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

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is an intriguing examination of the small town of Chicken Hill in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. The narrative opens with Malachi, an old Jewish man, being questioned about a skeleton found in a well with items linked to him. From here, Malachi details how he came to know the local theatre owner Moshe and his wife Chona, owner of the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, the epicenter of a rich and diverse community. The couple help their friend, Nate, hide his nephew, Dodo, a deaf boy who lost his mother and whom the government is seeking to place into Pennhurst mental asylum. The arrangement goes well until Dodo intervenes to protect Chona from an attack and ends up caught by the police. The aftermath of this climactic moment spans beyond the modest store, implicating all in the community who knew each of those present. Narratives are twisted by prejudice and cruel lies while the truth rests with those whose perspectives are dismissed by authorities for arbitrary assumptions. The story rounds off beautifully as these characters’ individual stories resolve and all that remains is the skeleton, which is only discovered years later and which holds the memory of that unique slice of time.

This is an extremely vague overview because I don’t want to spoil any major developments! I highly recommend you read this if you enjoy:

Heavy emphasis on characters and their relationships with one another. They are developed so meticulously and you understand more about how the town operates with these intertwined narratives.
Race relations and how they impact the outcome of a story. The tensions between white people and the Black and Jewish community play a significant role in how each character is perceived by one another. The injustice of what happens with Dodo reveals how power, control, and discrimination shape the outcome of a situation. We see one man with power upend the lives of the disadvantaged around him, all for his own sick motives.
Witty and engaging dialogue. The conversations between these characters paint a picture of who they are.
Bleak situations balanced by lively characters, everyday depictions and humorous quips.

I really enjoyed this book and while there are a lot of people and stories to keep track of, I took my time with it, immersing myself in the story and getting to know each of the characters. And wow, it was so worth it. Please do yourself a favor and pick this up. A week or two has passed since I’ve finished the book and I’m still thinking about it!

Content Warnings

aggie2010's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

This has made like, every single list of "best books" recently. But most importantly, for me, it was on the Aspen Words longlist for 2024. And while I am not necessarily trying to full-read the whole list this year, I am still using it as a guide for books that I'm thinking about trying. And so, onto the extremely long waitlist I went.

Here's what Goodreads has to say, blurb-wise: "In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighbourhood where, decades prior, immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows."

This is my first novel by McBride. And let me just start by saying, before I get into anything else, what a master of bringing people and places to life he is! The setting - time period, location, population - is brought to *life* in these pages. And these characters are all so individual, so *real* in that uniqueness. That was an unexpected highlight in a couple ways. First, because it was just so good. And the audiobook narrator did an equally phenomenal job bringing it all even further to life with his narration. And second, because, if I am being honest, the blurb makes this seem very much like a tense, covering up secrets, murder mystery style novel. And yes, there is a murder and there are secrets and there is definitely tension. But all of it is very much not presented in a typical mystery-thriller way. It's like the murder and the corpse in the well are merely a convenient excuse to introduce us, the readers, to Chicken Hill and the characters that live there. It was almost incidental to the entire novel. I mean, you do find out who the corpse is, and how it got there, and all the details around it are cleared up. And yet, those details were like a sidebar to the main event - again, the place and people - and I found I honestly wouldn't have cared if it wasn't cleared up. This is both a positive and a negative, in my opinion. I mean I was so invested in the characters that learning about their inner thoughts and daily lives and interactions was enough: great writing. But then the plot itself never took off enough to hold up or hold my interest: less ideal.

To continue to focus on the positives... The meandering sense of storytelling is, stylistically, like if someone you knew was talking to you and telling a tale. It's so easy to listen to, and you get caught up in side stories and extra bonus character descriptions and all the other added color along the way. This also allowed for some gorgeous highlighting of so many hidden/less-explored communities of history explored: the breadth of Jewish immigrant culture, northern Black America, state run mental “hospitals,” historical treatment of/for people with a variety of disabilities, and more. The intra-cultural nuances are particularly great. Groups that normally get flattened out by media and “outsiders” - Black people, Jewish people, people with disabilities, intersections/overlap therein - are given full range and depth to be individual within their greater descriptors/communities. And the feelings and alliances of these smaller intra-groups for/amongst each other is fascinating. Just, the vibrancy McBride presents is stunning.

Thematically, other than all the cultural aspects already touched on, and, of course, the murder (side) storyline, the major representations are of the racism inherent to this country. And really it's upsetting to see how little rhetoric has changed in the years between the early/mid 1900s and now. Seriously. The rhetoric of America “going downhill,” with its best days behind it, was as alive then as it is now. Just, call a spade a spade...you're racist. Pure and simple. And in many instances in this novel, as well present day, misogynist and ableist. Then there's the hypocrisy of those bragging about being Mayflower descendants (so, bragging about being an immigrant) complaining about new arrivals (also immigrants) taking their land/jobs/money and being uncultured. Like, it boggles. And then, it doesn't, because it's so damn familiar. The greater resignation to that being the landscape of the nation is rendered so well. As is the life-giving support of the connection and community amongst those who are on the outside of the white power structure. It's a lot of process in the way that the nuances and complexities of everyday life always are. To finish, let me just tip my hat to the hope that lives in the ending. I do love poetic justice. It's so damn satisfying, even if, of course, it doesn't happen as often IRL as one might want. Here's to fiction, for granting us that satisfaction.

So, yea, there is a murder here. But this is mostly just a story of people and the importance of community as family, in the way it sustains us all, our lives and our spirits. It wasn't what I expected, so that may affect some of my (or other reader's) reactions. But even still, the life in these pages was palpable and I can do nothing but respect that.

Content Warnings

shottel's review against another edition

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emotional funny mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

This book deserves the positive acclaim it’s received. It could fit in with the Great Novels that I was forced to read in high school, and I say that completely as a positive thing. Its depiction of overlapping cultural communities as conflicting and misunderstanding but ultimately looking out for and genuinely caring for each other is as hopeful as it is realistic. In the end, the villains aren’t the people with deep biases. If that were the case, there would be no one to root for in this book. Instead, the villains are the people who refuse to care about people who aren’t like them, and our protagonists are people who don’t let their misconceptions about other groups of people get in the way of doing the right thing. It’s a wonderfully positive message.

The writing style is immaculate as well, with perfect balance and flow and a dry sense of sarcasm. The presentation choices (font, spacing, etc.) present this book like great work of literature, like a fancy looking Bible, and it manages to earn these dressings. The plot is well-paced, with just the right amount of twists and turns. I couldn’t suggest a single phrasing or word choice or paragraph restructuring that I feel would be better.

The sole reason this is not a 5/5 review is that for all its excellence in depicting numerous different ethnic groups and people of different ages and abilities, the identity of the author as a straight man comes through. It’s the sole mark against the book’s virtual universality, an impressive feat given it’s situated very firmly in interwar-period Pennsylvania. Nevertheless, the repeated references to women’s breasts and buttocks and the greater priority men have in the story, among other things, was hard for me to miss.

Nevertheless, this book is still very close to a must-read. If you can manage the lengthy list of heavy topics the book covers (it pulls absolutely no punches with regards to the difficulties of life) and you think you even might possibly be interested in the setting and style, it’s worth your time.

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