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    The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store: A Novel
    The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store: A Novel
    The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store: A Novel
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store: A Novel

    Written by James McBride

    Narrated by Dominic Hoffman

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    THE RUNAWAY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

    A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • A NEW YORK TIMES READERS PICK: 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY

    WINNER OF THE 2024 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRIZE FOR AMERICAN FICTION

    FROM ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE OF 2024

    NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR/FRESH AIR, WASHINGTON POST, THE NEW YORKER, AND TIME MAGAZINE

    ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2023

    “A murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel . . . Charming, smart, heart-blistering, and heart-healing.” —Danez Smith, The New York Times Book Review

    “We all need—we all deserve—this vibrant, love-affirming novel that bounds over any difference that claims to separate us.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post

    From James McBride, author of the bestselling Oprah’s Book Club pick Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them

    In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.

        As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.

        Bringing his masterly storytelling skills and his deep faith in humanity to The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride has written a novel as compassionate as Deacon King Kong and as inventive as The Good Lord Bird.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Audio
    Release dateAug 8, 2023
    ISBN9780593684122
    Author

    James McBride

    James McBride is a civil servant in the United Kingdom who has been deployed on operations in Afghanistan. This is his fi rst novel, the culmination of ten years of writing and research. He and his wife, Elaine, have three children and live in Barry, on the coast in South Wales.

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    Reviews for The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

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    • 5/5
      Jews and African Americans resided in Pottstown's Chicken Hill. A Jewish woman who operated the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store treated everyone fairly. That was not always the case with everyone in the area, particularly with the area's doctor. We see how Chona, the Jewish woman, made a lasting impact on the people she encountered. The well-drawn characters brought the story to life. Included in the story is the plight of an African-ancestored boy who was deaf but definitely not dumb. We also see the sad state of asylums at that time. Sometimes you had to laugh at the ingenuity of this group of people.
    • 5/5
      A book about injustice, justice, and the winding road to karma. The world could use more Chonas...and Nates. Well worth the read.
    • 4/5
      Wonderful story with unique characters and well written
    • 3/5
      I struggled to get into this one. For me, there were just too many stories and I had a hard time stitching them all together in a way that advanced the overall story telling. But there were strong characters and it highlighted a time and place I haven't read much about before.
    • 4/5
      So many well-drawn characters! Such a colorful glimpse into communities. Add in deft weaving of multiple story lines. I was interested from the start, but it drew me in more and more as it progressed ... the point where I almost forgot the mystery that started it all.

      Well worth reading, imo.
    • 4/5
      Well paced story with interesting characters with real concerns and challenges, and a bitter heart. The inclusion of modern dissatisfactions/distress is jarring though, as the novel itself makes it's views and message sufficiently clear.
    • 5/5
      Reason Read: bookclub read
      I read this because it was chosen by my bookclub and also it has had many good reviews. I liked the other book that I read by McBride. This on his historical fiction set in Pottstown, Pennsylvania and the Jewish woman running the grocery store is based on his Jewish grandmother who ran a grocery store in a black neighborhood. He never knew his grandmother but wanted to honor her. I liked the authors approach to the themes. He let his characters tell the story and in general he let his people just be good people. It was enjoyable to read because of how the author chose to tell the story. There is racism and antisemitism but the characters are just living life. I also felt that the picture of the state hospital back in the 30s probably was pretty accurate and reportedly was full of abuse. Disabilities included foot problems and need for special shoes, cerebral palsy, deafness. Last of all, there is a sense of community which exists inspite of differences. McBride stated in an interview that "The humanity of people far exceeds the differences." I hope that is true. Community is very important for a good and long life. I liked this book.
    • 5/5
      I read this book as a book club selection for discussion. I listened to the audio as I read along with the physical copy and the kindle. The novel was narrated by Dominic Hoffman, who also narrated Deacon King Kong, which was a well yoked match. I enjoyed that novel immensely, and I had no doubt that that would carry over to the The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. The purchase was an automatic buy.

      As in Deacon King Kong, his character build up and funny, unique names to his growing list of stars in the novel was intriguing and funny at time. McBrides' writing style is with sound rhythm as he gives you background to each character that pushes the storyline to fall in cadence with the other characters and why they exist within the novel.

