James McBride fit quite a bit into this book, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. It started out in the ‘70s with a mystery of a body found in the bottom of a well then the majority of the book takes place in the 1930s where he introduces the reader to MANY characters and tells their backstories. Sometimes these backstories seem to go nowhere but then they are connected for you later. My heart broke for Dodo and I loved how the book wraps up and answers the original mystery by the end. James McBride is a great writer and I felt drawn into the community he developed. This was definitely not a short read, but I would recommend if you like to take your time getting to really know the characters and wrapping around to the story resolution.

I brought this book about 2 weeks ago and I already finished it. Initially when I first bought it, I wanted something different than the few books that I have been picking. I saw this was a best seller and gave it a try. The book started off very slow, but the more you read it the more you understood that Mr. McBride is a genius story teller. I throughly enjoyed this book and may read it again to see what I missed. Loved it.

Fantastic read. Historical fiction at its best. Pulls at your heart the whole way through. Could not put it down. Wow.

This book has not kept my interest. All 50 of characters in this book have a back story that long and drawn out. After a while, I find myself thinking enough and skipping some things about a character straining my eyes to congunue through this book. This book induces sleep. If your melatonin doesn’t seem to work this book will do the job. I wanted to like this book since it was all over my Black Girl Read FB group but it’s a miss. I hope this helps.

I listened to the audio book of this book. I loved it. Jewish immigrants and African-Americans had lived on Chicken Hill for years. Many of the Jewish immigrants were moving off the Hill and into Pottstown but Chonda would not move. It was her home. Her husband asked her several times to move but she refused. Chonda ran the grocery store while her husband ran the theater. Addie worked in the grocery store and her husband worked for Moshe at the theater. They had their nephew Dodo who was deaf due to an explosion of a stove that killed his mother. The state was looking for Dodo to put him in a special home. Nate and Addie asked Chonda if she could hide Dodo. She agrees. Will they be successful in hiding Dodo from the state? I loved, loved, loved this book! There are so many great characters here. There are also several story lines that intertwine with these characters. Chonda cares about everyone. She loves them and they love her. She is generous and giving. When trouble happens to her, those around her want to protect her. They do it in their own ways. Dodo is a wonderful kid. Like Chondra, everyone watches out for him. My favorite characters were Fatty and Big Soup. They brought the comic relief that was needed from time to time. While the story is sad, it is full of hope. Chondra and Dodo provide much of the hope. Moshe's cousin from Philadelphia also provides hope. He is more practical than Moshe. I was glad it worked out as it did. The narrator was fantastic. His phrasing as he read, especially with Fatty and Big Soup, made me laugh out loud. I look forward to more of this narrator. James McBride is becoming a favorite author of mine.

Having just finished Deacon King Kong and Let Us Descend, I was dragging my feet when my book group selected this novel. I have to confess that it was slow going at the beginning however I really enjoy McBride’s prose. His writing sings. I could hear the voices of Pottstown, see the sewage streaming down Chicken Hill and feel the boards creak under my feet on entering the store. The author is all about community that provides love, support and fellowship that are displaced now by our 24/7 cell phones.

This book was a huge miss. It has successful marketing which is what, in my opinion helped it to be named one of the best books of 2023. I found it to be a huge chore to read. I stuck with it until the end hoping that it would get better. It was very difficult to follow, the author was constantly telling you about new people that really didn't add anything to the plot of the story. By the second last chapter, we were still being needlessly introduced to new people. I would like to be able to trust "best book" lists as reliable lists to discover good reads. But now I am going to be more discerning and selective .

“This is old thinking in a new time, and I must change”. “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store,” is my second book (Deacon King Kong) by James McBride. In this newest novel, he reminds us how a humanistic approach to – love, beauty, goodness, and truth matters in life. McBride illustrates the great love that burst throughout the narrative through loving Jewish couple Moshe and Chona, “[Moshe] He never hated anyone. He was always kind. He’d give away his last crumb. And here in America, he had married a woman [Chona] who was the same way. Kindness. Love. Principle.” Throughout the novel McBride’s sense of inner and outer beauty of women is evident, “Despite her foot and limp,” Chona “was a quiet beauty, with a gorgeous nose and sweet lips, ample breasts...and eyes that shone with gaiety and mirth.” But it is another woman whose beauty drives men mad that McBride best describes. She is called “Paper” because she was a reliable source of news about Pottstown, PA.” Chona who is based on McBride’s maternal grandmother, who died before he was born is one of many prime examples of goodness. McBride also describes the goodness of some of the novel’s other characters. About a Jew called Malachi, he writes “he seemed to bring light and air and goodness to everything he touched.” Regarding truths, there are plenty of them in “Heaven.” There is this one from Malachi: “Light is only possible through dialogue between cultures, not through rejection of one or the other.” Or the following about a man, Doc Roberts, who “had a limp similar to Chona’s, and yet he marched every year at the head of the local Ku Klux Klan parade.” McBride’s novels are among the few places you can find a vision of how such a [small-town] life might work, might even become something joyful. They are comic novels by necessity because the only way to do this is with a sense of humor. His characters do not take themselves too seriously. They are just looking for the little, simple pleasures because life is so tough, unforgiving, and difficult. But also, if you and your neighbors show up for one another, it can be a bit of heaven as well. In summary, I found the residents of Chicken Hill to be an eclectic group. And yet they are united as underdogs trying to survive in a world in which they have limited autonomy. In this novel, they transcend their limitations through the power of their compassion, respect, and love for one another. Yet another 5-star novel by James McBride!