing the world – when it is felt that the world is broken, we are given the opportunity to repair it.
McBride’s novel confronts prejudice and celebrates his character Chona’s belief in tikkun olam. (She is the beautiful Jewish American).
If you decide to read this one…Remember to make that list of characters! 🤓
4.5 stars rounded up.
June 19, 2023
I challenge anyone to name an author that can highlight the importance of community and love and compassion for your fellow man more than James McBride. Every time I finish one of his books I realize I feel intimately involved with the place and the huge swath of fully realized characters. I walk away from each book with my capacity for love increased tenfold. And he does all of this not only with love but with a quick wit and the ability to plumb the depths of the human condition. He is a master. PERIOD.
February 19, 2024
Beyond spectacular. RTC.
January 26, 2024
4.5 stars, I listened to this book on audio, and the narrator is perfect, but I’m thinking that I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it with the pages in hand. There is so much to love and appreciate and ponder with in this book, including all those thousands of paragraphs of what some might call backstory. I don’t think anything was extraneous or wasted but I could feel as I listened that the pace was being threatened with what could seem like rabbit trails, and yet I don’t think the trails were for rabbits. They were for me, the reader, and they were all there for a purpose. I’d like to read this book again sometime , and when I do I’m going to pick up the hardcopy to do it.
One of the best omniscient point of view books I’ve read in a long time.
One of the best omniscient point of view books I’ve read in a long time.
November 15, 2023
dnf. I am sorry; i just can’t.
I would rather read a summary than continue on.
I would rather read a summary than continue on.
Want to read
April 8, 2024oh how i love a good title
February 18, 2024
I'll skip the plot summary and cut right to the chase. James McBride delivers what I believe so many of us crave, why we feel those frissons of delight each time we enter a bookstore, check out a stack at the library, run our fingers along the book spines of our home libraries, anticipating what we will read next: sublime storytelling. A story that makes you feel a better person for having read it.
It may seem strange to say that a novel which grips the themes of racism, bigotry, xenophobia, and abuse of the physically and mentally disabled and shakes them until they whimper in defeat is immersive and comforting, endearing and hopeful, but that is the magic of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. And I gather, the magic of James McBride. What a great hole in my reading experience that I have only now read McBride. And what a joy to know that I have so many great reads ahead of me!
The plot device here is a murder mystery that opens the novel in 1970s Pottstown, PA and immediately takes us back to the Depression Era and then rambles its way through myriad lives and backstories, which center on the industrial town's Black and Jewish communities. McBride takes his time wending through small histories, yet no detail feels indulgent. My only askance glance was cast at a small handful of authorial intrusions that present the grotesque future. We're living it. There's no need to remind the reader what lies ahead for these characters' future generations.
There is a larger-than-life, slightly surreal quality to McBride's characters that calls to my mind Dickens and John Irving and Toni Morrison. This is part of the magic: you feel as if you've been especially invited into a world that is very much, but not completely, like your own. A looking-glass experience where the colors are just a bit brighter, the men and women that much more striking, the music all the more fine. James McBride becomes the conductor of a transcendent symphony, with Moshe the oboe, Nate the double bass, Chona a violin, Paper a flute, Berniece a French horn, Dodo a drum—I could go on, there are so many engaging characters. I loved how each gets a solo, how they come together in stirring movements and then rise to a transcendent finale.
There is a deep humanity in The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store that celebrates our diverse histories as Americans and yet shows how interconnected we are as humans. It is a book that seeks to remember, but more importantly, to heal.
Highly recommended.
It may seem strange to say that a novel which grips the themes of racism, bigotry, xenophobia, and abuse of the physically and mentally disabled and shakes them until they whimper in defeat is immersive and comforting, endearing and hopeful, but that is the magic of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. And I gather, the magic of James McBride. What a great hole in my reading experience that I have only now read McBride. And what a joy to know that I have so many great reads ahead of me!
The plot device here is a murder mystery that opens the novel in 1970s Pottstown, PA and immediately takes us back to the Depression Era and then rambles its way through myriad lives and backstories, which center on the industrial town's Black and Jewish communities. McBride takes his time wending through small histories, yet no detail feels indulgent. My only askance glance was cast at a small handful of authorial intrusions that present the grotesque future. We're living it. There's no need to remind the reader what lies ahead for these characters' future generations.
