Jewish Book Club discussion

This is the discussion for James McBride's The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, one the two Moderator's Choices for November (due to no poll in September).

I am super impressed that this author, whose mother was of Jewish ancestry and whose father was Black, has learned so much about Jews and Jewish history since writing his 1995 memoir The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother. I am not quite to the half-way mark but I'm willing to say this book could have been on our educative, strengthening and encouraging list for December's book if it hadn't already taken its place on the bookshelf.

Those of you who've read it can go right ahead and discuss; just remember to avoid spoilers until, say, the 2nd half of November. 😊

As a heavy user of the library, I actually requested this in CD format to get faster and I just finished the book. I will not have spoilers here, but I can tell you that the flow of this book is reminiscent of an amazing jazz composition such that would be at Moshe's dance hall or that the author's would play with his own band.

Looking forward to other's thoughts

Kszr wrote: "As a heavy user of the library, I actually requested this in CD format to get faster and I just finished the book. I will not have spoilers here, but I can tell you that the flow of this book is re..."

Wow, Kszr, you must have done a lot of listening!
I also have the audio but am only halfway through. Well, I'll finish when I finish! So pleased, though, that the narrator is so great. A wonderful surprise since the narrator -- a different one -- for The Good Lord Bird almost ruined it for me and would have, too, if I hadn't gotten wise and turned to the written word.

I'm in awe of his learning about the whole culture at the time (not only the Jews). It's as though he had access to a time machine. Of course, how would I know, since I wasn't there either? Just very convincing and NOT just a costume version of our world today. He has created a world.

Just got ahold of the book, after my wife finished it. I've started it but, alas, it'll take me awhile to finish.

Don't worry; enjoy!

I had a few long drives and a sick kiddo at home. It makes all the difference!

I know what you mean; used to have a long commute. Got through tons of mostly fiction that way. Now just while exercising since while cooking I usually have one going that my husband and I are listening to together.

Five stars. I just loved it! Beautifully written and now I need to read his other book "The Color of Water."

Loved "The Color of Water" and that was why I was happy when this book was selected. I haven't had a chance to read any more of his work. It is all on my TBR now. Can't get that below 100 no matter how hard I try!

I have been waiting to ask - does anyone else think that the Hassidic Dancer is to be like the Fiddler on the Roof?

Kszr wrote: "... I have been waiting to ask - does anyone else think that the Hassidic Dancer is to be like the Fiddler on the Roof?"

I can't answer that, Kszr. I remember the dancer early in the book -- who says he won't dance with anybody not his wife but ends up dancing like a dancing genius all night. Right? I got the book but have been listening on audio, so that was a while ago. And rather than my going to the book and looking it up, maybe somebody else will jump in!

Whenever there was a problem for Moshe to deal with throughout the book, the dancer showed up. To me the appearance was like the fiddler - whenever there is a challenge for the Jewish people, the fiddler was there. For this book, it was the dancer.

Thank you, Kszr. I'll plug that thought in for the remainder of the book! 🥰

Interesting idea. There is one line in the book, very near the end that I did not understand. The author said, Malachi never came back to the town, or some such words. I thought I missed something in the story, or misunderstood who was at the bottom of the well.

Jan, my dad is reading this for his book club next month. Ive never read McBride so where do you suggest I start here, Deacon King Kong, or Color of Water.

Irene wrote: "Interesting idea. There is one line in the book, very near the end that I did not understand. The author said, Malachi never came back to the town, or some such words. I thought I missed something ..."

That was one of the reasons it struck me.

Jan wrote: "Thank you, Kszr. I'll plug that thought in for the remainder of the book! 🥰"

Brina wrote: "Jan, my dad is reading this for his book club next month. Ive never read McBride so where do you suggest I start here, Deacon King Kong, or Color of Water."

Oh, it's fine to start with this one, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. It's such a great book to read right now. He can then go back to The Color of Water, and he'll be amazed at how much the author has learned! Well, it was about 30 years ago that he wrote it, and may we all learn a lot in that much time! :)

I haven't read Deacon King Kong. The narrator of the audiobook of The Good Lord Bird messed that one up for me until, at the very end, I turned to the book itself. I think I would have felt very different about that one if I hadn't listened to the audiobook. The narrator of Heaven and Earth is a different one, and he's just fantastic.

