A review by plip08
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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

3.0

The good things about this book you really have to earn. The beginning 50% of this book is almost impossible to follow, you’ll get an entire chapter of history about a character in the middle of an important conversation. The goodness of the characters shines at the end of the book once everything seemingly comes together for a good ending. I do think that the way it was written, while very hard to follow, did a good job or portraying how black people had to go about life making decisions so carefully because white people would do them wrong constantly and it was never a fair game. I did love the characters and how many of them stood for goodness even when it was very hard. Overall I would have DNF if this wasn’t a book club book but I am glad to know the story ended like I hoped it would. 
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