There is a larger-than-life, slightly surreal quality to McBride's characters that calls to my mind Dickens and John Irving and Toni Morrison. This is part of the magic: you feel as if you've been especially invited into a world that is very much, but not completely, like your own. A looking-glass experience where the colors are just a bit brighter, the men and women that much more striking, the music all the more fine. James McBride becomes the conductor of a transcendent symphony, with Moshe the oboe, Nate the double bass, Chona a violin, Paper a flute, Berniece a French horn, Dodo a drum—I could go on, there are so many engaging characters. I loved how each gets a solo, how they come together in stirring movements and then rise to a transcendent finale.
There is a deep humanity in The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store that celebrates our diverse histories as Americans and yet shows how interconnected we are as humans. It is a book that seeks to remember, but more importantly, to heal.
Highly recommended.
February 22, 2024
So... you're telling me that of ALL the books published in 2023 THIS won book of the year??? Who did they pay off to get this title? 🫠🥴
Extremely slow and boring. It was hard not to fall asleep while reading this… and the (numerous) side stories didn’t add to the book for me. They really served as a distraction and felt like the author went off on a tangent.
I only finished this for bookclub and it took me almost all month to read it... 2.75 stars rounded up
Extremely slow and boring. It was hard not to fall asleep while reading this… and the (numerous) side stories didn’t add to the book for me. They really served as a distraction and felt like the author went off on a tangent.
I only finished this for bookclub and it took me almost all month to read it... 2.75 stars rounded up
April 19, 2024
I was compelled to read this fictional murder mystery, of sorts, written by award-winning author, James McBride, because it is set in my hometown of Pottstown, PA.
The setting is 1928-1936 - well before my time - in the Chicken Hill section of town. That area does exist and at that time it was a community within a community.
McBride's expressive writing tells the story of the Jewish and Negro families life's experiences that become intertwined.
The plot is a rambling one where two story lines merge together to create the answer to how skeletal remains become found in an abandoned well in 1972.
The story is character driven and reveals how their life's ambitions and sorrows are shared to keep a small-town secret.
The setting is 1928-1936 - well before my time - in the Chicken Hill section of town. That area does exist and at that time it was a community within a community.
McBride's expressive writing tells the story of the Jewish and Negro families life's experiences that become intertwined.
The plot is a rambling one where two story lines merge together to create the answer to how skeletal remains become found in an abandoned well in 1972.
The story is character driven and reveals how their life's ambitions and sorrows are shared to keep a small-town secret.
February 26, 2024
Three stars feels harsh for this book, because I really enjoyed the story. But it took so long for us to get to the juice of it all, and I often felt like the story was drawing itself out a bit further than it needed to.
The story begins with—and the synopsis teases—a murder mystery. The first chapter sets this up nicely, and then the story jumps back in time to lead the reader on a discovery of how and why this murder occurred. The story isn’t really about the murder though, so much to the fact that I don’t think the first chapter detailing the discovery of a skeleton added anything to what this story was trying to accomplish.
What this story was truly about, was a neighborhood coming together in order to protect a young boy from being taken by the state. Something that I find very interesting, and i don’t understand why there was such an emphasis on the murder, when I found it to ultimately be one of the least interesting aspects of the book.
Because the story is rather beautiful. And the characters developed by James McBride are fleshed out so well, creating a truly full community that felt real and alive. There were so many characters and they all felt unique, which I found really impressive. The layers of this story, the way the details add up and meet at the end to complete this community’s journey was masterfully done.
The story begins with—and the synopsis teases—a murder mystery. The first chapter sets this up nicely, and then the story jumps back in time to lead the reader on a discovery of how and why this murder occurred. The story isn’t really about the murder though, so much to the fact that I don’t think the first chapter detailing the discovery of a skeleton added anything to what this story was trying to accomplish.
What this story was truly about, was a neighborhood coming together in order to protect a young boy from being taken by the state. Something that I find very interesting, and i don’t understand why there was such an emphasis on the murder, when I found it to ultimately be one of the least interesting aspects of the book.
Because the story is rather beautiful. And the characters developed by James McBride are fleshed out so well, creating a truly full community that felt real and alive. There were so many characters and they all felt unique, which I found really impressive. The layers of this story, the way the details add up and meet at the end to complete this community’s journey was masterfully done.
September 4, 2023
First of all, I loved Deacon King Kong:it was a lyrical,heartwarming, sad and tight story, with wonderful characters and one of the best love stories I´ve ever read. I wanted to read more McBride, and I´ve been consistently disappointed.
