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

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

3.0

 This undoubtedly a good book, it's interesting and well written, but it is one of those books where the structure makes or breaks it for me and I struggle a lot with stories where are there are A LOT of characters. This story weaves through the storylines of many characters that all live in a neighborhood where Black and Jewish people live in 1936. We drop in on one character and then leave their story for another, but that character resurfaces in another person's story since they are all interconnected in this neighborhood. This structure allows for the author to really play with the storylines and characters and there is a lot of interesting commentary on Black, Jewish, poor, and immigrant lives during the time. But for me as a reader the structure made it hard to really get to know some of the characters and it meant I would get a little impatient waiting for a characters storyline to connect back to the main storyline, it also meant I sometimes forgot who someone was because they hadn't appeared for a while, so there were some "wait, who is that?" moments. I think this structure absolutely works for some people and just doesn't for others and I know I'm a person who usually struggles with stories like this. I did overall enjoy it, it's well worth picking up, and I'd definitely pick up another of the author's books.

CW: racism, antisemitism, SA, child SA, child abuse, forced institutionalization, ableism 
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