The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

We're dropping this episode a week earlier than usual since Nancy is heading to Boulder. And, we can't wait to introduce you to James McBride's recent novel - THE HEAVEN AND EARTH GROCERY STORE. This is a book about community and relationships, good and bad, in 1920s-30s Pottstown, Pennsylvania. We meet and grow to love the "outcast" people who live in the Chicken Hill neighborhood. These are the immigrants from other countries, the formerly enslaved people from the South, the non-Protestants (e.g., the Jews and the Catholics), and the poor. The first half of the book is almost a short story collection about these characters, each of whom steps forward for a momentary starring role. About half way through the book, the novel begins circling around the story of two of the characters: Chona, the proprietor of the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, and Dodo, a young orphan boy recently deafened by an exploding stove. It's almost like a jazz piece, perhaps not a surprise given that James McBride is a jazz musician.