James McBride’s novel, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, is a behemoth – not so much for length as for density of characters, scope, aspirations, language, and more. Our discussion seemed muted. Although everyone spoke, I wasn’t sure if most of us liked the book, would recommend it, or were still unsure. Perhaps we like it in parts. 

At the meeting, our first responder was put on the spot, like an accidental auction participant, but he gamely offered that he appreciated the blended cultures. Our next responder loved the book, finishing it easily a couple of weeks ago and now, like many of us, was struggling to keep the characters’ names straight. He had trouble envisioning how the town was laid out and thought the author should have included a map! He loved the colorful language and quoted from the section when Paper describes Soap hitting Fatty, “So he balled up his fist . . . It started in Mississippi, gone up through the Carolinas, stopped for coffee in Virginia, picked up steam coming outa Maryland . . . and boom! He like to part Fatty from this world.”

One of our members said that she had trouble getting into the book at first, then she came back to it and after a while she was hooked. Another liked the beginning – he was interested in Chona and Moshe, but not so much in the mystery and rescue. Another loved how the sweet potato pie was used as a map to help Nate know how to get into Pennhurst to rescue Dodo. Which reminded still another member how slaves could communicate just by how they braided someone’s hair. This meeting our connections jumped outside the book in ways I had trouble following, which I believe highlights the complexity and challenge the book was offering us.

Other excerpts from our discussion:  Moshe’s desegregation of his theater was not so much courageous as desperate. The entertainment community gave voice and space for integration sooner than other arenas. The doctor was a mis-killing. The violence was still disturbing; Isaac was not admirable, and yet none of the getting of Dodo would have happened without his money. And weren’t Isaac and Moshe the ones who started the camp for disabled that was the prompt for McBride’s writing of this novel? The book reminded one of us of Oprah Winfrey’s show several years ago when someone noted that America is NOT a melting pot, which would make us all the same, but rather a salad bowl. Books like this one provide a window past prejudice. 

In particular, I read a couple of passages from the book:

• “The seven requirements of Jewish life: wisdom, meekness, fear of God, love of truth, love of people, possession of a good name, and dislike of money.” 
• “Chona wasn’t one of them. She was the one among them who ruined his hate for them, and for that he resented her.”

The New York Time’s reviewer, Danez Smith, called The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store a “Murder mystery inside a great American novel.” Since we just discussed last month what makes a classic, do we agree? We aren’t sure. One of us thought that it is being compared to Mark Twain’s work, with his earthiness. Another member thinks that sometimes, like The Grapes of Wrath, we know right away when we read a great novel, but perhaps time needs to tell. Poignantly, another of us said that she had never been asked to decide if something was a great novel; that seems like something we are told or taught. How well read or educated do you need to be to have this power? Have confidence! YOU have this power every day.

We discussed The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store in the Teen Zone this month, with newly painted bright-orange walls and a large video screen to display a short video^[i] showcase of James McBride that included some pictures of his grandmother and Pottstown, PA. We played some music from a Mickey Katz CD and tasted chocolate babka. We asked early on, which characters in the novel are based on real people, and I have since found a great article^[ii] that includes information about Pennhurst and what McBride refers to as “the demise of Pottstown’s industrial heritage.” Follow the link below or ask me for a copy of the article if you are interested. I also have marbles to inspire your memory on the little things that make a difference every day. Reading feeds our knowledge, our imaginations and our hearts. 

• Other works discussed:
• The Color of Water: a black man’s tribute to his white mother (1995) by James McBride
• The Rabbi Small Mysteries (1964-1996) by Harry Kemelman

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^[i] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1ToA-2TsnQ

^[ii] https://www.pottsmerc.com/2023/08/10/pottstowns-chicken-hill-a-central-character-in-new-james-mcbride-novel/