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

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

4.02 of 5 stars 4.02 · rating details · 41,183 ratings · 2,541 reviews

Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared "light-skinned" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve black children. James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, "The Color Of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother."The son...more Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared "light-skinned" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve black children. James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, "The Color Of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother."The son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white, James McBride grew up in "orchestrated chaos" with his eleven siblings in the poor, all-black projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. "Mommy," a fiercely protective woman with "dark eyes full of pep and fire," herded her brood to Manhattan's free cultural events, sent them off on buses to the best (and mainly Jewish) schools, demanded good grades, and commanded respect. As a young man, McBride saw his mother as a source of embarrassment, worry, and confusion--and reached thirty before he began to discover the truth about her early life and long-buried pain.

In The Color of Water, McBride retraces his mother's footsteps and, through her searing and spirited voice, recreates her remarkable story. The daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi, she was born Rachel Shilsky (actually Ruchel Dwara Zylska) in Poland on April 1, 1921. Fleeing pogroms, her family emigrated to America and ultimately settled in Suffolk, Virginia, a small town where anti-Semitism and racial tensions ran high. With candor and immediacy, Ruth describes her parents' loveless marriage; her fragile, handicapped mother; her cruel, sexually-abusive father; and the rest of the family and life she abandoned.

At seventeen, after fleeing Virginia and settling in New York City, Ruth married a black minister and founded the all- black New Brown Memorial Baptist Church in her Red Hook living room. "God is the color of water," Ruth McBride taught her children, firmly convinced that life's blessings and life's values transcend race. Twice widowed, and continually confronting overwhelming adversity and racism, Ruth's determination, drive and discipline saw her dozen children through college--and most through graduate school. At age 65, she herself received a degree in social work from Temple University.

Interspersed throughout his mother's compelling narrative, McBride shares candid recollections of his own experiences as a mixed-race child of poverty, his flirtations with drugs and violence, and his eventual self- realization and professional success. The Color of Water touches readers of all colors as a vivid portrait of growing up, a haunting meditation on race and identity, and a lyrical valentine to a mother from her son.(less)

Paperback, 10th Annieversary Edition, 328 pages

Published February 7th 2006 by Riverhead Books (first published January 23rd 1996)

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Jul 10, 2009 Sparrow rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Those disappointed with Run, by Ann Patchett

Recommended to Sparrow by: Denise Jubber

Shelves: hate-the-writing-respect-the-story, reviewed

If Cheaper By the Dozen, by Frank Gilbraith Jr., and The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, ever somehow met and had an "I like you as a friend, not a lover" child, The Color of Water would be it - race and a ridiculous amount of kids. The concept is compelling, and I would recommend this book to anyone who was disappointed that Run, Ann Patchett's most recent book, didn't deal more directly with race issues in a mixed-race family. Nominally, this book is a tribute to James McBride's mother, who was...more If Cheaper By the Dozen, by Frank Gilbraith Jr., and The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, ever somehow met and had an "I like you as a friend, not a lover" child, The Color of Water would be it - race and a ridiculous amount of kids. The concept is compelling, and I would recommend this book to anyone who was disappointed that Run, Ann Patchett's most recent book, didn't deal more directly with race issues in a mixed-race family. Nominally, this book is a tribute to James McBride's mother, who was an unarguably interesting person. McBride's personal issues with his mother clouded her story, however, and his inability to emotionally separate from her enough to treat her as a character left me feeling that he bit off more than he could chew when he decided to write this "tribute". McBride reflects that his mother was not comfortable having her story told and preferred not to discuss her past with him, which leads me to ask whether "tribute" is an appropriate word to put in the title of this book. It would have been a stronger narrative if McBride had openly written The Color of Water as his own story, not his mother's.