Irene wrote: "Interesting idea. There is one line in the book, very near the end that I did not understand. The author said, Malachi never came back to the town, or some such words. I thought I missed something ..."

Kszr wrote, "That was one of the reasons it struck me."

Don't tell, don't tell! 😉

Kszr wrote: "Whenever there was a problem for Moshe to deal with throughout the book, the dancer showed up. To me the appearance was like the fiddler - whenever there is a challenge for the Jewish people, the f..."

Thank you for bringing up the point about Malachi, Kszr. I can't say if his role is the same as the fiddler's, but you're onto something. I have been rereading the actual book and looking at those parts. I haven't gotten to the end, but Malachi has a particular role. Something related to "Malachi" meaning "messenger," and in the Hebrew bible, an angel is a messenger. I just reread the part in the middle where after Chona is back in the hospital, sending Moshe into the doldrums, and after he exchanges humorous letters with Malachi, he becomes able to think clearly for the first time in a while.

If this is so, it is very subtly done. I am going to be discussing it in my local group next week, and there are several people in there who are practically allergic to any magical realism or anything supernatural. For example, Eternal Life sent them into a tailspin. But I believe Malachi will get in under their radar!

Mel wrote: "Just got ahold of the book, after my wife finished it. I've started it but, alas, it'll take me awhile to finish."

Curious about your reaction, Mel. Did you read it?

Jan wrote: "Kszr wrote: "Whenever there was a problem for Moshe to deal with throughout the book, the dancer showed up. To me the appearance was like the fiddler - whenever there is a challenge for the Jewish ..."
I agree it's not exact, but he seems to play a key role.

I think that Malachi evokes Eliyahu haNavi (Elijah the Prophet). Like Elijah, Malachi is a zealot about religious observance; he has the gift of prophecy; he wanders among the Jewish people in Exile; he appears to assist Jews at times of great stress; and Jewish tradition suggests that Elijah never died, but instead went straight from earth to Heaven (like Malachi, who disappears during Hurricane Agnes but is not reported to have died).

Daniel wrote: "I think that Malachi evokes Eliyahu haNavi (Elijah the Prophet). Like Elijah, Malachi is a zealot about religious observance; he has the gift of prophecy; he wanders among the Jewish people in Exil..."

Oh, that's great, Daniel.
I recently read a book on Elijah. Haven't gotten around to reviewing though. Becoming Elijah: Prophet of Transformation We read it in my local group, helped by the fact Amazon was selling it for a pittance plus another group member has studied online with the author.
I'm rereading Heaven and Earth. I had listened, meaning it was spread out over too long a time. So although I thoroughly enjoyed the story, am benefiting from returning to the book. I have made it about 2/3 or so then flipped to ehe end and working back from there. Just saw that at the end Malachi is referred to as the "magician."
Can you relate your view to what Kszr said about the fiddler of Fiddler on the Roof? I mean, does it fit? Any similarity there?

I believe the Fiddler in Fiddler on the Roof is metaphor for the precariousness of Jewish life in Exile. As Tevye says: "But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy. You may ask 'Why do we stay up there if it's so dangerous?'" The fiddler is not a real character in the story; he's a metaphor for the challenges of Jewish life characteristic of all the Jewish characters in the story. Malachi, on the other hand, is a delightful, idiosyncratic character in the novel. In some ways, he is the only real rabbinic character: Malachi is an authority on Jewish matters, on the mysteries of life, a spiritual guide, at least for Moshe (by the way, all the other clergy in the novel are either sycophants or corrupt). At one point, Moshe asks him: "Are you a rebbe?" Malachi answers: "Depends on who's asking." There are certainly "magical" aspects to Malachi, but he is so much more than a metaphor.

Daniel wrote: "... There are certainly "magical" aspects to Malachi, but he is so much more than a metaphor."

