The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

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.