The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
I am turning into my mother, and when I recently caught myself deep in a Southern Windup (SWU) I knew the transformation was complete!
Not familiar with the SWU? In a Southern conversation, the SWU is the digressive, colorful preface to a story that frequently takes longer to tell than the tale itself, and at its conclusion, you have completely forgotten what the backstory was leading up to!
A sample, inspired by PKC
Did you hear about Jane Smith? (Not waiting for response) She and her first husband, was he a doctor, lived over on Estes, their children were older than you, girls, I think, and musical, went to Harpeth Hall, her mother was widowed early bless her heart and then died of breast cancer back before they really knew anything, anyway, Jane went to one of those girls’ colleges for two years and then married the doctor or dentist, when the doctor left her she moved into her mother’s old house on Westview, you know the tiny one hasn’t been torn down yet that we always say has such potential, red brick with the weird door, what were they thinking, finally, decades after her divorce, Jane married a nice man with a limp from Murfreesboro whose parents were friends of my parents, lived on the Square in one of those old houses that’s now probably a Walgreens.
She died last week.
My mother was a master of this story telling technique. The other master of the SWU is James McBride, specifically in his recent novel The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store in which every character has a delightful, complete backstory.Often, I was so caught up in the windups that I had to go back a few pages to reacquaint myself with the plot!
But what characters! Set in the 1930s, the H&EGS takes place in the Chicken Hill neighborhood where Jews and African Americans live on the outskirts of the Christian community. The center of the community is the defiant and generous Chona Ladlow who runs the grocery store along with help from her husband, Romanian-born dance hall owner, Moshe.
When a deaf black child is wrongly institutionalized, the occasionally fractious community unites in efforts to set him free.
Highly recommend.
WHAT OTHER REVIEWERS SAY
Ron Charles, The Washington Post: “We all need-we all deserve-this vibrant, love- affirming novel that bounds over any difference that claims to separate us.”
WHO WROTE IT
James McBride is the author of bestselling novels Deacon King Kong, The Good Lord Bird, and The Color of Water. The recipient of a National Humanities Medal and an accomplished musician, McBride is also a distinguished writer in residence at New York University.