Toward the end of the book, McBride admits that he experienced more emotion hearing his mother's story than his mother did telling it. This comes through awkwardly within the narrative. For example, he names his mother "Mommy", and that continues as the name of her character throughout the entire story. Though he reminds his reader four or five times that Mommy's name changed from Ruchel Dwarja Zylska in Poland to Rachel Deborah Shilsky in America to Ruth McBride Jordan (after her marriages and renouncing of the Jewish faith), and though his sisters seem call her Ruth or Ruthie, he continues to refer to her as Mommy. His character rebels, grows up, becomes a successful journalist, but still his mother's character is "Mommy".

At first, when I read The Color Purple, Mr._______'s name was awkward to me. I didn't know how I was supposed to say it. I honestly wondered a little bit if Walker couldn't come up with a name for him, so she just left it out. By the end of the novel, the genius of both robbing Mr.________ of the right to a name, and calling him something that effectively gives him the potential to be Everyman deepens the novel. Not so with Mommy. McBride writes a specific woman, not a stock character. Mommy "waddles", likes her privacy, and doesn't like to do housework. While with Mr._______ I eventually hope that my last name never fills that blank, with Mommy I know it doesn't. She's not my Mommy, so do I have to call her that? Does McBride still think of her as he did when he was a small child?

McBride divides this book a' la The Grapes of Wrath, with alternating chapters that are vignettes from Mommy's point of view and chapters that are a continuing story from his point of view. His mother's vignettes are at times very lovely, but at some point his chapters started repeating hers as though the stories had not been told already. This was not in an artistic, Rashamon way, but rather seemed like bad editing or, worse, some kind of psychological disassociation with his mother's story that needed to be dealt with before writing the book. At first, Mommy's story is supplemental to his memories of her from when he is a child. Later, however, one chapter tells a story from her point of view, and then the next, from James McBride's point of view, repeats the same story by recalling the circumstances of her telling that story to him. That's not necessary.

Also, who is his "sister Jack"? I officially do not understand what her relation to the family is if she is not literally his sister. I will be sad if I find out he explained that and I missed it, when I didn't miss the many times he described his mother's name change and who her childhood best friend was.

Unfortunately, while The Color of Water has the potential to be a truly great American story, it does not live up to that potential. McBride's ambivalence as to whether to tell his story or his mother's story sabotaged it and left me feeling uncomfortable - like neither he nor his mother were well represented. I read this for a book club, and many of the people in the club were not distracted by the way McBride told the story. To them, the fascinating life his mother led and his psychological journey in learning about her were not conflicting storylines that distracted from each other, both stories were part of united by the larger journey of him learning to forgive his mother. I think they could stay with the story because they were rooting for the mother/son relationship. I, on the other hand, am more interested in being entertained than other people's psyco-health. It's shallow, but true. Basically, McBride failed me as an entertainer.(less)

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Aug 16, 2007 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

this book spent two years on the new york times bestseller list and it's easy to see why. mcbride's "tribute" is a beautiful story, rich with detail, about his own life and his mother's. he smartly introduces almost every chapter with memories from his mother's life, in her own voice. as he tells us at the beginning and reminds us at the end, he spent 8 years talking to her and recording their conversations, so the memories in her voice are an interesting contrast to the memories in his own voic...more

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Aug 17, 2007 Amanda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone with a mother!

I read so many books, that very few actually stick with me, even 8 years after the fact. I cannot recommend this book enough. McBride writes from two different points of view: himself, and his mother. He parallels his growing up in poverty to his mother's story of moving to Harlem, before the civil rights movement. It is amazing. I had the opportunity to meet the author at a writer's conference right after we read this for bookclub, and he is a gentle soul who has the most respect for his mother...more

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Jun 06, 2007 Gabriel Encarnacion rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: yes

Have you ever thought about not living with your real mom after being with her while you growing up all your life. The book " The Color of Water" is about a teenage kid who thinks that hes not living with his real mother. The reason he thinks that is because they are not the same color skin and his mother wont explain why is it like that. His fathers is in jail for committing a crime so he really doesnt know alot about him because he didnt grow up with him. This kid has a lot of struggles in lif...more

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Dec 09, 2012 amal rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

كتاب لون الماء عبارة عن سيرتين ذاتية للكاتب الأسود جيمز ماكبرايد ووالدته اليهودية البيضاء .

