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

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.

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omarickman's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-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? Yes

3.5

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jthomson7's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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srjennings's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny hopeful sad fast-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? Yes

5.0

A really great book. Kept me up late because I couldn't put it down!

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meganpbell's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

3.75

While there’s much to love about this book—its strong sense of place, its vast, lovable, diverse, and very human cast of characters, and its central message about community amid difference—religion, race, ability, class—I found it too structurally scattered to enjoy uninterruptedly and the author’s descriptions of women’s bodies (the number of times boobs and angelic singing occur smh) distracting to put it lightly.

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emandherbooks42's review against another edition

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challenging emotional slow-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? N/A

3.5

The audiobook is performed beautifully. However, I struggled with the pace in several places where things got overly expositional. There are some lovely characters, and I wish some of the women had been given more satisfying endings. The author definitely had a tell > show style-so much so that it feels like listening to a sermon. There was also a seemingly random (and unnecessary) act of sexual violence against a child. I don’t see how it added anything to the plot, and therefore I found it gratuitous.

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kimveach's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This was an excellent book. I just didn't enjoy it. It felt slow and meandering at first. It eventually picked up the pace, and the various storylines came together for a thrilling ending. However, I spent most of the book wishing I had finished it. Once again, I must remember that just because a book is on a best-seller list doesn't mean I'll like it. I can appreciate this novel and even enjoyed parts of it, but I would have preferred this story as a mini-series to watch instead of reading.

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