by James McBride, reviewed by Director of Library Operations Pamela Parker
Another blockbuster success from author James McBride, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store (2023) combines his passion for American musical traditions with his fascination with the hard times in our nation’s history. He tackles both race and creed in this work of historical fiction—the result is being touted as our next “Great American Novel.”
Written in a style reminiscent of Deacon King Kong (2020) and The Good Lord Bird (2013), the reader of his other works feels on familiar ground. As in those novels, McBride relies on unique – if not unusual – characters, from a variety of backgrounds and differing abilities. In fact, McBride credits his time working at a summer camp for differently abled children for inspiring this work.
He begins the novel as a construction crew uncovers a body holding a necklace in hand.
The story quickly flashes back to mid-1930s Pottstown, Pennsylvania, where we presumably will learn how this came to be. We meet Mosha, a recent immigrant to the United States who hopes to promote dance hall events to make a living. He marries Chona, the American-born daughter of an immigrant couple who own The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store in the rough-shod Chicken Hill neighborhood.
The family becomes part of the patch-worked community made up Romanians, Lithuanians and other Jewish immigrants who have fled the pogroms. Chicken Hill is a gathering place for many migrant communities. Italians who compete for the club business. Black families like Nate and Addie who’ve come in search of better circumstances but become low-paid wage earners. Yet through community, they can make ends meet and even enjoy the music, faith and gossip that thrives there. McBride seems to argue that the opportunity for self-determination is what sets this America apart from the lives they’ve left behind.
McBride crafts a story — with many twists and turns – that builds upon his theme that human connections is our saving grace.
The Great American Dance Hall and Theatre becomes hugely successful after adding popular Black performers who bring capacity crowds. While McBride finds humor in his gritty characters, he also exposes the corruption and hypocrisy upon which the civic decisions are being made. When our protagonist, Chona, becomes ill, her failing health is something of a mystery. Yet she refuses to see Doc Roberts, who she knows to be a racist, nor to move ‘Downtown’ despite Mosha’s urgings that Jews are leaving Chicken Hill. To her, happiness is running the store and remaining connected with the people she considers their community.
When Dodo, a 12-year-old Black boy who is deaf but able bodied, is orphaned, Chona and Mosha take him into their home above the Heaven & Earth grocery store. This saves him from a fate at Pennhurst, a state school and hospital with a horrible reputation. Not surprisingly, Doc Roberts conspires with authorities to move the boy to the institution, and the situation for Dodo looks grim. He lays for months suffering alongside another institutionalized boy, ‘Monkey Pants.’ The two form a powerful friendship by communicating with hand-gestures, and this memorable bond underscores the novel’s message of enduring hope through human connection.
Can we work together, sharing our unique abilities, to overcome life’s hardships? McBride seems to be saying, ‘Yes, we can.”
As with most of his work, McBride ends the story with a sense of justice done – and, ultimately, an optimism about America. He seems to be confirming a belief that good deeds do make a difference even if we do not know where or for whom they will manifest. This perfectly minted novel thus echos the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, who once said, “The arc of moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Even our antagonist, Doc Roberts, seems to have some hidden insight into why Chicken Hill is now well, and his fate is connected to a fix.
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store won me over in the end with the tender characterizations and imperative to embrace inclusivity as the best way forward. I recommended it as a salve for tough times and to readers who appreciate the quirky characters with big hearts—and fatal flaws. We will meet to discuss the novel at the Library on Wednesday, February 7 at 5:30 p.m. Sign up to join us here: The Community Library Book Club.
Find The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store in print, large print, ebook, eaudiobook, and on CD here.
