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A review by brennanaphone
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
3.0
I'd been seeing a LOT of rave reviews of this book, so maybe my expectations were just a little too high. I liked it, though! I really enjoyed the slow meandering story of Black folks and immigrant Jews navigating community and opportunity and white laws in the 1930s. The stories of Moshe/Chona and Nate/Addie especially I found very moving.
I would say that the structure of the book sometimes felt like a strange fit. The opening teaser chapter makes it feel like it's going to be a bit of a murder mystery. Then it's mostly the story of community, then nearly a heist/thriller, and in the end it doesn't feel like it needed that frame. It's a good story of how people weave together despite their differences. The frame of the murder and the flood felt tacked on to spark interest in a way I didn't think was necessary.
I would say that the structure of the book sometimes felt like a strange fit. The opening teaser chapter makes it feel like it's going to be a bit of a murder mystery. Then it's mostly the story of community, then nearly a heist/thriller, and in the end it doesn't feel like it needed that frame. It's a good story of how people weave together despite their differences. The frame of the murder and the flood felt tacked on to spark interest in a way I didn't think was necessary.