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_jenniferreads_ 's review for:
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
by James McBride
In 1972 in the small town of Pottstown, Pennsylvania a skeleton was found at the bottom of a well. The residents of the Chicken Hill neighborhood hold the long held secret to what happened 47 years prior. This is their story. It is a story of how “kindness, love and principle” rule the world. A story that despite out difference, we are always one tribe.
This is what I would call a 500 advanced level book, one appropriate for the master’s level readers. Unfortunately, I may only be at a graduating senior level.
James McBride weaves a very intricately woven story of the diverse neighbors that live on the margins of the white, Christian town of Pottstown, PA. The first half of the book is spent weaving the web, the underlying connection, indebtedness and history that connect these many residents. This builds the tension for the second half, but feels somewhat slow and disjointed at times. Given the large cast of characters and the relationships, at times I had trouble following the silky threads, needing to reread or go back and look up information. The book definitely picked up at the halfway point and while I feel like I understood the underlying themes, they sometimes got lost in the web, unless the author randomly hit you over the head with some preachy parts. How the author resolved the plot lines was both expected and unexpected leaving me a little perplexed.
Overall, a good book with some challenging themes and fantastic writing, but requires a lot of thought and concentration, detailed note taking and some synthesis that I may or may not have interpreted correctly. (I’m just glad there is not a test
This is what I would call a 500 advanced level book, one appropriate for the master’s level readers. Unfortunately, I may only be at a graduating senior level.
James McBride weaves a very intricately woven story of the diverse neighbors that live on the margins of the white, Christian town of Pottstown, PA. The first half of the book is spent weaving the web, the underlying connection, indebtedness and history that connect these many residents. This builds the tension for the second half, but feels somewhat slow and disjointed at times. Given the large cast of characters and the relationships, at times I had trouble following the silky threads, needing to reread or go back and look up information. The book definitely picked up at the halfway point and while I feel like I understood the underlying themes, they sometimes got lost in the web, unless the author randomly hit you over the head with some preachy parts. How the author resolved the plot lines was both expected and unexpected leaving me a little perplexed.
Overall, a good book with some challenging themes and fantastic writing, but requires a lot of thought and concentration, detailed note taking and some synthesis that I may or may not have interpreted correctly. (I’m just glad there is not a test