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Book Reviewed by:
Abby Edgecumbe
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The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride takes place in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, primarily within the confines of a real-life settlement called Chicken Hill, during the racially contentious 1930s. Chicken Hill's population was largely Jewish and Black, and included Irish, Italian, and Greek immigrants. It was a place where all types of people, united by impoverished circumstances, "pretty much got along," as McBride explains in an interview with NPR, which inspired him to recreate the congenial relationships between his characters. It is this sentiment — of people from different backgrounds relying on the kindness of their neighbors — that holds the novel together.
Opening in 1972 as investigators discover a skeleton at the bottom of an old Chicken Hill well, McBride hits the ground running, setting the stage for an engaging whodunit thriller. But the novel soon...
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