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The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is a novel written by James McBride. Released in 2023, it details the experiences of Black and Jewish inhabitants in the Chicken Hill neighborhood of Pottstown, Pennsylvania during the 1920s and '30s.
Characters[]
- Nate Timblin
- Dodo
- Moshe Ludlow
- Chona Flohr Ludlow
- Malachi
- Rabbi Yakov Ludlow
- Mickey Katz
- The Hassid
Publisher's summary[]
The new novel from the bestselling, National Book Award-winning, Oprah Book Club-picked, Barack Obama favourite James McBride.
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 neighbourhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows.
As these characters' stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins 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.
Full summary[]
Part One: Gone[]
Chapter One: The Hurricane[]
June 1972. A skeleton is found in an old well in Chicken Hill. The cops question an old Jewish man named Malachi but before an investigation can go any further, a hurricane destroys the evidence (along with large swathes of Pottstown, Pennsylvania).
Chapter Two: A Bad Sign[]
Forty-seven years previously, theater manager Moshe Ludlow runs into a sticky situation. After hosting a popular Jewish musician in his theater, Moshe tries to send out advertisements to the upcoming event. Due to an error of translation, the ads fail miserably.
It seems like the event will fall through. In this miserable state, Moshe meets the polio-disfigured daughter of Rabbi Yakov Flohr (who also owns the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store). Moshe falls in love with Chona while she recites the Midrash Rabbah to him.
After he is married, Moshe is able to reverse his bad fortune. As he is cleaning up from the event, Moshe meets a mysterious Hassid (who was present at the beginning of the event and claimed to have only visited to find a wife) who flees due to an explosion Moshe hears in the distance.
Chapter Three: Twelve[]
to be added
Full summary (old, copied from SuperSummary)[]
In June 1972, state troopers discover a skeleton in an old well in Chicken Hill, a predominantly Black neighborhood of Pottstown, Pennsylvania. The next day, Hurricane Agnes destroys all evidence of the murder. Forty-seven years before the skeleton’s discovery, a theater manager named Moshe Ludlow marries Chona, the youngest daughter of Rabbi Flohr, who owns the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When Moshe’s fortunes grow, he suggests that he and his wife sell the grocery store and join the growing number of Jewish people leaving Chicken Hill. However, Chona refuses to leave her beloved neighborhood. Twelve years into the Ludlows’ marriage, Chona falls ill, and none of the doctors they consult can diagnose her. Her friends and neighbors in Chicken Hill’s Black community rally to support her, and she eventually recovers.
A Black 12-year-old named Dodo lives with his aunt and uncle, Addie and Nate Timblin, after the death of his mother. The state government wants to institutionalize Dodo because he is deaf, and Chona and Moshe hide the boy in their apartment to keep him safe. Chona comes to think of the bright, lively boy as her own child. Doc Roberts, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, agrees to look for Dodo at the request of a cousin who works for the state government. Roberts comes to the grocery store and demands that Chona tell him where the boy is, and the two have a fierce argument. Chona has a seizure, and Roberts assaults the unconscious woman. Dodo hurls himself at the doctor, who calls on police officers to apprehend the boy. Dodo attempts to escape by jumping off the roof. He breaks several bones in the fall and is transferred from the Pottstown Hospital to the Pennhurst State Hospital. There, he befriends a boy with cerebral palsy, the only other child in an overcrowded ward filled with men. Dodo decides to call his new friend Monkey Pants.
Dodo’s uncle, Nate Timblin, was once incarcerated in Graterford Prison, where he developed a fearsome reputation as Nate Love. The Timblins visit the comatose Chona in the hospital, and Addie tells her husband that she saw Doc Roberts assault Chona. Nate urges her not to tell anyone else because challenging the influential white doctor’s version of events will only cause trouble. A week after the assault, Chona awakens from her coma to see her husband, friends, and neighbors gathered around her. She passes away soon afterward.
After his wife’s death, Moshe decides to sell the grocery store. While Addie and Nate help him clean the store, Moshe’s wealthy cousin, Isaac, arrives and offers to pay the Timblins for information about Doc Roberts, but they decline. The Timblins resolve to rescue Dodo from Pennhurst. Five weeks into his time at the sanatorium, Dodo sees an attendant called Son of Man for the first time. The man waits until the nurses’ station is unattended and then strokes Dodo’s torso and calls him pretty. Monkey Pants warns his friend that Son of Man is dangerous. One night, Son of Man sexually abuses Dodo. Monkey Pants stops Son of Man and draws the nurses’ attention but suffers a fatal seizure as a result.
A woman who works at Pennhurst warns the Timblins about Son of Man and explains how a patient could escape by using the old tunnels below the sanatorium. She offers to arrange a meeting between Nate and an egg deliveryman who uses the tunnels every morning. Nate gains access to the ward where Dodo is being held by hiding in the delivery man's cart, and he kills Son of Man with a kitchen knife.
Doc Roberts took the mezuzah Chona was wearing during the assault. He keeps it in his pocket, anxiously waiting for an opportunity to dispose of the evidence. Rumors about the doctor and Chona spread from Chicken Hill, even reaching Gus Plitzka, the chairman of Pottstown’s city council. Plitzka is indebted to a mob boss. Roberts decides to dispose of the mezuzah in a lot with an old well. While he’s there, one of the mobster’s men mistakes Roberts for Plitzka and breaks his jaw, sending him hurtling into an open well. Dodo and Nate relocate to South Carolina, where they are joined by Addie. Dodo changes his name to Nate Love II in honor of his uncle, lives a long and fulfilling life, and has many descendants.
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