Just read it you won’t regret it. Despite having a galley I bought a copy for my shelf at home. James McBride is a treasure.

I had high hopes for this book based on the setting and description. James McBride is a talented writer, no doubt about that. But even the most beautiful writing can’t save this book from being weighed down by endless side plots that go nowhere and random characters that have no impact on the plot. The main story just stalls among the jumble and never comes together properly. I can’t really summarize the plot because nothing really ever comes together in this confusing and frustrating book. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I always relisj the chance to read a James McBride novel.
An Earth Grocery had a truly unforgettable setting, reading this novel I was immersed in Chicken Hill and the community. Omce again McBride has created vivid characters, people who stay with you long after you finish reading.
I found it particularly fascinating to read how the Black and Jewish community came together and all the challenges that they faced. moshe and his brave wife Chona were particularly well drawn characters.
The author knows how to describe snd make real the community that he details. Fatty, Dodo, Big Soap and Monkey Pants were unforgettable characters.
There was heartbreak, racism, coming together and challenges to be met. An amazing portrait of this unique neighborhood in Pottstown PA,
Althogu slow moving at times, it packed a punch and made quite an impact.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy in exchange for honest feedback

This book covers an interesting bit of history about relationships between Jews and Blacks in the northeast in the early to mid-twentieth century. Unfortunately, I did not find the book itself as interesting as the subject matter promised to me. The characters didn't come alive for me and when I put the book down, I didn't feel like picking it back up.

A big-hearted novel that achieves everything it sets out to do. I loved the unique time and place - Pottstown, Pennsylvania, in the 1920s, in a community of African Americans and recent European immigrants of various ethnicities and nationalities, who learn to work together even when they don't always completely trust or approve of one another. I particularly loved Chona, the Jewish American store proprietor and wife who is the emotional heart of the novel. Author James McBride mixes in a lot of humor; there is tension and drama, but also warmth and lightheartedness. My favorite review quoted his editor, Jake Morrissey, who says quite accurately, "There are writers who are interested in story, writers who are interested in characters, writers who are interested in place and writers who are interested in voice...[h]e manages, either by intention or by some other alchemy, to be able to hold all four of those strains in his hands at once." I think the particularly alchemy here is a great imagination. So creative and vibrant. Highly recommended for book clubs; 4 1/2 stars.

TL;DR: it's been over a year since I read this, so apologies on being late to the review party, but this is a masterpiece. Nuff said.

In his trademark beautiful writing, McBride chronicles the residents of Chicken Hill, where a mixture of immigrants and races explore what it means to achieve the American Dream (or not). Both funny and tragic, this book would be an excellent book club pick, or an Everybody Reads option--there's a lot to discuss about what America today can learn from a neighborhood's diverse perspectives.

This was my first James McBride and I'm so glad I read this heartfelt novel about a community. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, but it's a lovely story.

This was my first of McBride's! And after hearing allllll the hype for this one, I finally picked it up. While it might not have lived up to said hype (an often impossible feat), I did really enjoy it. At times it was hard to keep track of all the characters – and how they were connected – which pulled me out of the story a bit. That also left me a little confused by the ending, but after I went back and reread it I was able to connect all the dots. This is a great book to read and discuss with others (I appreciated it much more after listening to some podcasts and hearing other people's thoughts). Definitely worth picking up and feels like a good intro to his work.

A complex, nuanced, and extremely readable work of beauty. With a richly evoked historical setting and characters conceived with depth and complexity.

Wonderful character-driven story with another of McBride's colorful communities, taking place in the old neighborhood Chicken Hill..
There are many secrets held tightly in Chicken Hill, one comes to the surface with the discovery of skeletal remains found while digging on a construction site in the community.

Bestselling author of Deacon King Kong and The Good Lord Bird returns with a new book. Author James McBride's novel, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, focuses on the small town of Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Moche and his wife Chona run a small grocery store that serves the Jewish community, immigrants, and Black residents. He also runs a local integrated theatre that brings in popular music acts. We see the ups and downs of this small community and its dark secrets. They stick together despite constant troubles.

This was an immersive, emotional, educational, and, at times, thrilling read. McBride sets up the community and its characters from Moche and Chona, Malachi, Addie, Nate, Fatty, Dodo, and more. They deal with a racist town and fiendish government agendas who kidnap Dodo since he is deaf. A heist is panned. Water must be tapped, and an accidental murder happens. This is an engaging and educational read.

Favorite Passages:

“And from there, every single bit of that who-shot-John nonsense got throwed into the Schuylkill, and from there, it flowed into the Chesapeake Bay down in Maryland, and from there, out to the Atlantic. And that’s where the bones of that rotten scoundrel whose name is not worthy to be called by my lips is floating to this day. At the bottom of the ocean, with the fish picking his bones and the devil keeping score.”

Nate Timblin was a man who, on paper, had very little. Like most Negroes in America, he lived in a nation with statutes and decrees that consigned him as an equal but not equal, his life bound by a set of rules and regulations in matters of equality that largely did not apply to him. His world, his wants, his needs were of little value to anyone but himself. He had no children, no car, no insurance policy, no bank account, no dining-room set, no jewelry, no business, no set of keys to anything he owned, and no land. He was a man without a country living in a world of ghosts, for having no country meant no involvement and not caring for a thing beyond your own heart and head, and ghosts and spirits were the only thing certain in a world where your existence was invisible. The truth was, the only country Nate knew or cared about, besides Addie, was the thin, deaf, twelve-year-old boy who at the moment was either riding a freight train to Philadelphia or was a full-blown ghost wearing a schoolboy cap, old boots, and a ragged shirt and vest standing ten feet from him tossing small boulders into the Manatawny Creek before his eyes. Which one was it?