      He paints a vivd picture to the imagination of the setting, the people, the era, the culture, and the struggles to which I felt I was among the community of Chicken Hill and was watching, listening from afar. The dilapidated neighborhood where Jews, European immigrants and African Americans lived side by side unified against white Christian America to protect a deaf black child from being institutionalized while secrets are being revealed through bigotry, hypocrisy, and deceit. The novel was peppered with funny lines, like...His face looked like he had a hobby of stepping on rakes. (Chapter 17: page 215), A white man, declared: “You can’t be sick, son. When I was a Negro, I never got sick.” (Chapter 27: page 336), and “Doc, if you wanna be famous or important, die at the right time. Otherwise, carry your own load…” (Chapter 29).

      The novel is divided into three (3) parts, with short chapters that easily slides into the next chapter like a television soap opera. McBride brings historical fiction with music greats, such as Chick Webb, Lionel Hampton, and Sister Rosetta Thorpe, the Pennhurst State School a Hospital in Pennsylvania where residents with disabilities were abused , neglected, beaten and assaulted (horror attraction). Upon reading about McBride's upbringing, I gathered a clearer look into the theme of the storyline that reflects from his personal life, an echo from his childhood, his mother's upbringing and the families heritage. I lived in a house in the city of Detroit in which a mezuzah, a small case that hung on the doorframe of our family home, in which the neighborhood was once a predominantly Jewish community. We discovered later its purpose, meaning, explained by a Jewish realtor. It brought our family good fortune in various ways.

      I see the correlation to some of the characters in the novel, i.e. Shad Davis, Nate's father who helped build a church as McBride's father, formed a church in his living room. Miss Chona was an immigrant from Europe as was his mother from Poland, also an immigrant to the United States. This was a book of mystery...What had Nate done over in Hemlock Row? What was all paid for? Whose skeleton was found at the bottom of the well? Who is 'Son of Man'? How were the people on Chicken Hill going to get Dodo back home? This book will stay on my shelf to be a part of my collection of favorite reads.
    • 5/5
      I really loved this book and was amazed that I could remember the characters with names I was not familiar with as the story moved from scene to scene. Yes, convoluted and twisting but so well interwoven ao that the prologue at the beginning makes perfect sense when you get to the end.
    • 3/5
      Addressing the melting pot of cultures in the northeast in the 1930s, this is a rich and colorful tale of people of different races, religions and cultures who have hurt and helped each other. I thought it could have been shorter.
    • 5/5
      A splendid tale with a collection of memorable characters and a captivating plot.
    • 2/5
      An amazingly uninvolving book. You don’t care who comes out on top. The KKK, the Jews, the Blacks, the Whites, doesn’t matter, your only wish is to get to the last page.
    • 5/5
      I read this book in audiobook format.

      This novel is about a mixed race community (Black, Jewish, White) in the 1920s-30s. There is a large, lively, and sometimes confusing cast of characters that get into all kinds of predicaments. Ultimately they must work together to solve their problems and get closer to the American Dream. Mildly humorous but with some dark parts too, the novel is uplifting but hints at an American future full of violence. I liked the book a lot but did find it difficult to follow in parts. The ending was very satisfying. I think I like Deacon King Kong better, which is a similar novel by McBride.
    • 4/5
      James McBride has used the lessons he learned from both his parents to write this book. His father was an African-American preacher and his mother was a Jewish immigrant from Poland. This book, which is centered in a poor neighbourhood called Chicken Hill in Pennsylvania, starts with the lives of Jewish refugees who settled in Chicken Hill with blacks as neighbours. The time period is the 1920s and racism by whites against both Jews and blacks was not even hidden. The town doctor, who had a distinguishing limp, was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and paraded in the white outfit around town every summer.

      Actually, the book starts with the discovery of bones in an old well in Chicken Hill later in the twentieth century. A pendant and a mezuzah found with the bones cause the police to question one of the remaining Jews left in town. This necessitates returning to the past to become acquainted with a Jewish couple, Moshe and Chona, who owned and lived above The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. Chona ran the store while Moshe operated several theatres. Chona ran the store at a loss in order to provide a place for the local people to shop. She was a woman with a big heart even though she had a disability. She was also outspoken about the racism in town. One of Moshe's employees, Nate, asks Moshe and Chona to hide his nephew, Dodo, a deaf orphan that state officials want to put into a state institution. Dodo wasn't born deaf, it was caused by an explosion in a kitchen. Maybe that's why Dodo is able to understand what people are saying and why he is quick to learn things. Nevertheless, he is eventually caught and taken to the institution where he becomes friends with another disabled boy. In the institution, Dodo comes to the attention of a night orderly who has carnal desires for him. Nate is determined to get him out of the institution but it is not an easy task. Will Dodo be permanently scarred by this incarceration even if Nate does get him out? Well, read the book to find out this and much much more including who the body in the well was.