يأخذ الحديث عن العنصرية بعداً آخر أكثر عمقاً عندما تكون التجربة من حياة الكاتب وهذا الدمج العِرقي والديني الغريب السابق لآوانه !

أسرة والدته (راحيل) أقامت مراسم الحداد على روحها في عادة يهودية قديمة تشير إلى التخلّي عنها واعتبارها من الأموات ، ظلت حياتها السابقة سراً دفيناً حتى كانت تجربة هذا الكتاب الذي شاركت به فقط حتى يصبح ابنها غنياً ..

تتحدث راحيل أو روث كما تسمي نفسها عن والدتها شبه الكسيحة ووالدها ال...more كتاب لون الماء عبارة عن سيرتين ذاتية للكاتب الأسود جيمز ماكبرايد ووالدته اليهودية البيضاء .

يأخذ الحديث عن العنصرية بعداً آخر أكثر عمقاً عندما تكون التجربة من حياة الكاتب وهذا الدمج العِرقي والديني الغريب السابق لآوانه !

أسرة والدته (راحيل) أقامت مراسم الحداد على روحها في عادة يهودية قديمة تشير إلى التخلّي عنها واعتبارها من الأموات ، ظلت حياتها السابقة سراً دفيناً حتى كانت تجربة هذا الكتاب الذي شاركت به فقط حتى يصبح ابنها غنياً ..

تتحدث راحيل أو روث كما تسمي نفسها عن والدتها شبه الكسيحة ووالدها الحاخام اليهودي البخيل سيء الطباع :

"كانت يهودية جيدة، ظلت مخلصة لعقيدتها الدينية تحملت الكثير عبر السنين لأن زوجها عديم القيمة،لم يكن لديها خيار آخر..
لو كانت تلك الأحداث في يومنا هذا لكانوا سمّوها (امرأة معذبة) ولكنهم في ذلك الوقت كانوا يسمونها (زوجة) فقط ."

تولّد لدى جميز ماكبرايد الكثير من التساؤلات والبحث المضني عن هوية يمكنه الاعتماد عليها ، مع كل هذه الانتماءات المتناقضة من بداية وعيه الطفولي وهو يشعر بالحرج من بياض أمه الشاذ في مجتمعه الأسود، وحتى مرحلة متقدمة من حياته .

كانت رحلة البحث عن عائلة أمه وماضيها طوق النجاة من هذا الصراع المضني بداخله .
كانت نقلة نوعية في حياته يقول عنها :
"ألما جديدا ووعيا جديدا ولدا بداخلي. بدأ الغموض المتوطن داخلي يتبخر، وزال الألم الذي شعر به الولد الصغير الذي حدّق في المرآة، لقد استيقظت إنسانيتي الخاصة. "

ويقول عن والدته بعد هذه المرحلة :
"هي امرأة سوداء في جلد أبيض، لها أطفال سود ومشكلة صحية تخص المرأة البيضاء ! "(less)

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May 13, 2008 T.J. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: multiracial folk, human interest story readers

Shelves: negritude, teej-s-favourites, my-halfrican-experience

I am so thankful this book exists. As a child of a black father and a white mother, I was immensely drawn into the narrative of James MacBride's life. My story is not one as connected to the racism he encountered, but it nonetheless moved me considerably. He paints a tender, endearing, nuanced portrait of his mother and her life and times, and manages to take a deep and conflicting life story and not sink into maudlin recollection or saccharine moralism. An amazing tale.

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Apr 07, 2009 Glenna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This story is about the daughter of an orthodox jewish rabbi who married a black man in 1942. She raised 12 children. Her children grew up not knowing anything about their mother's past. It's written by one of her sons. It is quite an amazing story. Absolutely loved the last chapter. The insights he finds on this journey helps him lay his own demons to rest.

