The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
Ratings143
Average rating3.9
Well, that was unexpectedly sweet. Tender and moving and heartwarming and, okay, a little preachy and heavyhanded, with the noble principled characters just a tad too much so and the despicable ones likewise, but sometimes we need role models to aspire to and mustachioed villains to hiss at. And aside from those very few extremes—only four characters—the rest of the cast is richly, complexly, interestingly human.
The story meanders gracefully through a lovely landscape of people around a smallish community. The relationships between everyone can be hard to follow at times, so this is a good book to focus on over a few days, not a book to put aside and read sporadically. I do encourage you to do so. McBride writes with gentleness and heart, on themes of injustice, strength, growth, and redemption, and I think this book will stay with me. Or at least the first ninety percent: the are two unnecessarily convoluted heist subplots near the end that didn't really work for me. Maybe you'll find that part fun, and if not, just skip a few paragraphs here and there but I hope you'll finish.
Well, that was unexpectedly sweet. Tender and moving and heartwarming and, okay, a little preachy and heavyhanded, with the noble principled characters just a tad too much so and the despicable ones likewise, but sometimes we need role models to aspire to and mustachioed villains to hiss at. And aside from those very few extremes—only four characters—the rest of the cast is richly, complexly, interestingly human.
The story meanders gracefully through a lovely landscape of people around a smallish community. The relationships between everyone can be hard to follow at times, so this is a good book to focus on over a few days, not a book to put aside and read sporadically. I do encourage you to do so. McBride writes with gentleness and heart, on themes of injustice, strength, growth, and redemption, and I think this book will stay with me. Or at least the first ninety percent: the are two unnecessarily convoluted heist subplots near the end that didn't really work for me. Maybe you'll find that part fun, and if not, just skip a few paragraphs here and there but I hope you'll finish.
In my opinion this is the best book that I have read this year. Definitely deserved the National Book Award. A wonderful story of what life was like for blacks and Jews in the mid 1930s in Pennsylvania. It is a story of acceptance and of family as well as both overt and covert racism as well as discrimination and the characters in the story rise above it all.
In my opinion this is the best book that I have read this year. Definitely deserved the National Book Award. A wonderful story of what life was like for blacks and Jews in the mid 1930s in Pennsylvania. It is a story of acceptance and of family as well as both overt and covert racism as well as discrimination and the characters in the story rise above it all.
The story starts with the discovery of a skeleton and a mezuzah in a well at a construction site in 1972. How did that skeleton get there? The story takes the long way around to tell us that. The setting is mostly in the 1920s and 1930s in Pottstown, Pennsylvania in the neighborhood of Chicken Hill. Chicken Hill's residents are mostly Black and Jewish immigrants. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is a central location the characters frequent.
The characters are varied and many. And their names are great (Dodo, Monkey Pants, Fatty, Big Soap, Paper, Snooks, Miggy). The characters in the story are so well developed that you really get to know them.
Throughout the story the characters face many social issues, such as racism, antisemitism, prejudice, disability. We also see the characters support, care for, and protect one another. The residents of Chicken Hill mostly stick together and look out for each other.
Amongst all the serious issues and injustice, there is plenty of humor and good.
I very much enjoyed this book; could hardly put it down.
The story starts with the discovery of a skeleton and a mezuzah in a well at a construction site in 1972. How did that skeleton get there? The story takes the long way around to tell us that. The setting is mostly in the 1920s and 1930s in Pottstown, Pennsylvania in the neighborhood of Chicken Hill. Chicken Hill's residents are mostly Black and Jewish immigrants. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is a central location the characters frequent.
The characters are varied and many. And their names are great (Dodo, Monkey Pants, Fatty, Big Soap, Paper, Snooks, Miggy). The characters in the story are so well developed that you really get to know them.
Throughout the story the characters face many social issues, such as racism, antisemitism, prejudice, disability. We also see the characters support, care for, and protect one another. The residents of Chicken Hill mostly stick together and look out for each other.
Amongst all the serious issues and injustice, there is plenty of humor and good.
I very much enjoyed this book; could hardly put it down.
The story starts with the discovery of a skeleton and a mezuzah in a well at a construction site in 1972. How did that skeleton get there? The story takes the long way around to tell us that. The setting is mostly in the 1920s and 1930s in Pottstown, Pennsylvania in the neighborhood of Chicken Hill. Chicken Hill's residents are mostly Black and Jewish immigrants. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is a central location the characters frequent.
The characters are varied and many. And their names are great (Dodo, Monkey Pants, Fatty, Big Soap, Paper, Snooks, Miggy). The characters in the story are so well developed that you really get to know them.
Throughout the story the characters face many social issues, such as racism, antisemitism, prejudice, disability. We also see the characters support, care for, and protect one another. The residents of Chicken Hill mostly stick together and look out for each other.
Amongst all the serious issues and injustice, there is plenty of humor and good.
I very much enjoyed this book; could hardly put it down.
The story starts with the discovery of a skeleton and a mezuzah in a well at a construction site in 1972. How did that skeleton get there? The story takes the long way around to tell us that. The setting is mostly in the 1920s and 1930s in Pottstown, Pennsylvania in the neighborhood of Chicken Hill. Chicken Hill's residents are mostly Black and Jewish immigrants. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is a central location the characters frequent.
The characters are varied and many. And their names are great (Dodo, Monkey Pants, Fatty, Big Soap, Paper, Snooks, Miggy). The characters in the story are so well developed that you really get to know them.
Throughout the story the characters face many social issues, such as racism, antisemitism, prejudice, disability. We also see the characters support, care for, and protect one another. The residents of Chicken Hill mostly stick together and look out for each other.
Amongst all the serious issues and injustice, there is plenty of humor and good.
I very much enjoyed this book; could hardly put it down.
