Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

15 reviews

emmakrof's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store tells the story of from the perspectives of Jewish, Black, and White members of a small, early 20th century Pennsylvania town. There are many subplots (some of which I found totally uninteresting), but I found the “main” plot most intriguing — it had me racing to the end!

A Jewish couple must hide a deaf Black child to keep him from being institutionalized. But when the child stops the town’s doctor (and member of the KKK) from raping the unconscious woman who was sheltering him, the doctor turns him into the authorities. Rumors abound, but, of course, the white man’s story is believed. After a short but traumatic stay in the state mental institution, the community conspires to and succeeds in breaking the boy out. With money from Jewish friends, the black family buys a farm down South and goes on to live a fulfilling, prosperous life. And the doctor meets a karmic, albeit accidental, end.

One thing I really loved about this book was the way the author portrayed the dynamics between the Jewish, black, and white community members. He depicts the different concepts of self, life goals, allegiances, and tensions community members create (and the ideas they create about others) in order to coexist. Everyone has a complicated relationship with everyone else, both inter- and intra-racial. It felt very detailed and very human.

But I found a few of the characters kind of one-dimensional. In particular, I had complicated feelings about Chona. Chona is a Jewish woman who is beloved by all in the community. She rebukes racism, rebukes antisemitism, rebukes misogyny, rebukes gender roles, rebukes ableism. She is not afraid to speak her mind and do what she believes is right. She spends her life running a grocery store at a loss and giving food away for free to help alleviate structural poverty.

She does everything to protect Dodo from institutionalization, until the moment she dies. Perhaps her only flaw is not inquiring when her black childhood friend Bernice drops out of school and subsequently avoids public life.

Doubtlessly, Chona is a great person, and I enjoyed her role in the story!! But I am conflicted about how to feel about her. Her colorblind, abilityblind anyone-is-capable-of-everything approach to life feels naive; but at the same time, she is closer to the “truth” than many of the other characters in this book!

Though perhaps her death signifies that viewpoint alone cannot carry one to success?

Chona feels too perfect, too certain, but maybe that’s the point.

While I enjoyed the plot, I felt the ending was rushed. I would’ve liked to hear more about Dodo

and his escape

than some of the more mundane town drama the author spends so much time on. I liked the inclusion of the mundane drama as it added more dimension to the story, but I felt the balance could’ve been better.

My final gripe is that the author includes a seemingly random rant about how cellphones are ruining our lives?? The timing of this rant was bizarre

(right after the community learns about Chona’s death — are cellphones really that evil that they should overshadow the death of a beloved woman, that the characters’ reaction to them would be stronger than their grief in that moment??? TOTALLY anticlimactic, and it took me out of the scene completely.)

Additionally, it was about two thirds of the way through the book, and up until that point, the story was firmly set in the early 20th century; there was not a single mention about how the events of the story would be interpreted in the present day or vice versa. It was SO weird and out of place, and he never returns to this point? I was so confused that it brought my overall rating down.

Content Warnings

ska1224's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

the author writes a lot about women's breasts and butts for certain. distracted from the story

Content Warnings

smolone13's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Once again, another B&N book of the year that I didn’t think I was truly going to like, but I was honestly intrigued when two of my managers told me how great the book was, not only about the book but how fluid the author’s writing was from previous works that they’ve read. So with that note, I picked it up. In a short-term answer: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride is a historical murder mystery but also a literary fiction. It follows a Jewish couple, Moshe and Chona, who run the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store in a primarily black community.

The story starts in the present in 1972 in Pottstown, Pennsylvania where police come in after a hurricane and discover bones at the bottom of a well. With the discovery they begin asking many of the old locals if they know of anything and can identify the body. However, most of the locals discard the police. Afterward, the book takes place in the 1930s with Moshe and Chona being the primary focus, however, the author does jump between characters, their backstories, and why they act the way they do to begin with. I know many don’t like that kind of writing because if you aren’t paying close attention, or listening closely if you are following an audiobook, it can be quite confusing. But this book was an honest win for me.

Moshe is a theater owner in the community and even though he is supposed to be the main character of the book, the spotlight is kind of taken away from him. He is a nice man but he also has his concerns, especially when Chona wants him to cater to the black community more and more when his primary audience is Jewish people and the other white people of the community. However, he very much loves his wife and listens to all of her demands without question.

Chona was an absolute doll to me. I loved her from the start and I could see why many of the characters in the book also loved her. She had charm to her. Even though she had polio she was a very headstrong lady who didn’t let anyone push her around. Seriously. Not a single person, including her husband. This was also during a time when white men ruled everything with a hard thumb and she just did not care. Chona loved the black community and even though Moshe wanted to move with the other Jewish people, Chona told him no, and he basically just kept it there. Chona pressed Moshe to serve the community, to allow them to work for him and herself at the grocery store, and even went out of her way to write letters about the Doc of the community running the KKK and other negative reviews. Chona definitely wasn’t afraid to speak her opinion or to let others know if she was upset about something.