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Dec 13, 2008 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Sarah by: Kerri Schuster

This book made me feel lucky, lucky that James McBride and his mother were willing to share their story with the world. I wished I could be a family friend and get to know the characters event better. But since that isn't possible I'm glad that the author decided to write this memoir and share his family story so that people like me can experience it and learn from it.

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Feb 25, 2009 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I first started reading this book, I wondered why my friend had recommended it to me. This true story relates the life experiences of a young Jewish woman who eventually determines to choose a different and unconvential path for her life and is completely disowned by her Jewish family. Some of the events in her youth were difficult to read about, but in the end I came to admire her resiliency and strength. Despite her hardships, her sacrifices and determination on behalf of her 12 children...more

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Oct 20, 2008 Marika Gillis rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Danica

Recommended to Marika by: Regina

Shelves: memoirs-auto-biographies

The Color of Water by James McBride
This book is the "summer read" for my school book club. The Color of Water was written by a black man growing up in the 60's in a family of twelve children raised by a white mother. In seeking answers about his familial roots, James McBride discovers that his mother grew up in a Jewish family with a strict, racist father. In the search for his identity, James recalls his mother's strength, individuality, and persistence in raising twelve children to become acco...more

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Feb 20, 2008 Melinda Abney Kaiser rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 04, 2007 Stephanie "Jedigal" rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Memoirs have popular for a while now, and I hate to be on the bandwagon with everyone else. But this story really touched me. I love it when a book can bring me to weep or laugh out loud. This is one of those. The author's style is matter of fact, and economical. McBride alternates between his own story, and his mother's story. At the culmination, he has brought both stories together. He allows his mother to tell her own story in her own words. When discussing his own memories, he manages to tel...more

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Jun 13, 2007 Falcon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Relationships are all about expectations. And unfortunately I think my relationship with this book was unfairly hindered by my hope that it would measure up to one of my favorite books, “Beyond the Whiteness of Whiteness.” Each feature a white mother of black children, and mark the struggle to define identity in an interracial family. This one fails to provide the complex anaylsis, but offers a poiniant story about a mother and son’s identities.

Author James McBride simultaneously tells the story...more Relationships are all about expectations. And unfortunately I think my relationship with this book was unfairly hindered by my hope that it would measure up to one of my favorite books, “Beyond the Whiteness of Whiteness.” Each feature a white mother of black children, and mark the struggle to define identity in an interracial family. This one fails to provide the complex anaylsis, but offers a poiniant story about a mother and son’s identities.

Author James McBride simultaneously tells the story of his life, and that of his mother. Half of the chapters describe his life, as one of twelve children growing up poor in Harlem, where his older siblings live and debate the identity politics of the sixties, he struggles through drug-addicted teenaged years, and he struggles to define his own identity as an interracial child. On the alternating chapters, McBride tells his mother’s story, in her own words, of growing up as a Jewish immigrant from Poland in a small Virginia town, escaping the abuse of her father through relationships with black men, running off to Harlem where she settled, raising her children in the projects of New York.

Both stories are well told, and as they merge, her life story eventually becoming his, you see McBride coming to terms with who he is, the question which began this quest. It is interesting to hear him so out of place in a synagogue as he and his mother attend his friend’s wedding. It simultaneously reflects his mother’s complete rejection of her upbringing, and the continuing otherness of Jews in America. It also reflects the ways in which all other ethnic and cultural identities are often lost in the identity of blackness. What is interesting is that McBride isn’t comfortable to be merely black, since interestingly, it is his white-history that has been lost to him.

McBride’s mother raises her children against the odds, all of them raised in the projects on food stamps and grow up to go to universities and become professionals. To me there is a really interesting and important relationship to internalized racial inferiority. His mother always believed that her children deserved the best; sent them to the best public schools, which were majority white and often majority Jewish. Even raised as a Jewish woman, and at the time living in the projects, she believed that she and her family deserved everything that this country could offer, seperating her children from their peers. It is this kind of analysis that I think the book lacks, and leaves me wishing for something a little more meaty. All in all, however it is a beautiful and tragic book of identities lost and found.

