A review by siobhanward
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

 I went into this book with no idea what to expect and I came out really loving it. While I found it kind of circled around a point at times, the ending was really solid and I appreciated how well the epilogue tied everything together. After reading the book, I had to look up more about McBride, because his writing of his Jewish characters made it clear that if he wasn't Jewish himself, he was very very close to someone Jewish. (And he is both - while his mother was born and raised Jewish, she converted to Christianity when she married his father), so that made a lot of things fall into place.

This book was really solid. The characters felt so in-depth, even if at times we were only getting glimpses of them. The story was hard to read at times (and sometimes hard to follow), but the characters were so good at the overarching plot was strong. I really look forward to reading more from McBride, since everything he's written seems fascinating. 
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