Modern and Contemporary Literature

Featured Speaker: Candace Gietzen

We will read and discuss The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride (ISBN 978-0-593- 42294-6, Penguin Random House 2023).
 
In 1925 a Jewish theater manager, Moshe Ludlow, and his wife Chona are living above the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, which she runs in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. As Moshe prospers, he wants to leave the Chicken Hill neighborhood and the mixed races, but Chona thinks otherwise. She likes the mix of Jews, Italian laborers, and the “colored maids, housekeepers, saloon cleaners, factory workers, and bellhops.” It is this motley crew that tries to save a 12-year-old boy named “Dodo” who’s been branded “deaf and dumb.” As he did in The Good Lord Bird and Deacon King Kong, McBride depicts the serious issues of race and prejudice, but also uses humor and hope. The book was chosen as the best book of 2023 by Barnes and Noble.
 

April 2: Chapters 1-6, pages 1-71
April 16: Chapters 7-12, pages 72-153
April 30: Chapters 13-18, pages 154-226
May 14: Chapters 19-24, pages 229-310
May 28: Chapter 25-Epilogue, pages 311-381

Presenter Biography

Candace Gietzen has degrees from Pomona College and Stanford University. She taught history and comparative government and politics at The Bishop’s School and often used novels to enrich the curriculum.