PS. This book was also of particular interest to me because McBride’s mother grew up in a Virginia town with a small Jewish community. Her father was a rabbi there, and when she finally left, her family sat Shiva for her, mourned her death, and never spoke to her again. At first I mistakenly thought that this was the same town where my grandfather was born into a Southern Jewish family. My grandfather also never speaks of his Jewish roots, and his family shut that door for him. McBride’s mother changed her name from to Polish to an Anglicized name when she came from Poland, and then changed it to a less Jewish-sounding name when she moved to New York. My grandfather returned home from the army and found that his last name had been changed by his parents. He never speaks of his Jewish roots. My mother was never raised Jewish, and was as much of a stranger in the synagogue as McBride. I have no idea what he thinks of my mother marrying a Jew. In some ways this book helps explain something about where I came from too.
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Dec 03, 2007 aarthi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book_club

We read this in my book club, and the consensus was: Incredible story, incredible journey, and in the passages narrated by the voice of his mother, an incredibly moving and authentic voice. However, this seems to suffer from its form/style - the author is trained as a journalist, and expanded an article he initially wrote about his mother and family into a book, and it reads journalistically instead of like a memoir. You feel distant and collected when you want to feel wracked with the emotions,...more

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May 21, 2010 Joanna rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was a revelation full of inspiration and honesty. Being mixed, I understood James' confusion with identity, especially in his mother's time and his time as well: a time when you could only be black or white. His Jewish mother is amazing, ignoring the issue of race and encouraging her children to go to school. She is a strong woman who was able to leave her past and sorrow behind in order to find happiness, which she found in Harlem with the African American community. She fell in love...more

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Mar 24, 2011 Colleen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this book years ago, on the recommendation of my mother. It is the most amazing biography/autobiography that I've had the honor to read. I'm not a big fan of nonfiction, and often find it hard to enjoy. The Color of Water was one of those few books that shook me out of my fantasy haze and fed me some hard truths in a way that I could - and wanted to - absorb them. I recommend this book far and away above Dreams from My Father for its clarity of statement, its depths of meaning, and its st...more

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Aug 30, 2008 Rae rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bio-memoir

McBride's mother was a white Jew who married a black man in the early 1940s. He died, leaving her alone with many children to care for. She remarried another black man and had even more kids with him. The author explains what it was like to have a white mother but live, for the most part, in a black world. All of her children graduated from college because education was so important to her.

One thing I took away from the book is that we don't have to be perfect parents in order to raise good and...more

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Sep 19, 2007 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone

James McBride's moving and unique story falls onto the pages as I imagine his notes must fall when he's playing jazz. It's so lyrically written that you forget it's a true story. And what a story it is. I'm amazed at how his mother managed to bring up so many accomplished and educated children, given her circumstances and enormous odds. And that's just the beginning. We learn how James comes to terms with his identity, being the son of a white Jewish mother and a black father, and we follow the...more

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Jun 27, 2012 Allie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, recommended, own, memoir

Ann Patchett was recently interviewed by Goodreads, and she mentioned this book as a book she can recommend to anyone and everyone. If that isn't a compelling reason to read a book, I don't know what is — and it certainly lived up to her recommendation. The use of two storytellers gives a broad perspective over time, geography, and circumstance; the narrative style is a big part of the reason why readers of all ages and ethnicities will be able to connect with this memoir. I appreciate and admir...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Dynasti rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a great book!

I'm going to keep a copy of this for a long time. Ruth was so hidden, she had to be, but my gosh did she raise some kids! And the rejection she faced, from her "own" people so strongly. But she found a faith and it never let her down, she was in need and always provided for. Gosh if people survived like she did back then.

