A terrific novel about race and sex inequities in the 30's Pottstown Pa. ( )

Strong Characters, lots of characters who find connections to Chona a lame Jewish woman who operates a grocery store where few of the black residents in this impoverished hillside community live in the 1930’s plus. There is a mystery of who’s body is found at the bottom the well but more important are the relationships. ( )

If this turns out to have been the only novel published this year that I read before the year was out, this certainly was a good choice. I enjoyed the intricate plot in which two sets of the marginalized — Blacks and Jews — coexist on the edge of Pottstown, a small town in Pennsylvania. The story is set in the 1930s, but with a frame set in 1972, when flooding caused by Hurricane Agnes washed away much of the town.
When I say “two sets,” that brings me to something else I admired: the array of finely drawn, memorable characters. Unforgettable individuals such as Nate, Dodo, Chona, and others. I liked how McBride shifted the focus from one character to another, particularly in the first half. Then, as the plot unfolded in the second half, I raced ahead to see it resolve.
I also like McBride’s ear for dialogue, undoubtedly honed by growing up with a Jewish mother in a Black community. There is nuance in the way Blacks talk to other Blacks, Jews to other Jews, then to each other, contrasted to the way they speak with those who lived down in the valley and didn’t particularly want either group to belong.
From start to finish, I was reminded of the magic realism of Garcia Marquez and other Latin American authors. In the world McBride proposes, many sad, unjust things occur. Still, through the acts of those who choose to act humanely, whether consistently or sporadically, there is a righting of wrongs, albeit inadvertently in some cases. Illustrations of tikkun olam, repairing the world.
One quibble: toward the end of the book, the author goes beyond the fate of one character to generalize about the U. S. in the years since. I don’t disagree with the picture McBride paints, but I feel he had already made the point narratively. This short burst of editorializing felt heavy-handed. But overall, highly recommended. ( )

audiobook from the library - hold expired before I could finish. It was okay but kind of long, didn't bother me a ton that I didn't finish it. ( )

I read a lot of books, probably 60 to 70 a year, and “The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store” is hands down the best book I’ve read in 2023. Being a retired high school English teacher, I choose the fiction I read pretty carefully, caring perhaps more for the writing quality than the story. McBride is one of the most talented writers alive today, and could hold his own with just about any writer from the past as well. In fact, I would say that I haven’t read a book this well written since Frank McCourt’s “Angela’s Ashes.” I had to read “Heaven and Earth” relatively fast (at least for me) because my wife and I checked the digital Kindle edition out of our local library. She read it in a day or two, and it sat for a couple of weeks in our “library” on our shared Kindles, almost forgotten. When I realized we had it, I immediately jumped at the chance to read it. Normally I don’t bother trying to get books this popular because inevitably, I get the “Several Months” message when I go to put a hold on it. In other words “Forget It.” I’m actually glad I had to read it fast because I think I enjoyed the story more because of that. James McBride is truly a gifted writer and we are better off for having his writing. ( )