The two other characters that are somewhat important, but can also be considered minor characters are Addie and Nate. Addie and Nate work for both Moshe and Chona. Addie mostly works with Chona in the grocery store while Nate works closely with Moshe. They are consistently helping both of them as best they can, especially Chona. After Chona becomes heavily ill Addie doesn’t leave her side for a second while Moshe tries his best to focus on the theater, however, for the majority of his time he allows Nate to try to keep the theater in production while he comforts his wife and allows Addie to run the grocery store. It isn’t until after Chona is getting better that both Addie and Nate take in their Nephew Dodo who just lost his mother and his hearing from a serious accident.

After Dodo’s mother passed away the state is searching for him to send him to Pennhurst, basically an insane asylum, however, they refuse to let him go there. So they ask Moshe if they can hide Dodo. Moshe is reluctant because he doesn’t want to deal with the legality of it all, however, Chona says otherwise. WIth that, Moshe allows Nate to bring Dodo with him into the theater. At first, it worked out fine. Dodo is allowed to help with the theater and is able to hide in the basement. That is until Chona finds out. When she hears that Moshe is hiding the child in the theater’s basement she makes Moshe bring Dodo to the grocery store where he primarily stays. Both Chona and Dodo end up forming a pretty strong connection, considering she can’t have children she absolutely adores the children that come into the store and loves Dodo. Chona allows him to play, but he always wants to help Chona so she allows it. They exchange marbles for snacks and she is always allowing him to play with the neighbor’s children to hide from the state when they appear. However, on one unfateful day, the doctor walks into the store and changes everything. Doc and Chona end up in a heated argument which causes Chona to have a seizure. At first, Dodo wasn’t going to show himself because he knew that he would end up getting in trouble, especially with Doc, however, when Doc starts to undress and sexually assaults Chona. That is when Dodo reveals himself and throws Doc off of Chona and actually begins to beat on Doc. Addie manages to show up and stops the altercation and begins dressing Chona back up. When everyone starts showing up Chona is having another seizure again when the Doc shows up with the local cops who chase Dodo and arrest him. Afterwards, Dodo is sent to Pennhurst while Chona is sent to the hospital.

It is found out that Chona has had a brain tumor the entire time, and her first set of illness was because of the tumor. However, the seizures are mostly from having strokes. Everyone stays by Chona’s side and when she passes Moshe takes it very hard. However, he wants to help Addie and Nate get Dodo back. Just about the entire town ends up setting up a plan to get Dodo out of Pennhurst. For good reason as well. Nate and Addie end up finding out that there is a man there who favors molesting young boys that he favors. The people quickly set up a plan to go underground and get Dodo out of Pennhurst. While Dodo is Pennhurst he meets a sweet boy named Monkey Pants and builds a lasting connection with him. Although he struggles to understand what Monkey Pants is saying, he knows that he adores having his company and he quickly learns how to communicate with him, but in matters that might have been too late. Son of Man does discover who Dodo is and quickly has a fascination with him which terrifies Dodo. However, Monkey Pants is there and constantly takes Son of Man’s attention off of Dodo. When Dodo is getting molested by Son of Man it becomes the last time that Monkey Pants is alive. Monkey Pants ends up having a seizure that alerts everyone in the ward and passes away touching fingers with Dodo. Nate ends up breaking into Pennhurst himself and kills Son of Man. Afterwards saving Dodo from Pennhurst and heads towards South Carolina where they live the rest of their days.

As for back in the town, a few of the locals end up getting hired to do an illegal job of hooking up the water from a sketchy politician and dairy owner to the rest of the town. After hooking up the water they end up leaving it open to find materials to create another man-hole cover. Doc ends up at the wrong place at the wrong time and gets clocked by a gang member whose intention was to kill the sketchy politician. Doc ends up landing in the old well, in the water, and the locals that came back with the materials saw his body and knew exactly who it was and covered the well anyway. Not a single person was notified that Doc was missing, not even his wife and children.

This book was a huge thrill. Toward the end, I kept closing the book and reopening it. I was drawn into reading this book and was enraptured by it. I ended up crying by the end of it. After Dodo went through all that trauma and managed to have a sweet life in South Carolina and became a Love himself was warming. Dodo honestly deserved the best after everything he went through. I would absolutely recommend this book. The entire story, from beginning to end was a 4.5/5 for me. I heavily recommend it, however, I am not sure if I would ever push myself to re-read this book. It was crushing, heartwarming, thrilling and just overall a well-thought-out novel.

Content Warnings

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

i struggled in the beginning because this started off incredibly slow and you follow quite a few groups of people. but each group’s story was full of heart. i did love the writing, just think the beginning was too slow. i would want to read a whole book about the characters associated with the mental institution alone. please read content warnings!!!

Content Warnings

martinj's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark sad slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

Content Warnings

More...