"I thought it would be easier if we were just one color, black or white. I didn't want to be white. My siblings had already instilled the notion of black prid...more

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May 16, 2013 spoko rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had actually wanted to read this back when it was big, but never did. Anyway, we had it sitting on the shelf, and it came to mind when I was trying to think of something easy (but not too easy) to read to help me out of the reading slump I've been in. Turned out to be a pretty good book for it, actually. It's a memoir, which I'm discovering (against everything I'd ever suspected) to be a genre I'm really drawn to. And it has an engaging—though not overly serious—tone throughout.

The subtitle of...more

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Jan 24, 2009 Lexi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed reading The Color of Water, although I wouldn't rank it one of my favorites. One of the reasons why is because of the author's style, I found that James McBride originally wrote this as a newspaper article and then turned it into a book. So the book reads as if it were written more from a journalist than a novelist.

Although the story itself is very amazing. McBride tells the story of his mother's life and fits his own in-between hers. It's a book that flips back and forth between stor...more

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Dec 12, 2008 Rossi Cruz rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Have you ever felt that tour life was tough? Things weren't fair? Have you ever been confused? Struggling? Imagine living nearly your entire life that way. The book The Color of Water by James McBride is a story about a black boy with eleven siblings, both older and younger and also black, and their white mother. The mother, born Jewish during the Holocaust, lived with her older brother, younger sister, disabled mother, and self - centered father as a child. She ran away as a teenager with no mo...more

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Dec 05, 2008 Leslie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

In the autobiography, The Color of Water, James McBride tells the emotional and inspiring story of growing up in Brooklyn, born to an African-American father and a Jewish mother. During his early youth, James recognized that his mother seemed different. Of course, as any youth would, he began asking questions. James asked his mother about the color of her skin, she remarked that she was simply light-skinned. James also asked what color God was and she said: “God is the color of water. Water does...more In the autobiography, The Color of Water, James McBride tells the emotional and inspiring story of growing up in Brooklyn, born to an African-American father and a Jewish mother. During his early youth, James recognized that his mother seemed different. Of course, as any youth would, he began asking questions. James asked his mother about the color of her skin, she remarked that she was simply light-skinned. James also asked what color God was and she said: “God is the color of water. Water doesn’t have a color.” When James asked if he was black or white, Ruth angrily said to him, “You’re a human being. Educate yourself or you’ll be a nobody!” He experienced racism and prejudice on the Brooklyn streets.

As an adult, James decided to lovingly pay tribute to his mother by revealing her story through a memoir. Ruth McBride’s story slowly unraveled over a period of fourteen years. Alternating with her story are chapters that relate the story of James McBride. As with any family, you will find that lives are interrelated – one life affects the entire family. Relationships can be vastly complex. Ruth McBride - the daughter of an Orthodox Jewish rabbi - married an African-American man during the year 1942. She was a strong, self-assured woman. She was often labeled as eccentric because much of the time, she rode an antique bicycle to complete errands. She was the single parent of twelve African-American children. She believed strongly in God, education and had an incredible faith and spirit. In fact, she remarkably made sure that each of her twelve children was sent through college and most through graduate school.

By reading this book, you will more fully understand the connection between family members whose lives are intertwined through love and determination. You will be truly inspired by their love of family and faith. The memoir beautifully illustrates what can be accomplished through love, determination and spirit – the ability to triumph over incredible odds.
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Dec 04, 2008 Antof9 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2007-read, made-me-cry

My lame review from BookCrossing:

I really need to write journal entries on these books when I read them! To put in perspective how far behind I am on journal writing, this book was #58 for me for the year. I'm currently on #85! oh dear ....

