The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride *****

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride begins in 1972 with the discovery of a skeleton in an abandoned well along with a pendant and some red threads. The murder investigation had barely started when Hurricane Agnes wiped away everything, thus closing the case. Still, the reader can’t help wondering about the skeleton’s identity and its murderer…who will not be apprehended.

The rest of the book goes back to 1925, to Chicken Hill, Pottstown, PA, the place where the Negroes, Jews, and immigrants are isolated from the white families who most claim to be descendants from the Mayflower. The book explores the subtle ways Pottstown’s underclass is marginalized, but it also celebrates their spirit, community, and ingenuity.

This is a book of many unforgettable characters. The is Chona, the Jewish proprietor of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. She extends credit to the people of Chicken Hill and friendship to their children. Her husband runs dances with Black and Jewish music and uses the profits to underwrite his wife’s generosity. Dodo is a twelve-year-old boy who is deaf, but brilliant. Paper, short for newspaper, was the source of news for the mostly illiterate residents of Chicken Hill. “Her beauty, her easy laughter, glimmering eyes, and instant smile for every stranger she met, made her a magnet for men. Men spilled their guts to her.”

Pottstown was run by and for powerful white men. The town closed for the annual KKK parade. “They forgot all the behaviors that, back home, could have you seeing your life flashing before your eyes as a noose was lowered around your neck—or worse, staring at iron bars for twenty years with your hopes flatter than yesterday’s beer, dreaming about old junk that you should’ve sold, or deer you should’ve shot but missed, or women you should have married and didn’t, having wandered face-first into the five-fingered karate chop of the white man’s laws. A colored person couldn’t survive in the white man’s world being ignorant. They had to know the news. That’s why Paper was so important. She was a Pottstown special.”

Warnings: Racism, antisemitism, rape, and abuse of inmates of a mental institution.

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I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy ****

I'm Glad My Mom Died is Jennette McCurdy’s memoir of growing up as a child actor in a dysfunctional family that included sexual abuse. While the author had family issues and, later, alcoholism and codependency, her main challenges were eating disorders--anorexia and bulimia. Jennette is best known for playing Samantha Puckett on Nickelodeon. This memoir ends before her issues are resolved. A memoir about dysfunctional families and eating disorders.

The author reveals an interesting point: growing up in a dysfunctional family developed her as an actor. As a child, Jennette did her codependent best to be the person needed to bring peace to her chaotic family. At any moment, she acted happy or sympathetic or whatever was required. She was the consummate people pleaser. This prepared her to act and assume whatever role the script and the director required. “I’m nothing without direction.”

Her life was difficult. Her mother was dying from breast cancer. Until she became a successful actor, her family couldn’t pay their bills. Her mother was a hoarder. Until she was eight, her mother wiped her after she went to the bathroom, and until she was eighteen, her mother bathed her. However, despite all this, a major part of the book is about anorexia and bulimia.

If you are triggered by binging and purging, this might not be the book for you.

The internet reveals how McCurdy’s life improved following this memoir, but sadly the book was published before the happy ending.

WOW! Amazon offers over a dozen different summaries of this book.

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Pachinko by Min Jin Lee ****

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee follows matriarch Sunja’s Korean family from the 1930s to 1989 through the Japanese occupation, World War II, the Cold War, and the Korean War. In the 1930s Sunja became pregnant with Hansu’s child. When he revealed that he had a wife and three daughters in Osaka, she spurned him. It later turned out that he was a rich yakuza (gangster). Instead, she married Isak (a Christian minister). With her new husband, she moved to Osaka as things were dire in Korea (because of the Japanese occupation). She suffered from racism and poverty in Japan even though Hansu stayed in touch and offered support. The book follows her family, her son with Hansu (Noa), her son with Isak (Mozasu), and Mozasu’s son (Solomon). A story of living with racism and poverty (not from the United States).

The poor and disadvantaged Korean families that lived in Japan were maintained by the women. This is a parallel to the situation of black families in the United States. There are many other parallels. More than poverty and prejudice, this is a book about strong women.

Do not let the almost 500 pages discourage you from this book. It reads very quickly.

During the period of this book, Japan was superior to Korea, but this has changed, and Japan’s oppression of Koreans has somewhat abated.

The end of the book (1989) and the Seoul Olympics (1988) marked a turning point for Koreans in Japan and Koreans, in general. In 1991 Japan created a Special Permanent Resident classification for Koreans which improved their legal position.

When the book ended South Korea had a per capita GDP of under $6,000, but since then it has risen to over $30,000. During the same period, total GDP rose from under 250 billion to over 1.5 trillion. Compared to Korea, in 1989 Japan was 12 times larger, but today, that comparison is just over 3. On a per capita basis, Korea has gone from ¼ of Japan to near parity.

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The Patriarchs (The origins of inequality) by Angela Saini ***

The Patriarch by Angela Saini explores the history of patriarchy (misogyny and subjugation of women) from 7400 BCE to the present. She asks two questions. First is there a biological basis for patriarchy (Is it inevitable)? Second, what is the cause of patriarchy (Is it inevitable)? Her first answer is a resounding, No! To quote, Betty Hutton in Annie Get Your Gun, “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better.” Unfortunately, the second question is unanswered. Contemporary history does not recognize universal progressions but sees each society or culture as unique. Regardless, the author shows that each society or culture returns to patriarchy. I found this disconcerting, depressing, and frightening.

The book opens with, and often returns to, Çatalhöyük in Southern Anatolia, sometimes described as the first city in the world—before Harappans, Sumerians, Skara Brae, Stonehenge, pyramids, and Olmecs, but not predating the Yang-Shao. I suspect that the reason for passing over the Yang-Shao is that this book is distinctly Eurocentric. Çatalhöyük is an interesting place to start because all the evidence suggests that it was gender-blind. There were no distinctions between men and women. The author teases us with the thought that we might find the genesis of patriarchy. We never do.

This pattern is repeated throughout the book. The author finds a society/culture where there is equality (Çatalhöyük, Minoans, Sparta, Soviet Union, Tehran in 1976, United States before 2016) and attempts to explain how the patriarchy returned. By my reading, she is never successful.

It is a shame that patriarchy can’t be blamed on a fundamental (biological) difference between men and women, because history shows it reappearing repeatedly. If patriarchy is not innate, why does it continue?

P.S. The book tends to repeat itself. Regularly throughout my reading, I found myself wishing for a good editor.

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