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Contemporary Fiction Views: James McBride's latest novel is another winner [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-09-12
A small Pennsylvania town outside Philly hangs on to existence. In the 1930s, Pottstown has three main communities -- descendants of the white founders, Jews who have mostly arrived from Eastern Europe, and Black families who live on Chicken Hill. In the latest wonderful work of storytelling by James McBride, the three communities' fates are entangled together in The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store.
One of the major ways in which the communities are connected is through the little grocery store. Most Jewish families moved away from Chicken Hill. The store is owned by Moshe, who also owns two theaters in town, and his wife, Chona. Although one of her feet is deformed, Miss Chona is a force of nature. Families doing poorly buy "on credit" but rarely have to pay it all back, children "buy" treats for marbles. Her customers are her neighbors. She will take care of them.
Moshe would rather move down off Chicken Hill with the other Jewish families. But Chona wants to stay.
Exasperated, Moshe pointed out the kitchen window toward Pottstown below. "Down the hill is America!" But Chona was adamant. "America is here."
She also writes letters to the editor, such as calling Doc Roberts to task for leading the KKK in parades. Everyone who isn't white or Christian doesn't go to the kindly looking town doctor unless they absolutely must. Doc doesn't take this well. He fell for Chona when they were in high school, and has never gotten over her turning him down to be on the debate team. How could she slight him so, when he tried to bring her into accepted society despite her being Jewish?
Moshe couldn't do without Nate, a leader in the Black community. He's a jack of all trades and someone Moshe can always count on to help get the shows on and clean up afterward. Nate's wife, Addie, works at the store with Chona. When one of the neighborhood urchins, a deaf boy everyone calls Dodo, draws white people's attention, Chona hides him. When catastrophe befalls him, everyone who is not in the white part of town pitches in.
Meanwhile, there is the annual Memorial Day parade. Tt's going to be something else this year.
McBride has a great talent for making each character stand out, and for bringing their stories together in ways both sensible and audacious. He also has the knack for observations that resound with both the characters and the world outside the novel, such as:
The law in this land is what the white man says it is, mister. Plain and simple.
And
The difference was that the white man in the South spoke his hatred in clear, clean, concise terms, whereas the white man in the new country hid his hatred behind stories of wisdom and bravado, with false smiles of sincerity and stories of Jesus Christ and other nonsense that he tossed about like confetti in the Pottstown parade.
In the novel's acknowledgements, McBride writes the story originally was inspired by Sy Friend, retired Variety Club Camp for Handicapped Children director in Pennsylvania. McBride worked there summers while a college student, getting to know the director and the children. Friend's love for the children and fellow human beings, as told by McBride, are inspiring. His legacy shows in more than one character in the novel.
A remarkable story, remarkably told, about a small Pennsylvania town in the 1930s and the people who live there, especially Black people and Jewish people. There are sorrows and joys as the various characters mostly try to do the best they can, who mostly try to stay out of trouble, and who end up entangled in each other's fates. McBride shows compassion and admiration in the characters and their cultures, with deep appreciation for the good that people do when they care about human decency.
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