      I listened to the audio of this book and I loved the narrator, Dominic Hoffman. Because of the wealth of detail in this book it might have been better to read it but the narration added something that just reading would lack.
    • 4/5
      While I had a few quibbles with this novel, I enjoyed it overall. I loved the story of Chicken Hill and its Jewish and Black residents. The hub of the community is Chona, a Jewish woman, who inspires both groups with her principled stands and courage in the face of bigotry.

      I had this book on my TBR and was happy to get to it sooner, thanks to the impetus of my new book group. We had a really good discussion about it, and one comment helped me appreciate the novel even more. In an interview, McBride apparently spoke of the book as being similar to jazz - with one player (character) taking center stage and then moving aside for another one, but the entire group forming a coherent whole to tell a story.

      4 stars
    • 5/5
      Book on CD read by Dominic Hoffman


      McBride begins this work of historical fiction in 1972, when skeletal remains are discovered at the bottom of a dry well by a construction crew. From there the story goes back to the early 20th century and the thriving community of Chicken Hill in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, where immigrant Jews who originally settled the area are moving out as the African Americans move in. But Moshe and Chona, who run the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store and live in the apartment above the business, refuse to leave. They continue to serve the African-American community and are comfortable with their neighbors.

      The crux of the story revolves around Dodo, an African-American orphan who is deaf (as the result of the gas stove in his residence exploding), and whom the state wishes to consign to the notorious Pennhurst Asylum. The efforts of Dodo’s aunt and uncle, Addie and Nate, and of Moshe and Chona, to keep Dodo away from that hellish environment is the basic plot.

      But the novel is less plot-driven than character-driven. McBride paints a colorful and intricate landscape, of two equally strong cultures co-existing because of the strength of character of their leaders. They rely on and support one another. They show compassion and empathy and love. And, yes, anger and disdain as well. There were times when I wanted McBride to “get on with it.” But I was invested in all these characters, even the unlikeable ones. I recognized that I needed to know all of them to understand the dynamics of Chicken Hill. At its heart, this is a story of community, cooperation, tolerance and respect.

      The hardest section to stomach was the part set at Pennhurst. My heart broke for Monkey Pants, and I wanted to throttle Son of Man (and the administrators who allowed him to prey on the helpless).

      Readers should definitely read the acknowledgement section at the end, where McBride tells of the real-life heroes and mentors who inspired this work of fiction.

      Dominic Hoffman does a marvelous job of narrating the audiobook. He has a lot of characters to deal with, but he is up for the task. I was rarely confused about who was speaking (and when I was, it was MY fault, for not paying attention).
    • 4/5
      A story of community, racism, stigmas, and resilience.
      In the town of Pottstown, PA, a story evolves of a town that has been marked by its population of Jews and Christians, blacks and whites, and those who are shunned due to a disability.
      Moshe and Chona Ludlow are main characters. Moshe integrated his theater and Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. A young deaf boy is going to be institutionalized, but Chona and Nate Timblin, the janitor at Moshe’s theater and leader of the black community on Chicken Hill, decide to keep him safe. We learn of the reasons, and how they worked against biases. Meanwhile, the racist gets his due!
      I found the story interesting, but I thought the author's note was the most inspiring!
    • 3/5
      Liked it, didn't love it. Characters, and keeping track of all of them, was an issue for me. I didn't really identify with any of them except maybe Chona. The beginning, and ending, which bring the whole thing whole circle, were a bit confusing to me.
      Moshe and Chona run the Heaven and Earth Grocery store, and Moshe also owns and operates a local theater/dance hall, where both Jewish and Black musicians perform. They help their neighbors, Nate and Addie hide their deaf nephew Dodo from the "state" who believe the boy needs to be institutionalized.
      Race relations, and prejudice are a big part of the story. I did particularly like the relationships between the Jews and the Black people, who were often friendly and helpful to each other, but never really "understood" the others.
    • 5/5
      This book is set in a small town in Pennsylvania in the 1930s and focuses on the Black and Jewish communities in that town. The Jewish community is generally upwardly-mobile, but one Jewish couple, Moishe and Chona, stay in the Black neighborhood, where he runs a music theater that often caters to a Black audience, and she runs the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, which never turns a profit but is a community hub thanks to Chona's deep care for her neighbors. Chona takes in a Black boy who has been rendered deaf and orphaned by an exploding stove accident, which creates trouble when white authorities want to put the boy in a mental institution.

