The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store / James McBride (2023)
What it is: an incredible saga slash murder mystery
Did I like it: so, so much!
This book caused a lot of discussion before I had read a single page, as I had purchased it thinking it would fill the five-word title position of the reading challenge. But counts a symbol as a word? I asked this question to just about everybody I bumped into, friends searched the interweb to find out what “the world” thought, discussions were had and opinions were divided. Then I decided to let the Word word-counter have the final say and that’s why the book was put in the award-winning category instead.
This book won the National Book Award and there are so many blurbs, proclaiming this to be a masterpiece. And I’m happily agreeing with all of them: this book is wonderful, incredible, and highly recommended.
The story starts with human remains that are found in a dried up well in the ‘70s in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. To find out the who, how, and why behind this, the story dives into the history of the Chicken Hill neighbourhood which decades before is the poor part of town where immigrant Jews and African Americans live. This is how we get to the title, because The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is located there, and it is run by Chona. Chona is married to Moshe, who owns and runs a theatre.
There are a lot of characters that are introduced at different points in the story. And the story jumps through time so you really have to pay attention but that’s not difficult with a captivating story such as this.
The set-up is done wonderfully, and the main story is that of the community coming together to protect Dodo. Dodo is a young boy who became deaf in an exploding stove accident. His deafness puts him on the side-lines of society and because he lost his mother in the accident as well, the people of Chicken Hill embrace Dodo and take care of him. Nobody takes to him as much as Chona, who walks with a limp and knows what it means to be ignored by people. Her husband Moshe is less eager to help out, afraid of retaliations, but he can’t refuse Chona anything and along with his trusted janitor Nate, embraces Dodo as well.
An incident that involves both Chona and Dodo has the “people in charge” decide that Dodo isn’t well and dangerous and should be committed to the local asylum. When the people of Chicken Hill learn about this, they band together and try to keep Dodo safe. The story gets rough and real and it makes you hate characters and cheer on others.
As said, the story contains a lot of characters but the way they and their lives are described down into the finer details, is beautiful. The story is both heart-warming and heart-breaking, it punches you in the gut and it lifts you up. And it makes you say these kinds of things.
There is such a particular flow to this book, it just grabbed me and wouldn’t let go until long after I had finished it. Gosh, I love it when books do that.
Friend P: I’m reading a book, and it’s ah-may-zing and you should read it too, you’ll love it.
Me: We can swap, because the book I’m reading is so beautiful and I know you’ll love it.
Friend P: shows copy of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.
Me: pulls copy of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store out of my bag.
Bookworm in the City 