Thanks for expressing so clearly what I was just calling "subtle," Daniel. Yes, he may be a metaphor and a magician but also a real character. So I don't think will ruffle the feathers of my fellow group members who can't tolerate magical realism.
Also, based on my experience, the way it is in real life. We sometimes attribute miraculous aspects to others who are having a positive impact while never knowing whether we're reading that into the situation.

I hope this book wins some humongous award.

Jan wrote: "Mel wrote: "Just got ahold of the book, after my wife finished it. I've started it but, alas, it'll take me awhile to finish."

Curious about your reaction, Mel. Did you read it?"

Jan -- I finished it several weeks ago and have been wrestling with a formal review -- not that James McBride needs my endorsement, not with 50,000+ ratings and 5,500 reviews in GoodReads.

This book moved me like no other I've read in the last few years. As a writer, it's a humbling experience. I appreciate the comments on this board, especially Malachi as the Fiddler. I'm sure the whole flood thing is also a metaphor. Or not.
Anyway, for better or worse, here is the review I posted earlier today.
--
Years ago, I became so depressed reading Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins, I stopped writing. Why bother? I thought. I’ll never be able to write like that. Happily, that hiatus lasted only a couple of weeks.

Had the book been The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, not sure I would have ever started up again. It’s that good.

James McBride doesn’t tell stories. He spins yarns of humanity. They meander for pages yet always find their way back to the central point. He does this with a grace of language that’s breathtaking.

From the first sentence of the first chapter, the reader knows they’re in for something unique:

“There was an old Jew who lived at the site of the old synagogue up on Chicken Hill, in the town of Pottstown, Pa, and when the Pennsylvania State Troopers found the skeleton at the bottom of an old well on Hayes Street, the old Jew’s house was the first place they went to.”

Or this, a few paragraphs on:

“They produced a piece of jewelry, handed it to him, and asked what it was.
“A mezuzah, the old man said.
“It matched the one on the door, the cops said. Don’t these things belong on doors?
“The old man shrugged. Jewish life is portable, he said.”

How does a Black author write with such understated insight about the Jewish American immigrant experience? No doubt much came from his white ethnically Jewish mother, an émigré from Poland, whose impact McBride chronicled in The Color of Water. (His 2013 novel, The Good Lord Bird, won the National Book Award.)

McBride introduces his protagonists—the Jews and Blacks up on Chicken Hill and the whites down the hill who run things—like a Black Tevye describing an American Anatevka. There’s even a fiddler-like character who serendipitously appears at moments of crisis to assuage the pain.

McBride’s characters in The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store eke out a hardscrabble life amid discrimination and struggle during the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Both the Blacks and the Jews are relatively new immigrants—the Blacks, migrants from Jim Crow’s South; the Jews, from assorted pogroms in central Europe.

The opening chapters are populated mostly by the Jews of Chicken Hill—Moshe, owner of a couple of music and dance halls, and his wife, Chona, whose affliction with Polio has not dimmed her essential goodness or sense of justice. It’s Chona who owns the grocery of the book’s title.

The Blacks of Chicken Hill are even more impoverished than the Jews and, being Black, more discriminated against. In the opening chapters, the central Black characters -- Nate and Addie -- play supporting roles.

McBride gradually unwinds the complexity of their lives, their stories, their humanity, along with those of other Blacks trying to survive a soul crushing system. With a hint here, a detail there, McBride unwinds a dark plot that envelops both the Blacks and Jews of Chicken Hill, an evil plot that comes together with heart-pounding force, sly humor, and irony.

I’m loathe to reveal more, though other reviewers will (and have). Suffice it to say there are good reasons why The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is a best seller and will remain so.

Mel wrote: "Jan wrote: "Mel wrote: "Just got ahold of the book, after my wife finished it. I've started it but, alas, it'll take me awhile to finish."

'Curious about your reaction, Mel. Did you read it?' "

Oh, boy -- wonderful review, Mel. Glad you weren't deterred from writing for long. And don't they say that if you're a writer, you have to write?

I'm not sure he got all that from his mother. His memoir came out in 1995 and I think it made clear he didn't have it then. Remember when he attended a Jewish friend's wedding, and it was all new to him? She died 15 years later in 2010. I don't think she was talking to him all that much about her past, which she identified with her abusive father to some extent. So I too was struck. He must have somehow immersed himself because you don't get that from research alone. Maybe he's done a book talk somewhere where he answered questions!

