The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store felt like a messy, contrived ramble. There are countless characters who are given extensive backstories that all tie into the main plot somehow. Instead of giving things a realistic or fleshed out feel, it made the plot feel like a Rube Goldberg machine of confidences.

At the center of much of this plot was some sort of water conspiracy that I never really got my head around. I'm sure it all lines up somehow, but I just couldn't convince myself to get invested in wells and pipes and city water.

Perhaps the most infuriating parts of this book were the admittedly very occasional rants about modern day America. Out of nowhere in a book set in 1936, the author starts lecturing us on the evils of cell phones. In general, I think this book tries to hard to be about important things, but it's just too broad to go into meaningful depth.

I've just completed a most beautiful literary journey. It's as though I myself am now returning from the 1930s town of Pottstown, Pennsylvania. What a world James McBride has created! Winner of many accolades including the National Book Award, this book is full of the most delightfully fleshed out characters- each and every one. McBride does not hesitate to give his readers a quick side story about just about all of his cast of characters. It works precisely because his writing is lyric and lovely. There is xenophobia here-and nationalism- all as a precursor to World War II- but there is also human kindness and generosity and the understanding that we are all the same. Our wants and fears and dreams- our humanity binds us together. It is heartbreaking and heartwarming. This writer is a master storyteller. If character driven novels are your thing- this book is for you.

This novel is so widely lauded, yet TBH it took me at least a couple hundred pages or so to understand why. The story telling, while rich and colorful (language included,) meanders as the omniscient narrator shares the backstories of the diverse cast of characters. Although the novel starts with a mysterious discovery, it takes a while for the plot to blossom. When it does open up and the connections among the characters and plotlines are realized - the effect is spellbinding and deeply satisfying. Certain vivid characters, especially the beautifully crafted Monkey Pants, belong in the canon of fictional individuals who will forever remain with the reader. Grateful that I stayed through this story as I will not soon forget its journey.

“Light is only possible through dialogue between cultures, not through rejection of one or the other.”

James McBride has created a beautifully-written story about people of different cultures coming together to save the future of a 12 year old deaf boy. McBride creates a vivid portrait of a diverse community in 1936 Pennsylvania. While the plot of saving the young boy is ever present, this book is more a character study of individuals from different backgrounds and how those individuals fit or do not fit in the America of the 1930s.

The main plot involves a 12 year old deaf boy who has been orphaned. The state of Pennsylvania wants to put him in a mental institution, even though he is not mentally disabled. Members of the Pottstown community, both Jewish and African-American, conspire together to hide the boy, Dodo, from the state authorities. The book has many other small side plots that create a portrait of the lives of the different individuals of Pottstown.

Some readers will find the pacing of this book to be too slow, but I thoroughly enjoyed the time the author takes to reveal the personalities and background of the many characters in Pottstown. The narration often meanders away from the main plot and main characters, which allows the reader to get a complete picture of the community. The many characters and their stories do not distract from the main plot; they enhance it.

The social commentary in this book centers around race, religion, and acceptance. McBride makes many salient points about these topics that stick with the reader upon completion of the book. While at times I felt the commentary to be a bit “preachy,” I found that overall the points are relevant and impactful.

I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy character-driven narratives with strong, universally relevant themes. It is truly worth the time to savor it.

3.5 I liked a lot of the topics covered in this book, but, while it had its good moments, I was bored most of the time. It took me a long time to get through this book. The last third of the book was engaging, but the lead up to that was too slowly paced. I'm very glad I read it, but I didn't enjoy my reading experience with it.

Went with the audio for this, Dominic Hoffman did a fine job.

I read this one for a book club. It was not my pick, and most definitely not something I would have picked up on my own. And while that is the reason why I’m in the book club, I’m just not really sure how to rate it because of that.

This read like there was no editorial say to tell the author that the story did not need 555 supporting characters. There’s actually so many characters, and so many seeming endless backstories, that I genuinely do not remember any character names other than DoDo.

The novel is about Chicken Hill and it’s residents. They are primarily Jewish and black, which is mostly what the story is about, however literally every single character gets a name and a backstory. For me it drowned out everything else, and I didn’t think there was any discernible through line for the entire novel. Not really sure about this one, but I don’t think I’d suggest it.

What an amazing voice this author has!! I can't believe how real his Jewish and Black characters sound.

This is a fantastic tale that revolves around a deaf orphan, but he barely has a part. It's really the story of a several communities, all outside of White society which must rely on each other, no matter how much they dislike that idea.

The tale starts with Moshe's music theater, recounting all the great acts he books in the early 1920. Moshe is a Jewish immigrant who ends up living on Chicken Hill, a neighborhood of mostly Black inhabitants. Most of the Jewish residents left, but Moshe's wife, Chona, insists they stay. She runs the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store for mostly Black clientele.

Moshe employs Nate to keep his theater running. Nate has a checkered past that he keeps from everyone, even his wife Addie. They take in a deaf/mute nephew, but turn the child over to Chona for safe keeping when the state authorities find out the child is with Nate & Addie.

The crooked doctor, the scheming characters Fatty, Big Soap, and Paper, the Jewish temple's water problem, Bullis the egg man, the Pennhurst Sanitorium, and a loan shark, all have a hand in making this complex tale come to life. I couldn't it put down.

This is a sweeping, beautiful, charming, terrifying, heart-breaking, classic-McBride novel. I was listening, and found that I had to stop because I was getting too upset as I anticipated a distressing turn. It's a fabulous listen, though, and I highly recommend that for anyone who enjoys an audio book. It would be great for a car trip. I didn't find this novel as funny and fun as his last (Deacon King Kong), which I loved. This one has more sadness, but his ability to capture culture, place, time, and the mixing of all of that plus racial/ethnic diversity, is a gift to the reader (or listener).

McBride has a way of creating a realistic feeling neighborhood full of flawed and complicated people. Some of them make mistakes, but are still trying. Others don't notice the mistakes they are making and don't consider them mistakes. It makes for a heart wrenching story because you feel like you know these people and what they are suffering.