I just finished James Mc Bride's (2023) novel The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. Placed in the pre-World War I Pottstown, Pennsylvania, the novel tells of a small town where Blacks and Jewish immigrants lived side-by-side in the least desirable part of town, a virtual ghetto. The intersection of these two cultures reflects Mr. McBride's own heritage. The son of a Jewish mother and a Black father, he wrote about his mother and his upbringing in The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to his White Mother (1996), now called an American Classic. There were 12 children, and all 12 went to college and are successful people. James McBride himself is an artist of immense talent and accomplishment. The L.A. Times declared him to be the decade's Great American Novelist.
The main protagonists in The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store are Blacks and Jews. The novel, in my opinion, is about how the Blacks and Jews managed to connect and help one another even as they struggled with their own prejudices as well as those prevalent in the larger culture:" No Niggers, dogs and Jews" permitted. However, another group was also represented. Two of the main characters are a deaf Black child and a White person with cerebral palsy, who are placed together in a hellhole of an institution where they declared mentally "dumb." There they manage to offer each other support and friendship by devising their own method of communication.
I finished the novel deeply moved and in tears. The tears were not about an unhappy ending. Actually the ending was lovely, full of hope. The tears were about the beauty of the work and it's message. The fundamental message is about the humanity of all of us.