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

This was quite an astounding, complex, layered, clockwork mechanism of a book. Like in Deacon King Kong, McBride creates a huge and intricate community. In 1930s Pottstown, PA, the black residents are segregated onto Chicken Hill and neglected by city leaders and infrastructure; white protestants cling to power, privilege, and the false Mayflower-tinged history they believe justifies it; and the Jewish community, made up of both long-established families and recent immigrants, is caught in the middle of the town's hierarchy. Of course, when there's racial hierarchy, the middle is not so different from the bottom, and there are untold ways to experience cruelty and discrimination.

There are lots of mysteries in the plot, and I don't think I understood all of them, but the story didn't suffer for it. It's hard, and there's a lot of ugliness, individual and societal, exposed. But there's kindness, triumph, and joy, too. Truly everything between heaven and earth is present in these human beings, and in us, too. The world we inhabit can be both deeply broken and full of wonder at once.

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books_brews_and_booze's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

James McBride does it again. He's crafted a compelling, well-written, powerful story with special attention paid to the setting, to the characters, to humanity.

One of the greatest storytellers of this time, in my humble opinion. I'd love to see school curriculums include his books in their lists, if they aren't already doing so.

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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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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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booknerd_therapist's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Oh my goodness. If you've ever read a book that ripped your heart out and made you examine it.... this is that kind of book.

Admittedly, it was off to a slow start. I had a tough time getting into it, because the author meticulously goes into every character's back story. But without that, there is no story. So it's necessary, and if you want to experience the full beauty of this book, you need to truly understand the characters.

This book isn't just about being black. It's not just about being Jewish. It's not just about racism and antisemitism and surviving those things. It's not just about the horrific abuse disabled children experienced a century ago. Those things are omnipresent.... but they are a backdrop. They are a backdrop for the real story: Friendship, love, resilience, family, hope.

If you are hoping for a plot-driven story, this is not it. This is unapologetically character driven.

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purplepenning's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

In 1972, a construction crew finds a skeleton in the bottom of a well in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. But really, that's the end of the story. The real story takes place in the minority community of Chicken Hill in the 1930s, when Black and Jewish neighbors, estranged friends, quiet community protectors, well-intentioned hustlers, crooked public officials, morally diseased doctors, bankrolling mobsters, predatory monsters, and one deaf child intersect to reveal how an extraordinary community of communities came together to support and protect each other.

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akira_vcat's review against another edition

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1.0

I can see why people like this but my low rating is because this is simply not for me. Historically fiction can be hit or miss with me (like lessons in chemistry was a hit and this one a miss). I think I kept comparing it to lessons in chemistry because they are both historical fictions and they both have become boty.

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throwback682's review against another edition

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I had to stop reading this book when I got to the part where Dodo meets the Son of Man. :

It’s implied that he’s a pedophile.

I tried to find out online whether it goes any further than that /

if there’s a child rape scene / how graphic it is.

but I wasn’t able to find the information so I just had to stop.

My impressions of the first 70% of the audiobook were

- that the narrator is really talented and voices many different characters distinctly and well.

- there are a ton of characters and it’s hard to keep everyone straight. There was constantly a new person entering and their backstory being told. The book was really trying to do a lot. It felt like how I tell stories when I don’t have my ADHD meds.

- but many of the characters were very compelling and I do want to know how it ends

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