The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
James McBride
Riverhead Books, August 8, 2023
400 pages
Review by: E. Broderick
My writing is strictly in the genre categories. As such, I have learned that if I do not blow up a space ship or have some kind of meet cute within the first few chapters no agent or editor is letting me even get my foot in the door. “Quiet” fiction is discouraged by trad genre pub, whether overtly or tacitly. Some of this is about sales, some is about perceived reader expectations, but it always shocks me when I pull something from the “literary” shelf and see how little these conventions mater in that arena.
In James McBride’s literary novel The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store there is a prologue in which a corpse is discovered in a low income neighborhood of Pottstown Pennsylvania populated by immigrants. The main interviewee is an old Jew and the narrative voice is from the local black community. If this was genre fiction I would expect the story to shift towards detective, mystery, or thriller plot beats. Some heavy action and possible introduction of a love interest and/or villain should follow. Instead, the book forgets all about the murder for a good 350 pages and shifts towards a study of character, community, and relationships.
The titular grocery store is run by Chona, a Jewish woman who is very progressive for the 1970’s. Chona requires a special shoe due to a lower limb issue, extends so much credit to her neighbors she seems to be running a charity instead of a grocery store, and cares nothing about the color of anyone’s skin. She is a joy to everyone that knows her and seems to get away with the most outrageous things – from correcting the cantor in Synagogue to calling out the town physician as a member of the KKK. She is the beating heart of the story and her inability to have a child upon whom to lavish some of her love and generosity is felt keenly by the reader.
Which is why nobody is surprised when Chona agrees to hide a young black boy named Dodo who lost his hearing due to an accident. Dodo is a bright and engaging boy, much loved by his Aunt and Uncle, who the state wants to institutionalize due to his lack of hearing. Given this book takes place in the 70’s, “special school” does not mean increased resources for the hearing impaired. It means shutting away anyone even mildly different, anyone that rich white society does not understand, in deplorable conditions. The things that go on behind those “school” walls made my stomach churn. Which is why Dodo’s relatives and Chona both work together to shield him from such a fate.
The story is indeed suspenseful, but it is not laid out so cleanly as I have done so here. There are myriad digressions and viewpoints delving back into the establishment of the community, the back history of even minor characters, and how they all mesh together. The actual murder thrown out like a baited line in the prologue is almost an afterthought, and I did not feel like the individual plot lines actually came together to a single resolution. If I submitted such a thing as a genre work I would likely receive a form rejection. However, the plot is not really the point here. It is the relationships, the interconnected-ness of everything, that matters. This isn’t a mystery or a thriller. It’s a study in community.
I was particularly struck by the relationship between Dodo and Monkey Pants, a young boy with cerebral palsy who is also sent to an institution by a society that does not understand that a body that functions differently does not say anything about the brain living in it. His physical needs are barely being met to our current standards, and his psychological ones are not even acknowledged to exist. The connection these boys form is moving and really stuck with me long after I finished reading. Indeed, many characters in the book feel designed to have the reader critically reflect on differences in ability and our viewpoints on this subject. Chona needs a special shoe. So does the individual in the book who is arguably the villain. They might have this similarity in their bodies, but they could not be more different in terms of their souls. Each viewpoint we meet is given a through and intriguing treatment even if we only meet them for a single chapter. Because we are all worthy of consideration and empathy.
“Read widely in your genre” is common advice given to writers to help them understand the market. It is good advice, but it is not complete. I find that making a foray out of my particular genre adds nuance and complexity to my work. I still could not submit something like this to a strictly sci fi audience, but my characters will be more thought out and developed for having read this kind of work. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store may have a slower pace than I’m used to, but I needed the extra time to digest all the complex thematic work. It reinforced my resolve to diversify my reading across genres, themes, and authors. It makes me a better writer, but I hope also a better human.