This one is, sadly, a mess. I don´t mind books with lots of characters, and going on tangents, spinning stories from stories,in fact, I love them...if they serve a purpose and "weigh" the main line. Here, there are mostly lost opportunities,with sketches of potentially great characters who disappear (Malachi),nuanced ones who are never fleshed out (Chona, Moshe,Bernice,and others),and I could go on.
The plot is all over the place,bland, predictable,ending with a whimper.
At some point, the author starts lecturing readers (something I can´t stand);how can the death scene of one of the best characters ,which could-should- have been poignant,morph into a diatribe against cell phones,decades into the future???
There´s none of the wry humour, charming and flawed characters which were Deacon´s magic here.
He doesn´t get the Jewish community right, and even the Itaians and African Americans are caricatures.Shame on you, McBride, you can do SO much better.Such a pity.
This one is, sadly, a mess. I don´t mind books with lots of characters, and going on tangents, spinning stories from stories,in fact, I love them...if they serve a purpose and "weigh" the main line. Here, there are mostly lost opportunities,with sketches of potentially great characters who disappear (Malachi),nuanced ones who are never fleshed out (Chona, Moshe,Bernice,and others),and I could go on.
The plot is all over the place,bland, predictable,ending with a whimper.
At some point, the author starts lecturing readers (something I can´t stand);how can the death scene of one of the best characters ,which could-should- have been poignant,morph into a diatribe against cell phones,decades into the future???
There´s none of the wry humour, charming and flawed characters which were Deacon´s magic here.
He doesn´t get the Jewish community right, and even the Itaians and African Americans are caricatures.Shame on you, McBride, you can do SO much better.Such a pity.
February 20, 2024
I have been a fan of James McBride for along time. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store was a book that I always planned on reading but I kept pushing off until my book club chose it as our February read. I was so glad to finally read it. James McBride proved once again that he was a masterful storyteller. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store took place in a neighborhood called Chicken Hill in Pottstown, Pennsylvania in the 1930’s and then in the 1970’s. Jewish and Black families lived side by side and formed a real sense of community together in that tight knit neighborhood. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store was an impressive character driven saga that touched my heart.
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store centered around Chona and Moshe Ludlow and their best friends and employees, Nate and Addie Timblin. Chona grew up in the Chicken Hill neighborhood as an only child. Her family owned The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store and it had always held a special place in her heart. When Chona was young she was inflicted with Polio. The disease left Chona with a noticeable limp but Chona never let that interfere with her life. Chona was smart, kind and always made the choices that she believed were best. Moshe Ludlow arrived in Chicken Hill from Romania. He was smitten with Chona when their paths crossed. Both Chona and Moshe were Jewish. Moshe operated a theater in Chicken Hill that originally catered to the Jewish population but evolved to include jazz musicians that attracted the Black population. Unfortunately, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store began to lose money over the years but Chona would not hear of selling it or changing its location. Nate worked with Moshe at the theater and Addie helped Chona out at the store. Addie and Nate were devoted friends to both Chona and Moshe. Both Nate and Addie were Black.
When Nate’s sister passed away, Nate and Addie assumed the responsibility of raising and taking care of her twelve year old orphaned son, Dodo. Several years ago, Dodo was injured when the stove in his house exploded. He lost both his eyesight and hearing as a result. Dodo’s eyesight returned but his hearing was permanently impaired. Dodo began to help Nate at Moshe’s theater when his mother died. He was a hard worker and a good boy. Dodo wasn’t safe, though. There were people in Chicken Hill that wanted to send him to the Pennhurst Asylum. Just because Dodo couldn’t hear, people assumed that he was dumb as well. Pennhurst Asylum was a scary place that no one ever wanted to go to. Nate confided his concerns about Dodo with Moshe. As soon as Chona heard about Dodo she opened her home and heart to him. Chona and Moshe were not able to have their own children. Dodo became the child Chona had always desired. Chona and Moshe kept Dodo safe and well cared for. Dodo helped Chona with the work that was required to do at the store. Everything was going well until the town doctor paid a visit to Chona and discovered Dodo. That visit set off a series of occurrences. One of them was that Dodo was captured and taken to the Pennhurst Asylum.
