The sound and fury, dazzle and snap, humor and exuberance, warmth and rage of James McBride’s writing is a wonder to behold. And his newest book, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, should be included on any literary gratitude list for this year. It follows the Jim Crow-era inhabitants of Chicken Hill, in Pottstown, Pennsylvania: the immigrant Jews, mostly from Eastern Europe, the African American community that has been there for years, and the neighborhoods around it with individuals who range from active racists to white Christians of many stripes, though almost all are uncomfortable with neighborhoods that seed and grow and change.
At the core of this neighborhood is disabled Chona Ludlow who runs the Heaven & Earth grocery store, which could also be called the Heart and Empathy store, for Chona’s generosity extends to all, and her husband, Moshe Ludlow, who opened the first integrated theater in the area. Also central to the social fabric of Chicken Hill are the black inhabitants, especially the quietly powerful Nate Timblin, who works for Moshe, and his wife Addie, who does the same for Chona at the store. But this is just the outer layer of a character-rich chronicle that encompasses a very specific society’s social and racial inequities and changes, along with numerous story lines including a mystery body at the bottom of a well, a community coverup of a missing child, a trail of graft writ large and small, and the small feuds and injustices neighbors enact on each other, even as they have each other’s backs. McBride shares a full hand of fully realized characters and plot lines that braid in and out and through each other with perfect syncopation, and dialogue that is abundant yet concise, mordantly funny, heart-breaking, and revelatory. It all comes together with a virtuoso edge-of-your-seat conclusion that has the feel of the people and place pulsing vitality of a Diego Rivera mural. Highly recommended for those who breath air.

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Stere by James McBride is simply one of the best books I've ever read. The story itself is exceptionally well crafted, but the characters are what drive this tale. McBride has an amazing talent for creating unforgettable characters with simply delightful names like Fatty, Big Soap, Paper, DoDo, Chona, Moshe, and Monkey Pants, as well as writing dialogue that jumps right off the page at you. I was so invested in these characters that I didn't want the book to end. McBride deftly navigates and illustrates the systemic racism of the United States in the 1930s, painting a tragic picture of how little has changed in so many ways. The multi-faceted relationships among the black, white, and Jewish characters were absolutely fascinating, and the various connections and simmering tensions among each individual racial group was just as complex and realistic. One thing I loved about this storyline and setting was that while the world events leading up to World War II linger in the backdrop, they do not dominate the story; the relationships of these amazing, ordinary characters are always front and center while the various plotlines are played out and finally come together to solve the mystery which begins the tale. This book is an absolute gem and a reminder of the storytelling genius that is James McBride.

Like Deacon King Kong, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is an immersive story of character and community. It provides an insightful look at the Jim Crow era, considering effects on both the Black and Jewish communities. It is compassionate storytelling, and beautifully written. However, I will admit that the depth of the depictions (often involving tangents, deep backstory character dives, long conversations) was occasionally a bit of a slog for me. However, I think this is more of a "me" thing than anything else, as I felt the same way about Deacon King Kong.

James McBride is such an excellent storyteller and his stories feel true and human. There is such wisdom in his unvarnished observations about Americans and American life, particularly in this case, the immigrant experience. He is also laugh-out-loud funny. His books should be taught in high school.

Chicken Hill is on the wrong side of the tracks in Pottstown PA. When a skeleton is found at the bottom of a well, there is a lot of consternation from all the citizens. Chicken Hill is where Moshe and Chona Ludlow had their variety hall and grocery store. Moshe booked all the big Jewish and African-American acts. Klezmer music and hot jazz. Everyone knew Chona who ran the grocery store and gave everyone credit if it was needed. Moshe and Chona employed many of the Black folks on Chicken Hill. This book is a glimpse into the Jim Crow era and its impact, not just on Blacks, but on Jewish immigrants as well. Woven into the seams of life in Pennsylvania, the reader sees the depth of compassion and thoughtlessness that made the life of every marginalized person a living hell. Recommended for its deeply personal person and meditations on relationships.

In the 1930s, the residents of Chicken Hill, an impoverished, mixed-race neighborhood in the small Pennsylvania city of Pottstown, are doing their level best to get by. The common denominator connecting the largely Black and Jewish population of the district is that they are all dirt-poor and subject to unending insults and indignities from the entitled (and largely racist) White population who run the town. But that shared experience is more than enough to turn the denizens of Chicken Hill into a tightknit, if somewhat fractious, community who watch out for one another and act as an extended family. Chona and Moshe Ludlow, who run the local grocery store of the book’s title more as a charity than as a business, serve as the group’s heart and soul, with plenty of help from their neighbors Nate and Adele Timblin.