      McBride's writing is witty and delightful. The characters are vivid, and most of them are very lovable. He often goes on long tangents: when a new character is introduced, he'll tell that character's entire life story. These tangents might be frustrating if they weren't all well-written, and the extra detail about the characters adds a lot of depth to their interactions. The characters might suffer from disability, poverty, and racism, but they make up for it with love and care so that the book is ultimately hopeful.
    • 4/5
      The setting is Chicken Hill, a neighborhood in Pottstown, PA that is populated by Negros, Jews, and European immigrants. Set during the mid-twentieth century the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is run by Chona, a good hearted soul who allows credit, forgives debt, and makes no earnings for the grocery store. Her husband, Moshe, runs a dance hall that is integrated and brings in dance bands which are touring the country. Nate is Moshe's right hand man and his wife Addie helps with the grocery store and helps Chona who is disabled from childhood polio.

      Nate and Addie assume responsibility for nephew, Dodo, who is deaf from the explosion of a stove, when his mother dies. Dodo comes to the attention of state authorities who want to put him in a residential home. The rest of the book revolves around the characters (many of them with more than one name) of Chicken Hill trying to conceal Dodo from the authorities, then working to free him from the residential school once he is captured.

      It took me about half way through the book to get engaged with the story because there were so many characters and so many back stories. The story is populated with people who are marginalized by society in general and who ban together to work for the greater good of one another, though they sometimes have their own sense of justice.
    • 2/5
      2.75 Hard to push through story.

      Frustrated with the plotting and prose. There were far too many characters which made the story hard to follow at times. If it were not for it being a buddy read, I would have DNF'd the book three chapters in. Dodo's story caught me and helped me to finish. I do not know why there were so many subplots and how that was suppose to benefit the story. I was not sure he McBride would ever get back to the mystery in the beginning. The pacing was uneven, which made it hard to stay engaged. Overall, this is not a book that I would reach for again.
    • 5/5
      Creation of a black and Jewish society in the North. The author proves to be adept at both plot and character development. Both the black and Jewish societies develop somewhat closed to their surroundings but still are quite rich and interesting. Symbolic of the whole challenge of an isolated group OSs the young boy Dodo who is deaf dumb and has impaired vision because of the explosion of his mother’s stove. He adapts and in the end leads a satisfying life.
    • 4/5
      In 1972, workers were digging a new foundation in Pottstown, Pennsylvania when they found a skeleton at the bottom of a well. To figure out who it is, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store goes back 40 years to the secrets of the neighborhood of Chicken Hill, a dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side.

      This book was ultimately about the community of Chicken Hill, rallying together in order to protect a young deaf boy they’ve named Dodo, from being taken by the state to an institution. It starts off with a murder mystery, but to be honest, that wasn’t at all the most interesting part of the story.

      This is one of those books where I kind of wish I did ½ star ratings and not rounding up, because I don’t really think this is a 4 star book, but I don’t think it’s a 3 star one either. I listened to this on 2x speed on a Saturday while I did some deep cleaning of my book shelves and yes, I totally missed some things here and there, but a lot of it was repeated stuff. I know the author was showing how all the characters were connected, but the characters all already knew this, and we, the reader, mostly knew that stuff too.

      We meet a lot of characters in this book, but I really enjoyed Chuna, the outspoken wife who runs the grocery store. And of course Dodo.

      Was this book of the year for me - no. It actually left me a bit disappointed to be completely honest. It’s rich and full of characters, but it also went on and on in places it could have been edited out and also broke away from the story to give us background information that wasn’t always necessary to keep the book going. Maybe I’ll sit down and physically read it one day, and not as an audiobook, but as of right now, this is where I stand with it.
    • 5/5
      James McBride's 381-page novel The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store combines elements of group comedy, cultural history, thriller, and love story. The story takes place in Pottstown, Pennsylvania's dilapidated Chicken Hill neighborhood, where African Americans and Jewish immigrants coexist and work side by side. The book tells the story of the people who live in Chicken Hill, how they make ends meet despite being marginalized by the larger white population, and how the country is changing quickly, as witnessed by those who were formerly enslaved and others who have recently arrived.

