James McBride has impeccable timing, befitting an accomplished jazz musician. His latest book, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, is just like a jazz composition. Each story within it has its own pace, its own focal point, and its own heart, but the soul of all is the same, just like a great improve jazz session.
You begin with the police asking questions about bones found in a well on Chicken Hill, the poor section of Pottsville, Pennsylvania where Jews and African Americans live together in a marginalized neighborhood. You meet Moshe, a Romanian immigrant and Chona, born in America but marked with a limp from polio. You hear the story of building a dance hall, initially for the Jews of the town, but the expansion of this to provide entertainment for the African Americans also. You meet Nat, Moshe’s right hand with a history of his own, and his wife Addie. You meet their nephew Dodo, who lost both his hearing and his mother because their oven exploded. You meet Big Soap, an Italian immigrant, Fatty, Paper, Bernice, who all grew up in Pottsville, and you hear all their stories. And through this is the friendship of “the best dancer in the world” who was the only Jew left on Chicken Hill when the police came to ask those questions – like the fiddler on the roof.
While each of these stories seems to be separate, all the players you meet are put together for the ultimate coda. Despite the hardships you face because of where you are born, who your family is, your skins color or your religion, your humanity and compassion for others is what will keep life moving forward toward a happy and fulfilling future.
The Source 4 Books 