Welcome to . . . Read With Us Discussion Day
Bonny and Carole and I are posting discussion question(s) today for our latest RWU book . . . The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. Join the discussion (which you’re welcome do even if you didn’t read the book) by commenting on our blogs. I’ll be answering your posts within the comment section for this discussion — and you can comment on other people’s comments, as well. Y’know . . . like in a real book group.
Let’s begin!
First . . . I’d really like to know what you thought of the book. What did you like best – or least – about The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.
Second . . . One of the comments I hear most from people who have read the book is that . . . there were so many characters to keep track of! (And there really were. . . ) So I’m curious. What did you think about that? Were there too many characters? Did you find them distracting? Who were your favorites? Who were you rooting for — and did any of the characters do anything that surprised you?
I can’t wait to hear what you think!
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Don’t forget: We’ll be discussing the book on Zoom tonight – 7:00 pm Eastern Time. There’s still time for you to join us! Just let me know of your interest either with a comment or by sending me an email (see sidebar, above) — and I’ll send a Zoom invitation.
PS – If you are planning to join us on the Zoom, but haven’t received an invitation from me (I sent them yesterday), please let me know so I can get the Zoom link to you today.
I liked Heaven and Earth… but I liked The Good Lord Bird better. I love the hope that this book gave me… the ideal of living in a community that … well… is a community for each other!
I confess to getting entirely lost on most of the characters. (I have printed out a list of them for tonight’s discussion and I don’t remember so many of them!) My favorites (and for me the most memorable) were Dodo and Monkey Pants.. who I loved and Son of Man who I hated. I have thought about the plethora of characters though… and it seems to me that this was the best way to show the depth of the community of Chicken Hill.
I also liked the book, but had a little trouble when I wrote my review on goodreads. On the one hand, it is a wonderful story of love, acceptance, and justice, written in beautiful prose by James McBride. On the other hand, some of that important story is buried in the meandering tale with so many characters, detours, and side plots that the initial mystery gets lost, and then it all gets wrapped up so quickly that it almost feels like an afterthought. I started listening to the audiobook but could not keep track of the characters and had to switch to Kindle format. Even then I had to take notes to understand who and what was important. I wonder where the editor was, but maybe McBride only gets edited lightly. A star rating is really irrelevant for this book, because in the big picture, it’s simply an excellent novel, and my issues with it are details. It’s also an intensely personal book, so I understand why McBride wanted to include all the characters and tell all the stories. If I had to give it a rating, it would be five stars for the story, three stars for the execution, and would settle on 3.5 stars, rounded up to four. I want to read McBride’s memoir, The Color of Water, to learn more about his grandmother, Hudis Shilsky.
I liked this book more and more as I got further into it and I,too , want to read McBride’s memoir now. I as read The Lord God Bird but didn’t really get it. This one is as more meaningful to me.
To reply to Bonnie, I thought the mystery really wasn’t important to the main message of this book. I saw it as a framing for the main story and a way for the “villain” to get his deserved fate. He was the cause of so much suffering but also, paradoxically, unimportant in the people’s deepest spiritual lives. His disappearance and death by happenstance and coincidence is an illustration of what the book is about. Things happen. Life goes on. The community coming together in spite of and because of him is the bigger message. Looking forward to the discussion tonight.
I really liked this book. And I think the many, many, characters helped McBride to show the true depth and complexity of real communities. It wasn’t just “the hill”, or the black community, or the Jewish community — there were subgroups and well, depth. But it was hard to keep track of everyone (I didn’t keep notes or such, but read on Kindle, so I could search characters if I’d forgotten when I “met” them) — and now I’m speaking from memory without a copy of the book, but my favorites were Chona and Monkey Pants. And Miggy was fascinating as well.
Laughing at myself, because really, I could have just said — “what Kat said”
I haven’t finished it yet. Listening to it has been a bit confusing to me – probably because I just don’t really enjoy audio books. BUT, I do like this story. A lot. I’ll be joining in the discussion tonight (though not sure how much I’ll hve to say – only up to chapter 6 so far).
This would have been a VERY difficult book for me on audio. Even in print, there were a few characters (Fatty, Big Soap are two examples) who I didn’t feel the significance of. I had to skim back a few times to verify a few folks. That’s one thing in print, another thing entirely on audio. So bummed I had to miss last night’s conversation.
I loved the many characters and I’m really looking forward to our discussion tonight!
I enjoyed the many characters and how they showed the depth of the community. They felt real to me and reminded me of the town where I grew up.
I was a little lost at the beginning with all the characters but I think as they interacted more and maybe by the middle of the book, I had a good handle on who was who. I think Chona and Dodo were my favorite characters.
It took forever for me to be at the top of the library hold list. I finally received the novel on Sayruday. Unfortunately I haven’t finished but my initial impression is so many characters and why do not authors use quotation marks anymore. Sometimes I just can’t finish a book due to the lack. I will power through!
Thanks again for a great discussion last night!
Sadly, I just couldn’t make yesterday work as I had so many directions to go. I love this book and I love McBride. He braids all the characters of a community together so well–a community of people who work together, who watch out for each other, who try hard to be a the best, and care for, for their neighbors. This community was made up of a wide variety of families, good people, bad people, and of various color and circumstances. It may be difficult to keep track of all the characters, but putting in the effort to read about Chicken Hill is a joy! This book has all the feels, all the ups and downs, all the joy, and all the sorrows of life. McBride brings feeling into the story better than most any author by showing what it’s like to be black, to be Jewish, to be disabled, to be poor and to be a hard worker and still not get ahead. He brings in all the people of the community and it’s up to us to want to meet them all and see them all and enjoy the ride he takes us on.