      The author's prose style is elegant, and his development of individual characters is exceptional, providing a realism for his story that few novelists attain. I enjoyed this novel as much as his wonderful Good Lord Bird, and I look forward to more novels from James McBride.
    • 5/5
      If I could give this 10 stars, I would. Absolutely wonderful!
    • 5/5
      The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is the kind of book to lose yourself in. Written by a storyteller at the top of his game, James McBride's account of the neglected community of Chicken Hill during the 1930s, when it was where immigrants and Jewish people landed before moving into one of Pottstown's more acceptable neighborhoods, and where Black Americans always lived. The story begins and ends with a body in a well, yet this isn't a mystery novel, but an expansive book about the many people who called Chicken Hill home. If you're looking for a tightly-constructed plot, this isn't the book for you; this one ranges here and there, while remaining centered on the small grocery store at the center of the community, run by a small Jewish woman who refuses to be quiet and whose compassion is legendary. For all this, McBride's story never forgets the harshness of the world in which these characters live. It's wonderfully told and while it seems to wander off into side stories, they all work together to make this book something remarkable.
    • 4/5
      The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is a book with a lot of characters. It takes place in the present and the past. The characters are both black and Jewish. The neighborhood is in transition because the Jews are getting more affluent and moving away. The storyline is good. Four stars were given to this book.
    • 5/5
      Pottstown, PA in the 1930's on Chicken Hill, a section of the community housing new immigrants, Black families, Jewish families, and a few white families who live a bit away. Moshe Ludlow marries fellow Jewish woman, Chona who runs the Heaven and Earth Grocery store, one location in town where all races cross. Moshe runs the local entertainment which brings in Jewish ethnic performers and later Jazz. Chona walks with a limp and has had several severe health crisises, but Chona refuses to leave Chicken Hill even after they become more prosperous. Chona is a friend to all and all seem dedicated to her.

      The story has many many characters almost all with nicknames as Dodo, a young deaf Black boy who Chona hids after the state wants to put him in a special "school." Fatty, the brother to Bernice, black neighbors of Chona and Bernice's childhood friend. Fatty's friend Big Soap, an Italian. After Dodo winds up at the asylum, he befriends his next bedmate, Monkey Pants, a severely handicapped young white boy.

      At times the names were hard to keep straight, but each character had his or her own unique and believable personality. There is much humor such as the meeting of the Jewish leaders deciding what to do about the water situation caused by a frog being in the women's baths. There are tender moments such as between Moshe and Chona and Dodo and Monkey Pants. There is terror and horror such as in the asylum caused by a cruel Son of Man. The tribalism between the many factions is often a reflection of what is happening in today's world.

