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The Color of Water

A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother

by James McBride

ISBN: 1573225789
ISBN-13: 9781573225786
Format: Paperback

Summary

A young black man's search to uncover his white mother's past and his own identity. Born in Poland, the daughter of a rabbi, James McBride's mother grew up in the Southern United States, ran away to Harlem, married a black man and founded a Baptist church, and then proceeded to put 12 children through college. McBride examines her life, his own childhood in Brooklyn's Red Hook housing projects, and the force of his mother's love which guided his and his siblings' lives.

Customer Reviews

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Media Reviews

"An eloquent narrative in which a young black man searches for his roots-against the wishes of his mother. Mc Bride, a professional saxophonist and former staff writer for the Boston Globe and Washington Post, grew up with 11 siblings in an all-black Brooklyn, New York, housing project. As a child, he became aware that his mother was different from others around him: She was white, and she kept secrets...McBride's mother should take much pleasure in this loving if sometimes uncomfortable memoir, which embodies family values of the best kind. Other readers will take pleasure in it as well."

   -- Kirkus

"James McBride evokes his childhood trek across the great racial divide with the kind of power and grace that touches and uplifts all hearts."    -- Bebe Moore Campbell

"...[S]uffused with issues of race, religion and identity. Yet those issues, so much a part of their lives and stories, are not central. The triumph of the book-and of their lives-is that race and religion are transcended in these interwoven histories by family love, the sheer force of a mother's will and her unshakable insistence that only two things really mattered: school and church...it is her voice-unique, incisive, at once unsparing and ironic-that is dominant in this paired history, and its richest contribution....The two stories, son's and mother's, beautifully juxtaposed, strike a graceful note at a time of racial polarization."

   -- New York Times Book Review

"As James discovers the facts of [his white mother's] childhood, he hears about a disturbed family of Orthodox Jews living on the edge of a Southern town, in a no-man's land between the black and white communities. So the book tells two life stories, Ruth's and James's-both stories are gripping and unusuals. Both tell of human struggles in a country divided by religion and race."    -- Claire Rosser

   -- Kliatt

"James McBride's efforts in re-creating his mother's life deserve much praise and merit. From his personal vantage point, we come to realize how serious our country's "racial cancer" really is; and the indisputable possibilities for survival....However, more captivating is what's written between the lines. For James, who craved to know his ethnic roots, inadvertently discovered the complexities of the human will and the courage manifested in the will to survive. He also discovered that along the cruel path that life bestowed upon them, the world that Ruth McBride Jordan built for her twelve children, with no money and no skills, became the difference between success and failure. 'The Color of Water' is in reality one woman's triumph over adversity and devastation."    -- Desiree Agudo

Bibliographic Details

Publisher: Berkley Pub Group
Published date: 1997
Size: 5.25 x 8.25 inches
Weight: 0.6 pounds

Publisher's Notes

"The Color of Water" tells the story of James McBride and his mother--a rabbi's daughter, born in Poland and raised in the South, who fled to Harlem, married a black man, founded a church, and put 12 children through college. Lavishly praised by critics, this tribute to a remarkable woman is an eloquent exploration of what family really means.

Other Editions

Hardcover Illustrated - Putnam Pub Group (1996) - from $4.00
Paperback Reissue - Berkley Pub Group (1997) - from $1.00

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Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother

McBride, James

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