I have a burning question. Well, several, but will stick with this one. How do you pronounce "Chona?" The audible narrator was overall fantastic but he pronounced it "Ch" instead of like the "Ch" in Chanukah, and it grated on me.
Actually I think I noticed we have a member of this group who shares that name. Maybe she would tell us!

Hi Jan -- I ordered The Color of Water just today, because my daughter swore for weeks that her dogeared copy was somewhere in the apartment...It isn't. I was blown away by his pitch perfect Yiddish sensibility, and to hit those notes over and over and over. Maybe he spent real quality time chatting up the old folks at some Hebrew Home?

"Chona" is Chana, no? I don't know how poor rural Blacks would pronounce the name, but I wouldn't rule out the CH (as in CHildren), rather than a guttural 'Chanukah'. Lemme tell ya, auditioning voices for my audiobook, it was a real challenge finding someone who could handle German and French and Polish and Yiddish accents -- plus assorted American, and do so as a story teller, not a booming Roger Radio reading the news at 6.

Finally, I must humbly point out that McBride and I both attended the Columbia School of Journalism...albeit eight years apart. But still...

Mel wrote: "Hi Jan -- I ordered The Color of Water just today, because my daughter swore for weeks that her dogeared copy was somewhere in the apartment...It isn't. I was blown away by his pitch perfect Yiddis..."

Ha -- have had that scenario. May I predict: after it comes, you'll spot the original. 😄 But at least you'll have the pleasure of a new book arriving in the mail like a gift. I love the internet for its plentiful used books.

I don't know how he did it. Maybe he attended Torah study for ten years plus chatted up the old folks -- plus maybe some literary friends too.

Yes, a bad narrator can ruin a book. That's how I felt about the narrator for The Good Lord Bird. The narrator for this one is a superb actor -- but still the chapter re Chona's death didn't move me to tears until I read it on the page. Books with memorable death scenes are a particular genre for me.

... Well, you both were in great company!

...but "Chana" would be "Hannah," wouldn't it? I listened to some other much less special book on audio a while ago where the narrator called that "Chana."

In English, for sure. But to a Yiddish speaking European immigrant? Not so sure.

I think I am coming in slightly under the rave. Maybe at a 3.8? I have always felt its hard when a book gets an amazing 5 star stellar book from nearly everyone. It sets the expectations really high. And there were certainly things I liked about it.

I am not inclined towards the format that McBride uses, with the narration from each character in the community building towards the story. It took me awhile to take to it with Deacon King Kong, which ended up being a 5 star and Top Ten read for me. But I listened to that in Audio, and I rather think that would have made a difference for this book too. I kept hoping to fall in love with it more as it fell together, and I think it was actually falling apart for me at the end, right when others found it magical and connective.

I was saddened and troubled by some of the more difficult events of the story. My heart broke in various chapters, and I think the residue of these traumas were not quite lifted. I know there is love and community and selflessness in the book, (and in life), but certain cruelties rather stayed with me. I almost felt too sensitive and tender for it. I did not find it an escape.

As always, McBride writes beautifully, and I am moved by his writing, even beyond the format. This is my fourth book of his and he somehow never disappoints. I am glad I read it, and I do look forward to talking about it with everyone.

I agree with Daniel and KSZR about Melachi being a kind of Messenger/Elijah figure. He and his cryptic prophetic nature, was my favorite part of the book. Had there been more of him, I probably would have liked it even more.

I so much appreciated Kszr as the first to bring up the out-of-the-ordinary role of Malachi as well as everyone else who chimed in. I had not noticed. May have been due to the audio format and spread out over too much time, but, who knows? I may or may not have become alert to it and am just glad that I did since it deepened my reaction to the book. You really helped. Thank you, everybody!

Daniel wrote: "I believe the Fiddler in Fiddler on the Roof is metaphor for the precariousness of Jewish life in Exile. As Tevye says: "But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us i..."

Fascinating! Thanks for the amazing explanation.