      McBride is a wonderful writer. Loved the people, the story, and the theme of love and concern of one for another yet never able to escape the evil that often raises its head in small ways and large.
    • 5/5
      The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride, author, Dominic Hoffman, narrator
      I am not sure how this author has done it, but kudos to him, he has captured the different ethnic, racial, religious and immigrant lifestyles, backgrounds, speech patterns, relationships and experiences of all his characters, with true authenticity, solemnity when necessary, and great good humor to describe events when appropriate. Even the characters descriptive nicknames like Big Soap, the Italian, Paper, the Cyrano de Bergerac of Pottstown, and Son of Man, the epitome of evil, created images and atmosphere for the reader. Drawing on the historic treatment of people during the first third of the 20th century, he has illustrated how people in the small towns struggled to survive and assimilate, forming communities in which they grouped themselves according to identities. Most times, each group, rich and poor, black and white, Jewish and Christian, formed their own neighborhoods, sometimes by design and sometimes because one group shunned another. On rare occasions, some cultures blended and served each other. This book is about the people of Chicken Hill in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.
      Many of the characters are colorful, but the main story revolves around a woman, Chona, a polio victim, who can be described as a “woman of valor”. She simply did the right thing, and so did her husband, Moshe. When they met, he was not deterred by her disabilities, but was attracted to her clear eyes and strong personality that he loved. He was kind and affectionate and showed her respect, which she loved. He ran theaters for everyone, and she ran the local grocery store for everyone. Although Nate worked for Moshe, he and Nate Timblin were friends. Nate’s wife Addie Townsend and Chona were also close friends. Chona’s big heart endeared her to many in the black community. She did not separate people by their identity, but rather by their character. Chona was like the “everywoman”, kind to adults and children of all stripes. Her “magic marbles” game with the children, to help them pay for their purchases, was particularly touching and provided insight into the kind of person she truly was, giving and brave, but still proud, in spite of the handicaps she suffered without complaint and did not allow them to hinder her pursuits.
      Using the myriad characters with different backgrounds and personalities, like Norman the shoemaker, Bernice and her brother Fatty, Monkey Pants, the orphan Dodo, Doc Roberts, Malachi, Miggy Flood, Son of Man, Shad Davis, Irv and Marv, etc., McBride highlights the personalities and problems that the residents of Pottstown had to deal with and manage in their daily lives. When Addie’s sister Thelma dies, her child Dodo is orphaned. Nate and Addie, who were childless, took him in and cared for him. He had been injured in an accident and could not hear, but he could lip read and speak. A handicapped, restless child, he was uncomfortable in school, and did not attend. Since he was really a ward of the state, the state wanted him in school. The school they would send him to was called Pennhurst. It was not a school, but an insane asylum. When the state came looking , Addie asked Chona, also childless, for help in hiding him, and she took him under her wing. When the authorities came looking, he hid in her neighbor Bernice’s yard with her many children. McBride has shown how every group has its own members that are good and bad, including different races, siblings, immigrants, friends, religious leaders, shopkeepers, healthcare workers and government authorities. While some could be considered saints, there were those considered evil. Some were brighter than others, some were richer than others, some helped each other some turned their backs, but every character, that had character, was simply trying to survive or get ahead.
      THese are some of the other charactersa: Monkey Pants was a resident at the asylum, the Skrupskellis twins were immigrants; they each chose a different life path, Doc Roberts represented a man with no moral compass, the Son of Man who was beneath contempt as a healthcare worker, and Malachi the Magician, an Orthodox Jewish man, who made lemonade out of his life and religion, when it gave him lemons,represented hope. These and many others were some of the interesting characters that added color and content to the novel. Although there is an abundance of characters in this novel, it is never overwhelming because of the skill of the author as he introduces and features them. I don’t know how the author eventually threaded all the disparate parts of the story and people together, but he did a great job without casting more aspersions on one group, than another, or more praise on one, than another, rather, he showed them all equally, simply as human beings struggling to survive.
      The revelations about how each group lived in and coped with the world were illuminating. The novel was a study in human behavior, as different members of each group defined themselves and even looked down on each other depending on where they fit into the spectrum of their lives, into the hierarchy of society.
      In this book, everyone is mocked equally and with great wit. The theme of tikun olam, repairing the world, begins and ends this novel. One can only hope it is possible. I believe the narrator did an amazing job bringing each character to life, and the book would be best as a listening experience. The reader will feel as if he/she is viewing a stage in the mind, as the narrative plays out and each scene lights up with the interaction of the participants. When the book begins, a body is discovered at the bottom of a well. Whose is it? How did the mezuzah get into the well? How did the man wind up there? What will happen to Dodo? These and other mysteries are resolved. This examination of the different societal groups and their interaction, with all of their idiosyncrasies and prejudices, is a very good read. The message of the book is that we are all one tribe, and I wish we could all live together in peace.
    • 4/5
      McBride does it again.  He just writes immersive community so so well.  He loves cramming all the people together.  So many characters!  My only problem is there is so much detail, sometimes five examples of something, even for "side" characters, which is fine until I have to read about the KKK guy's relative from hundreds of years ago?  McBride's writing is so fictionally fact filled, it ends up seeming like a history book of sorts, rather than something more purple prosey, which I guess is what I prefer as a reader.  But McBride is great at the sort of books he writes, rather than purple prose, which I don't think is his goal.  But I also can't deny that it's just wonderful to have his books be so much about Community and all hands on deck to solve problems, no matter who a person happens to be.   I think 'Deacon King Kong' has only grown better in my mind, and this one is almost just as good. 
      *Book #150/340 I have read of the shortlisted Morning News Tournament of Books