james mcbride | Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
Author: James McBride
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Publication date: August 8, 2023
Length: 385 pages
Genre: Historical fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating: n/a

The new novel from the bestselling, National Book Award-winning, Oprah Book Club-picked, Barack Obama favourite James McBride.

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighbourhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows.

As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community-heaven and earth-that sustain us.

I was tempted to skip writing a review of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, because I simply didn’t know quite how to summarize my reading experience.

In terms of artistry, it’s an impressive achievement. Probaby 4 – 5 stars. And yet, I didn’t actually enjoy the process of reading this book all that much… so 3 stars? Rather than attach a number, I’ll just share a few thoughts, and leave it at that.

Let me start by saying that “literary fiction” isn’t especially my jam, precisely because of the sort of dilemma I’m having here. I can appreciate beautiful use of language and original, artistic storytelling — but if the plot doesn’t pull me in and make me hate to put the book down, it’s just not going to be all that fun for me.

For The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, I was intrigued by what I’d heard even before picking up the book. In brief, the book tells the story of the poor neighborhood of Chicken Hill in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. In the 1930s, Chicken Hill is where the Jewish and Black communities find a home, since the white, Protestant residents of Pottstown — including the town doctor, who dons a hood and marches with the KKK each year — don’t want them polluting the nicer areas of their town.

Here in Chicken Hill, there are jazz theaters and speakeasies, a synagogue and mikveh, and the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, run by Chona, the daughter of the man who first built the store, who was also the local rabbi. Chona’s husband Moshe runs the theater and is madly in love with Chona. Chona has a beautiful heart and welcomes the entire neighborhood to her store, where she isn’t particularly picky about who can pay and who can’t — she makes sure people have enough to eat, and sends the children on their way feeling cared for and loved.

The book opens in 1972, when a body is found in a well. We then go back 50 years to the main story of the book, which is essentially a profile of the lives of Chicken Hill’s families, showing their connections, stories, conflicts, and secrets, building up by the end to the revelation of the truth about that body.

The resolution of the mystery isn’t what drives the book, though. Instead, the book weaves in and out of people’s lives, showing their relationships, their differences, and how the people of the different communities within Chicken Hill hold themselves separate yet also come together in a crisis.

The storytelling meanders quite a bit, especially for the first third or so of the book, as we get to know the essence of the neighborhood and its people. This is probably why I didn’t have a great time reading this book — I wanted a bit more forward motion, and that’s hard to come by until later in the book.

Ultimately, the intricate interconnections between the various characters, as well as their backstories and hidden motivations, make this book a literary achievement. While the style wasn’t what I typically enjoy, I still appreciated the historical elements, the sprawling cast of characters, and the depiction of a memorable time and place.

This is just one reader’s response! The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is listed on a huge number of notable and “best of” lists for 2023, and I recommend looking into it further if you think this might be a book for you.

To read more about The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store:

New York Times review
NPR review
Washington Post review
The Guardian review

Flashback Friday is my own little weekly tradition, in which I pick a book from my reading past to highlight — and you’re invited to join in!

Here are the Flashback Friday book selection guidelines:

Has to be something you’ve read yourself
Has to still be available, preferably still in print
Must have been originally published 5 or more years ago

Other than that, the sky’s the limit! Join me, please, and let us all know: what are the books you’ve read that you always rave about? What books from your past do you wish EVERYONE would read? Pick something from five years ago, or go all the way back to the Canterbury Tales if you want. It’s Flashback Friday time!

Yesterday it was announced that James McBride was awarded the National Book Award for his most recent novel, The Good Lord Bird. In honor of his award, I thought I’d flash back to the author’s first best-seller: his non-fiction tribute to his mother, which was published more than 15 years ago:

The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother
by James McBride
(published 1996)

Synopsis (Amazon):

Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared “light-skinned” woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve black children. James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother’s past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, The Color Of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother.The son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white, James McBride grew up in “orchestrated chaos” with his eleven siblings in the poor, all-black projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. “Mommy,” a fiercely protective woman with “dark eyes full of pep and fire,” herded her brood to Manhattan’s free cultural events, sent them off on buses to the best (and mainly Jewish) schools, demanded good grades, and commanded respect. As a young man, McBride saw his mother as a source of embarrassment, worry, and confusion—and reached thirty before he began to discover the truth about her early life and long-buried pain.

In The Color of Water, McBride retraces his mother’s footsteps and, through her searing and spirited voice, recreates her remarkable story. The daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi, she was born Rachel Shilsky (actually Ruchel Dwara Zylska) in Poland on April 1, 1921. Fleeing pogroms, her family emigrated to America and ultimately settled in Suffolk, Virginia, a small town where anti-Semitism and racial tensions ran high. With candor and immediacy, Ruth describes her parents’ loveless marriage; her fragile, handicapped mother; her cruel, sexually-abusive father; and the rest of the family and life she abandoned.

At seventeen, after fleeing Virginia and settling in New York City, Ruth married a black minister and founded the all- black New Brown Memorial Baptist Church in her Red Hook living room. “God is the color of water,” Ruth McBride taught her children, firmly convinced that life’s blessings and life’s values transcend race. Twice widowed, and continually confronting overwhelming adversity and racism, Ruth’s determination, drive and discipline saw her dozen children through college—and most through graduate school. At age 65, she herself received a degree in social work from Temple University.

Interspersed throughout his mother’s compelling narrative, McBride shares candid recollections of his own experiences as a mixed-race child of poverty, his flirtations with drugs and violence, and his eventual self- realization and professional success. The Color of Water touches readers of all colors as a vivid portrait of growing up, a haunting meditation on race and identity, and a lyrical valentine to a mother from her son.

I think the synopsis speaks for itself! I read The Color of Water with a book group about ten years ago, and we were all just blown away by the writer’s honesty, his absolute love and respect for his mother, the insights on what life was like for a boy growing up in such a unique family — and most of all, just really inspired and impressed by Ruth’s courage, love, and determination.

I’m not a big non-fiction reader in general, but every once in a while I’m happy to make an exception. The Color of Water is a memoir that’s as compelling as fiction, with fascinating characters and their incredible journeys. It really is too good to be missed.

Happy Friday, and enjoy your flashbacks!

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