Nate was silent a moment. He peered up the slight embankment, toward the shed and the house, thinking to himself of all that was wrong in the world. So many of God’s dangers, he thought, are not the gifts they appear to be.

These lost people spread across the American countryside, bewildered, their yeshiva education useless, their proud history ignored, as the clankety-clank of American industry churned around them, their proud past as watchmakers and tailors, scholars and historians, musicians and artists, gone, wasted. Americans cared about money. And power. And government. Jews had none of those things; their job was to tread lightly in the land of milk and honey and be thankful that they were free to walk the land without getting their duffs kicked—or worse. Life in America was hard, but it was free, and if you worked hard, you might gain some opportunity, maybe even open a shop or business of some kind.

Thank you to NetGalley for this free reader. Wow. This book is so unique and well written and definitely one that will stay with me. I had delayed starting it because it has a bit of a rough start and the content is so important and yet heartbreaking. I noticed that it was on Obama's book list too, and I can see why. Thank you for this important book.

*Spoilers* Great description. Originally a little difficult to get into but the description eventually brings you into the story of Moshe and Chona. Very character driven story, much like Their Eyes Were Watching God. There is a plot but because the story is so character driven, it makes the plot really seem like the everyday occurrences in the lives of these individuals. I don’t think there is one character that I dislike (besides Doc Roberts and Son of Man). I really like Chona though it’s sad that much of her role in the story is her dealing with her health. I also like the incorporation of Dodo’s story and how everyone comes together to try to save him. The novel also reminds me of Morrison’s work (especially Sula) on the Black people of a specific town/area, thought McBride’s work includes the lives of Jewish Americans.

Though the story is very character driven, most of the introduced characters drove the plot of rescuing Dodo and fulfilling Chona’s wish and purpose of protecting Dodo. The novel ends with the satisfying conclusion of Dodo’s life on a farm in South Carolina with Nate and Addie and how he eventually has a family of his own. He dies at old age thanks to the work of Nate, Chona, and Monkey Pants, though most of the characters played a direct or indirect role in getting him to safety. Besides Chona’s assault and death, the saddest part in the novel is the sexual assault of Dodo by Son of Man and the death of Monkey Pants right after he interrupted the assault. Though Son of Man and Doc Roberts experience karmic retribution, and Dodo gets a happy life, it’s hard not to feel for the too soon deaths of Chona and Monkey Pants and for other living characters such as Moshe and Nate.

I loved Paper, Miggy, and Fatty. They were great and clever characters who knew everyone, knew about everyone, and knew how to work around tough situations like Dodo’s placement at Pennhurst by the State. There were some characters that I could not understand why they were a major focus like Malachi. Overall, a fantastic novel that shows the shared struggle of two marginalized groups in America who must overcome oppression and cruelty through working together.

Living. It far from Pottstown, I truly enjoyed this book and James McBride is a delight to read. Many times I forgot I was reading a book and actually felt I was part of the story. It’s no wonder this book has remained on the Bestsellers list - a true gem of a book!

This book has amazing characters and was well written. I enjoyed how all the characters converged at the end of the book. my favorite characters scenes were at the mental hospital

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store has all the ingredients for a great historical novel: a tight-knit community in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, a mysterious skeleton found in a well, and 1930s setting rich with cultural and racial tensions. The story promises to explore themes of racism, love, sacrifice, and the power of community as we go back in time to Chicken Hill, a neighborhood where Jewish immigrants and African Americans live side by side.

At the heart of the novel is the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, run by Moshe Ludlow and his wife, Chona. Her determination to protect Dodo, a deaf Black boy, from a cruel institution sets off a series of events that challenge the community's loyalties and uncover buried secrets. It sounds like a gripping premise, but the execution falls flat.

Despite the book’s beautiful writing, I found it overly long and, frankly, disconnected. The narrative meanders through too many characters and subplots that ultimately lead nowhere. The constant jumping between timelines and perspectives made it difficult to keep track of the sprawling cast, and I quickly grew tired of trying.

I wanted to love this book, but finishing it felt like a chore. It begins with an interesting hook, but the slow pace and lack of direction left me bored and disappointed. Perhaps it’s just a matter of timing, but for now, this one didn’t work for me. 2 stars.

** Thanks to the publisher for a comp of this title. The opinions are my own.

The reviews are all over the place on this one, but I really enjoyed it.

I loved the close-knit community. I loved learning about Jewish and Black expeiriences in the 1930s. I loved the zillion characters coming together to play their parts in keeping Dodo safe.

Okay, so it didn’t change me, like Deacon King Kong, but James McBride is now an auto-buy author for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group for this intricate ARC.

I read and re-read the first 30% of this book. I wanted to like it so much!! The writing is very good - there is just too much going on and too many characters. The switching back and forth was very confusing.

I know that customers will want to read this novel but I personally can't recommend it.

Beautiful writing, hard to connect to and a plethora of characters