Book Review: My thoughts on The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

“Kindness. Love. Principles. It runs the world.”

This was, among many others, one of my favorite quotes from James McBride’s The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store and it perfectly encapsulates the essence of this brilliant book.

While I am not sure from where I got the recommendation for this novel, I absolutely have no regrets devouring this 400-pages novel in a few days.

Themes of Race, Community, and Belonging

McBride’s The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, set in the 1920s-30s, interestingly weaves a multilayered narrative that explores race, community, and belonging against the backdrop of 20th-century America.

The book captures the tale of two communities – the Jews and the African American – and how they are interconnected in this little multiracial, tight-knit neighborhood called Chicken Hill in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.

A common denominator between these two communities, as McBride mentions, is that they are:

“..fellow immigrants who…were forced by poverty and lack of resources to learn many skills and continually adjust.”

The novel opens with the discovery of a skeleton buried in an old well, and the narrative travels back to uncover the intertwined lives of Chicken Hill’s residents. At the heart of the story is the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store (after which the book has been named). The store is owned by Chona Ludlow, a Jewish immigrant, who becomes a beacon of hope for the Chicken Hill residents. While modest and actually unprofitable, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is more than a business – it is a sanctuary for those who have been pushed to society’s periphery.

The Meaning of Tikkun Olam

I must admit that Chona’s character was my absolute favorite in this book. Chona is a person of immense strength and integrity, who doesn’t let her polio-affected foot, seen as a disability by others, stand in the way of the values she upholds. In the book, McBride describes Chona as:

“She did not experience the world as most people did. To her, the world was not a china closet where you admire this and don’t touch that. Rather, she saw it as a place where every act of living was a chance for tikkun olam, to improve the world.”

It is through Chona’s character, that McBride highlights the power of small, defiant acts of kindness in resisting societal exclusion.

On Marginality and Alienation

Another theme that I picked up on while reading the book was the exploration of marginality. The forces of racism and ableism shape the characters’ lives. Dodo, a young African American boy whose hearing is impaired in a stove-explosion accident, represents the intersection of race and disability, two identities that deems inferior. The state, aiming to institutionalise Dodo, becomes a metaphor for the broader societal attempt to erase those who don’t conform to its rigid standards of normalcy. The fight to protect Dodo, led by Chona and her neighbors, mirrors the larger struggle of Chicken Hill’s inhabitants to preserve their dignity and humanity in the face of oppression.

The novel’s exploration of race is amplified through the interactions between the Jewish and African American communities of Chicken Hill. Both groups share a common experience of alienation in the face of white, Protestant America. Yet, McBride does not shy away from the tensions that exist between these communities, pointing to how the promise of assimilation – an integral part of the American Dream – can lead to internal conflicts and the erasure of cultural identity. Especially, through the character of Malachi, the Hasidic dancer, it is illustrated how immigrants in the story grapple with their desire to be accepted by the larger American society while still preserving their heritage. This creates a nuanced portrait of the immigrant experience throughout the book.

Final Thoughts

Despite the heavy themes, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is also a story of resilience, community, and the power of love and friendship. McBride’s characters, though oppressed, do not succumb to victimhood. Instead, they showcase a fierce determination to protect one another, challenging the boundaries imposed upon them by society. The friendships and alliances formed across racial and cultural lines serve as a testament to the possibility of unity in a fractured world.

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is a powerful meditation on the fragility of the Great American Dream for those excluded by their identity, race, disability and religious affiliations.  It is a commendable feat for anyone to explore themes of importance and blend them with a narrative that is both humorous and hopeful, but McBride has done just that with this beautiful, beautiful book. I absolutely loved reading this and I hope you do too.

Have you read The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store? What are your thoughts on McBride’s portrayal of community and resilience? Let me know in the comments!

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