Book Review: "The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store" by James McBride

“Moshe watched spellbound from the wings as Webb, a tiny man with a curved spine clad in a white suit, roared with laughter and enthusiasm as he played, egging his band on from the rear with his masterful drumming, the thunderous band shaking the floor with rip-roaring waves of gorgeous sound. That man, Moshe decided, was a joymaker. And Moshe could not help but notice that Webb, like his lovely Chona, had a physical disability. Though he was a hunchback of some kind, he moved with a certain feeling of joy, a lightness, as if every moment were precious.”

- The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

The first time I read a book by James McBride, I was actually reading Deacon King Kong around three years' ago and didn't bother to research who the author was (which is probably I didn't recognise his name this time around). The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is a testament to his newer pursuits into not only a more diverse society, but an analysis of how these people interacy and live side-by-side in such a turbulent time in history. McBride writes with a dark comedic precision with has undertones of terrifying realities whilst maintaining a seriousness about the topics of class and race.

We start off in 1972 where a skeleton has been found. It doesn't read like a crime novel, but sounds rather emotional instead. It isn't emotional towards the death but the prospect of the story we are about to be shown of the 1930s. It is almost set up to be upsetting towards something entirely separate from the skeleton. We are then thrown back into those very 1930s where Moshe and his wife, Chona, own 'The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store' and we meet a whole host of great people.

This grocery store is special because it bridges the divide between Black Americans and Jewish Americans to create a community that is loving in the face of adversity. We have Nate who works for Moshe as well - a Black man who doesn't want Moshe wasting his money. When Moshe's wife gets deathly sick, it will be Nate and a band of loveable characters who will come to Moshe's rescue. But when a healer turns up to make his wife better and suddenly disappears without a trace for three years, leaving his bakery in Moshe's hands, this will take him by surprise.

I have to admit that the further I got into the book the more difficult it became to keep track of all the characters because there were so many but so few that made an actual impact on the main story. There were all these interweaving subplots and side narratives that make up the adventure that is living and working on Chicken Hill. The meandering narrative plays testament to the lives these people live and what they need to do to survive.

One of the parts I liked most is when Chona, the wife of Moshe, is trying to hide a deaf orphan boy named Dodo from the state because they intend to lock the boy in an institution because of his disability. Unfortunately, Chona's pleading with her neighbour she's barely met and her love and car for the child are not enough. But there are so many more things going on and a villain is on the loose.

Another part I quite enjoyed was the ending. I felt the ending was particularly heartfelt because we get taken through these characters who made a larger difference on the main story to see what's happening with them after the fact. It is really a nice way to wrap it up. I'm not going to reveal what 'after the fact' actually means and you can work it out for yourself when you read the book.

The mystery of who is the skeleton in the well is pretty much solved by the reader within the first one hundred pages as they can probably guess the identity of the owner. However, it is the events that play out all around the death of this person that are even more important and how a community had to be maintained in the process. If a community is driven by love and care, there can be no room for hate and so, it was eliminated.

All in all, I thought this was another great book by James McBride. It had the comedy in the side stories and their ridiculousness, it had the emotional narratives relating to Dodo and Chona, it had the anxiety of Moshe and the movement of the Jewish community and it had the realism in the voice and metaphors surrounding the good-natured Nate. It was a truly wonderful book.