Dodo was so confused when he arrived at Pennhurst Asylum. Where were all the people that cared about him? He had suffered injuries right before he was captured so Dodo found himself in a hospital crib and his leg was in traction. It was one of the strangest and scariest places Dodo had ever been. One of the best things that happened to Dodo at Pennhurst Asylum was the friendship he developed with Monkey Pants, a young boy with Cerebral Palsy. The two boys developed their own way of communicating with each other. They looked out for one another and tried to warn the other of imminent dangers. Unbeknownst to Dodo, the communities of Chicken Hill and Hemlock Row were devising an intricate plan to get Dodo out of The Pennhurst Asylum. Would their plan work? Would they be able to help Dodo escape?
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride was a beautiful saga that encompassed the meaning of friendship, community, how the right connections help and to have respect for all people. It was slow in the beginning but it captured my attention as soon as Dodo entered the story. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store had humor, sadness, tragedy and drama. It also touched on racism, antisemitism, corruption and lies. An incident occurred at the very beginning of the book that left me baffled for quite a while. In 1972, a construction crew uncovered a skeleton and a mezuzah. Those two things will make sense by the time the book concludes. I loved the ending as well. My main criticism about this book was that there were just too many characters. I had trouble keeping them all straight and remembering who they were and what their relationship was with the other characters. Overall, though, I really enjoyed The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store and highly recommend it.
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store centered around Chona and Moshe Ludlow and their best friends and employees, Nate and Addie Timblin. Chona grew up in the Chicken Hill neighborhood as an only child. Her family owned The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store and it had always held a special place in her heart. When Chona was young she was inflicted with Polio. The disease left Chona with a noticeable limp but Chona never let that interfere with her life. Chona was smart, kind and always made the choices that she believed were best. Moshe Ludlow arrived in Chicken Hill from Romania. He was smitten with Chona when their paths crossed. Both Chona and Moshe were Jewish. Moshe operated a theater in Chicken Hill that originally catered to the Jewish population but evolved to include jazz musicians that attracted the Black population. Unfortunately, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store began to lose money over the years but Chona would not hear of selling it or changing its location. Nate worked with Moshe at the theater and Addie helped Chona out at the store. Addie and Nate were devoted friends to both Chona and Moshe. Both Nate and Addie were Black.
When Nate’s sister passed away, Nate and Addie assumed the responsibility of raising and taking care of her twelve year old orphaned son, Dodo. Several years ago, Dodo was injured when the stove in his house exploded. He lost both his eyesight and hearing as a result. Dodo’s eyesight returned but his hearing was permanently impaired. Dodo began to help Nate at Moshe’s theater when his mother died. He was a hard worker and a good boy. Dodo wasn’t safe, though. There were people in Chicken Hill that wanted to send him to the Pennhurst Asylum. Just because Dodo couldn’t hear, people assumed that he was dumb as well. Pennhurst Asylum was a scary place that no one ever wanted to go to. Nate confided his concerns about Dodo with Moshe. As soon as Chona heard about Dodo she opened her home and heart to him. Chona and Moshe were not able to have their own children. Dodo became the child Chona had always desired. Chona and Moshe kept Dodo safe and well cared for. Dodo helped Chona with the work that was required to do at the store. Everything was going well until the town doctor paid a visit to Chona and discovered Dodo. That visit set off a series of occurrences. One of them was that Dodo was captured and taken to the Pennhurst Asylum.
Dodo was so confused when he arrived at Pennhurst Asylum. Where were all the people that cared about him? He had suffered injuries right before he was captured so Dodo found himself in a hospital crib and his leg was in traction. It was one of the strangest and scariest places Dodo had ever been. One of the best things that happened to Dodo at Pennhurst Asylum was the friendship he developed with Monkey Pants, a young boy with Cerebral Palsy. The two boys developed their own way of communicating with each other. They looked out for one another and tried to warn the other of imminent dangers. Unbeknownst to Dodo, the communities of Chicken Hill and Hemlock Row were devising an intricate plan to get Dodo out of The Pennhurst Asylum. Would their plan work? Would they be able to help Dodo escape?
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride was a beautiful saga that encompassed the meaning of friendship, community, how the right connections help and to have respect for all people. It was slow in the beginning but it captured my attention as soon as Dodo entered the story. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store had humor, sadness, tragedy and drama. It also touched on racism, antisemitism, corruption and lies. An incident occurred at the very beginning of the book that left me baffled for quite a while. In 1972, a construction crew uncovered a skeleton and a mezuzah. Those two things will make sense by the time the book concludes. I loved the ending as well. My main criticism about this book was that there were just too many characters. I had trouble keeping them all straight and remembering who they were and what their relationship was with the other characters. Overall, though, I really enjoyed The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store and highly recommend it.
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