Breathe To Read

Breathe To Read

Friday, January 12, 2024

Book: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

 Book: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

Author: James McBride

Pages: 400


This is my 9th read for the year

This is the story of a poor town in Pennsylvania in the early 1900s.  Chona and her husband, Moshe,  run a grocery story in Chicken Hill.  They are Jewish people that stayed in a heavily dominated Afrian American community because Chona didn't want to move as other Jewish people headed to different towns.  When Chona takes ill, the small community rallies becaue Chona has always been good to them.  Chona takes in a deaf boy and hides him because authorities think he belongs in an institution.  When tragedy strikes, various members of the community work together to find out what happened.

This was an okay book.  I wanted to like it more than I did - it has been talked and talked about.  It was just a bit cluttered.  There are a ton of characters.  There are too many characters that speak in riddles.  Was this really about the grocery store?  No.  Was it even mostly about Chona?  No.  There were a ton of side stories and characters.  A lot of partial stories and a rushed ending left me feeling disappointed.

Stars: 3


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