Love Wins: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

One of my favorite things in the world is when a book renders me speechless.

Those books, where, if you start to talk about them, you tear up.

“The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” is one of those.

Full disclosure: I have yet to read McBride’s “Deacon King Kong,” which also received a gazillion accolades. Sometimes, you just have to be in the mood for certain kinds of lit — but when I was doing my holiday shopping (yes, everyone in this house gets at least one book) and I spied this one on the shelf, I grabbed it just for me. I had meant, actually, to end 2023 on this, but ran out of time.

Set in a small town outside Philly in the 1930s, “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” is the tale of two communities — the Jewish and the Black — that live in Chicken Hill, one of the poorest sections of Pottstown. Moshe and Chona Ludlow operate a local music and dance hall and the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, which serves as the communal center of the universe for any number of Chicken Hill residents. Chona, despite a physical disability, is a fierce advocate for her community and a champion of equality. Moshe, to his credit, understood the business value in booking the entertainment that his community wanted, even if he didn’t completely understand it.

Chona’s warm heart and selflessness made her a friend to many, at a time when it wasn’t all that easy to be friends. It was this willingness to help that brought Dodo, a young Black orphan, into her and Moshe’s lives. And it’s this relationship that becomes central to Chicken Hill and the narrative that follows.

To say much more will give away too many plot points. The cast of characters is fairly expansive. There’s Nate and Addie, who are friends and employees of Chona and Moshe. There’s Berniece, Chona’s childhood friend that has long since gone radio silent. There’s Irv and Marv and Doc and Fatty and Big Soup. There’s Miggy and there’s Paper. And then there’s Monkey Pants.

And now I’m getting all weepy again.

To top it off, McBride’s author acknowledgements are almost as much of a tear jerker as the book itself. Just so damn good.

If you enjoy stories about love, about the intricacies of relationships, of family and honor, of mystery and and misfortune and ultimately karma kicking ass, then this is for you. Don’t wait as long as I did, go get yourself some James McBride.