While that description summarizes the essential nature of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, it does not come close to conveying the myriad joys and surprises that this novel has in store for the reader. As he has done in much of his previous work—most notably, Deacon King Kong and The Good Lord Bird--author James McBride once again explores the theme of a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-generational neighborhood coalescing for both a greater purpose as well as for its daily survival. McBride is a gifted story-teller and the mystery underlying this particular tale—which involves the discovery many years later of a long-hidden skeleton and the attempt to rescue Dodo, a disabled child who has been wrongly placed in a detention facility masquerading as a school—is developed with equal amounts of humor and insight into just what it is that drives human behavior.

This was a very satisfying book to read, which is hardly surprising coming from one the very best novelists that we have working today. The compassion that the author has for all his characters—the protagonists, anyway—is affective and compelling, making it very easy for the reader to care about them as well. Still, this was far from a perfect novel; it was probably about 50-75 pages longer than it needed to be to set up the dramatic tension in the story and the resolution, much of which occurs in a rather terse epilogue, was disappointingly abrupt by contrast. Nevertheless, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is another big-hearted, entertaining effort from a consistently talented writer and a pleasure to recommend without reservation.

AHHHH! I am living for this gorgeous piece of fiction that has transported me back in time to a wonderfully diversified neighborhood in NYC in the 70s, where people from all cultures and backgrounds cohabitate in the same block and encounter a world of situations unlike any other.

I am so thankful to PRH Audio, James McBride, Riverhead Books, and Netgalley for granting me advanced audio and digital access before this baby is set to publish on August 8, 2023.

From the author of The Good Lord Bird, another great read with unexpected prose. 4 1/2 🌟s! Set in Pottsville, PA in an area called “Chicken Hill” where Blacks and Jewish immigrants live side by side. With intertwining stories of envy, love, hate, obsession and ultimately death, some of which is righteous and some not. Well written as is expected from McBride with excellent character development.

Historically rich and packed with memorable characters. This is the kind of novel that feels larger in scope than its size lets on. By the end, the setting and its people have become so familiar, it feels like you've read an entire series of books about them.

Mostly set in the 1930s, it opens with the discovery of a skeleton down a well in the 1970s, right before a hurricane comes in and destroys everything, including the evidence. It follows the intertwined lives of the Black and Jewish residents of Chicken Hill, in Pottstown, PA as they open businesses, marry and have children, and work and live alongside one another.
This book has an extensive cast of characters, but McBride makes each of them stand out for the reader in such a way that you don't forget who they are or mix them up, which so often happens in large cast novels. While the novel focuses primarily on Moshe and Chona, the Jewish owners of the grocery store and two integrated theaters, Addie and Nate Timblin, their Black employees, and their nephew Dodo, the novel is populated by a rich cast of characters that bring different perspectives to the events unfolding in Chicken Hill. This is a story of community, friendship, love, as well as anger and hate. It examines how poor immigrants and Blacks are oppressed by wealthier, whiter community members, and how they come together as a community to help one another in times of need. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives and interesting characters, as well as how McBride wove their lives and stories together into one narrative, incorporating humor alongside the tragic, and giving readers a satisfying end to Chicken Hill and its residents.

Thank you to Riverhead Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store early in exchange for a review.

This was my first novel by James McBride, and I was very happy with it. I loved the interactions between the Jewish characters and the Black neighborhood, I loved seeing how community pulled together to help a young boy, and I liked the ending. I thought the author did a great job with his characterizations and with showing the interweaving of the people into a web that supported the story and ending.

4 1/2 stars

This was an interesting book, not at all what I thought it might be. It focuses on a neighborhood in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, Chicken Hill, and the people who lived there in the 1920s and 1930s. It proved to be a delight, rich in characters, packed with history and cultures. My one slight complaint is that I felt that the ending was a little rushed, as if the author grew tired of writing about these wonderful and colorful characters.

In Chicken Hill, the long-standing, mutually-beneficial relationship of Blacks and Jews has gone on for years. Behind much of the community spirit is Chona, a young Jewish woman with a physical disability.

Chona, for her part, saw them not as Negroes but as neighbors with infinite interesting lives.

Chona does everything that she can to make her neighbors’ lives easier, even if it means that her grocery store is always functioning at a loss. When she marries Moshe Ludlow, a Jewish theater manager, they work together to make lives easier for their Black neighbors. There’s very much a touch of Yentel in Chona. She wants to study things that women aren’t supposed to study. She want to bring about freedom and equality for all.

This is a book of good coming out of evil, of evil being punished. It’s about friendship, compassion, and the mistreatment of those with physical and mental challenges. There’s a clear message of discrimination and how unfair it is. I think there’s also a peek into the Jewish Mafia touched on within the pages of this book.

I thought this book could have done with a bit less exposition, and I would have liked a better understanding of Malachi’s purpose. Also, Monkey Pants, was he purposely drugged, or did what happened come about from natural events? These are small problems in an otherwise excellently written book.

Overall, this is a magnificent book, and I highly recommend it.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. I thank all involved for their generosity, but it had no effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book.

I’m awed by the author’s ability to blend the experiences of a poor Pennsylvania settlement of immigrant Jews and Black Americans with the anti-semitism and racism that is once again surfacing in our country today. With all of the overt statements and beliefs of the white town population, the disadvantaged citizens of Chicken Hill nevertheless find ways to respect and help each other, particularly when the much loved owner of Heaven & Earth Groceries and a deaf boy are each threatened unfairly. The writing is very descriptive, even made me smile occasionally at his use of metaphors and similes. Loved that the author found a way to end this novel on a positive note.

Thanks to NetGalley and Riverhead Books/Penguin Random House for the ARC to read and review.

James McBride does not disappoint in this new book. He is such an amazing storyteller that gives his characters depth and brings them to life. Great for readers of historical fiction and family fiction.

Thank you for an advance copy of this beautiful story of community. It tells the story of the residents of Chicken Hill, a mostly Jewish and Black community in the 1930s, focusing on two characters, Moshe and Chona and their small businesses in this community. They are immersed in the community and its struggles and get involved in protecting a young black deaf boy from being institutionalized. This story is so well written..the characters are so rich and complex and the setting is so well portrayed I felt I was there. It was touching, moving and an important story to be told. I loved this novel. HIghly recommend!

This set of linked stories, spinning out from different characters in 1930’s Pottstown, PA, took a while to get going but then sucked me right in.

The prologue, set in 1972, sets out what’s to come but only makes sense in retrospect. After this rather confusing start, we settle in to the main narrative which revolves around the Jewish and “Negro” residents of the Chicken Hill neighborhood. For a good chunk of the book, the expansive cast of characters drive the narrative as we get to know them and their stories.

Pottstown is full of migrants, both longstanding and recent. Many of the White folk proudly, if erroneously, claim heritage from the Mayflower. The colored inhabitants have moved up from North Carolina after the Civil War and split into two factions. The Jewish migrants from Eastern Europe are the most recent and the author does a sharp and witty job of delineating the perceived temperaments of the country groups.

Initially central are Moshe, who runs two theaters in town, and his wife, Chona, who runs the Heaven and Earth Grocery store which she inherited from her father. It’s a sympathetic portrait of a kind and generous couple who serve both the Jewish and colored communities. Chona is a strikingly independent woman who calls out the injustices and inequities she sees, perpetrated by entitled white residents.

The author does a wonderful job of creating a vivid community and setting it in a specific era through vignettes about different characters which then builds into three stories calling back to the prologue. Tonally it swings comfortably between tragedy, drama, and broad comedy, without losing the humanity of characters.

I have not read any of the author’s previous books so I can’t comment on how this fits into his oeuvre, but I’m certainly going to go back and try a few.

Thanks to Riverhead and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

In the mid and early 1900s immigrants and Black Americans had an uneasy alliance as they banded together against those with greater wealth and social privilege. The identity of the skeleton found in the well at Chicken Hill in 1971 in Pottstown, Pennsylvania was a secret held jointly by Jewish and Black community leaders. The same leaders kept a deaf boy safe from being housed in a forced, dehumanizing, institutional manner.

This is a fascinating look at a community, a microcosm, full of interesting characters, and relationships, that came together when necessary to solve problems. The premise is that they would move heaven and earth to help each other.

This is an exceptional book. The multi points of view give a nuanced exploration of the meaning of community. Everyone's path is smoothed and made more difficult by different factors. McBride allows us to walk a mile in each character's shoes. His writing flows beautifully for each character - with the cadence of the prose changing with each. The category of "other" falls away when a group is faced with shared hardship. I found my self deeply engrossed in the overall weave of the story as well as the individual threads.

I love James McBride. I will read anything he writes and picked this up without even bothering to see what it was about. McBride does justice to any time period or place he chooses and he's always funny. This one's about Jewish and black people in Pennsylvania in the 1930s and it is delightful.

This is such a great book. McBride is an amazing storyteller. The characters and historical detail make this a novel that--like much of what he writes--will stay with you long after finishing it. Highly recommended!