And now for the ironic part: one of the reasons I re-read this this year was so that I could actually write a real journal entry. Sadly, I didn't mark anything specific and have nothing brilliant to say! I do, however, know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I lo...more

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May 23, 2013 Elliot Ratzman rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I led a discussion of this book among ten black prisoners. “This is an American story,” one insisted. “Only in America can something like this happen.” ‘This’ being a Jewish girl raised in the South by her abusive Orthodox father. She marries a black minister and raises twelve Christian children in NYC during the 50s and 60s. The children all go to college and become professionals. Another guy continues, “her father just wanted to make money [selling to blacks in the South] and she just wanted h...more

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Mar 20, 2013 Samantha rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A Matter-of-Fact Miracle

Although apparently Ruth McBride did allow it to be published, James McBride’s The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother seems like it ought not to exist. It is the story of a woman who had “left her past so far behind that she literally did not know how to drive” even though she had once been able to drive quite skillfully:
“She drove… well enough to pull a trailer… full of wholesale supplies for her family’s grocery store… on paved and dirt roads… She...more A Matter-of-Fact Miracle

Although apparently Ruth McBride did allow it to be published, James McBride’s The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother seems like it ought not to exist. It is the story of a woman who had “left her past so far behind that she literally did not know how to drive” even though she had once been able to drive quite skillfully:
“She drove… well enough to pull a trailer… full of wholesale supplies for her family’s grocery store… on paved and dirt roads… She could back the trailer up with the goods in it, unload it at the store, back up the car into the yard, unhook the trailer, and park the car in the garage” (129-130).
To this end, she spent much of her life expertly deflecting personal questions from her twelve children. Finally, one son, James McBride, has somehow gotten her to talk about herself, and what she had for so long kept to herself is now available even on an English teacher's list of nonfiction book options.
That disconnect between the telling of the story and the story itself is just one of the many unique features of this book drawn from its unique leading woman. In chapters that alternate between Ruth’s narration of her own life and James’ memories of her in his, the book pays tribute to both the Ruth McBride’s life and her indomitable spirit, a large component of which was never looking back –ironic to read about in a tribute which by definition always looks back. Her forward focus allowed her to devise the rest of the practical steps she took in order to surmount what, when read as a third-party, sound insurmountable. What allows this tribute to never become drawn-out or presumptuous is its captivating subject. This book is only as interesting as Ruth McBride herself, who, fortunately, is more than adequately interesting.
She simply somehow gets through everything, like an unstoppable glacier –a given, I suppose, as we know from the start that she is still alive and sane and strong, but then less of a given as you read about yet something else she had to get through, a burden you don’t even think to feel lucky to not have until you’re reading how she handled it.
From the darker depths of her past, she simply moved away. With characteristic conciseness, she limits her discussion of being sexually abused by her father throughout her childhood to two pages, not minimizing its importance but at the same time not dwelling on it more than just listing its forms and its effects on her self-esteem. Even these kinds of traumatizing experiences she has consolidated and compressed so that she can live more of her life: She writes, “I got rid of [my old] name when I was nineteen… Rachel Shilsky is dead as far as I’m concerned. She had to die in order for me, the rest of me, to live” (2). Even the way she tells her own tale shows readers how Rachel Shilsky has indeed “had to die.”
In other striking situations, she simply made do. For nine years, she lived in a one room kitchenette with her first husband and four children. “There were roaches everywhere” and they had to “[use] the dresser drawers as cribs,” yet she made those years “the happiest years of [her] life” (186). With religion and love, she had everything she needed. They “could barely afford to feed [their] kids,” managing it from “meal to meal,” but still, “[her] soul was full” (188, 188, 187). With her second husband, Hunter Jordan, she commandeered a roost of no less than twelve children, so many that they slept three or four to a bed “like slabs of meat” in the “Head up, toes down” system: “one with his head to the headboard, the next with his feet to the headboard, and so on” (7). There were too many children to call to dinner separately. All of these details blow me away, me in my house with separate rooms for guests, for computers, for dining, and for each of the grand total of two children to sleep in; with my financially secure parents; etc.
Ruth McBride has not been through everything, but she certainly has been through a lot. She was a Jew in Suffolk, Virginia where the Ku Klux Klan could ride down the streets without anyone blinking an eye. She hung around black people when it could get her or her friends killed, when it could cause her biological family to disown her, when the sight of her with her friends could start riots, and when it can, even today, incite disgust and racist behavior. She has raised twelve often rowdy mixed-race children without the best resources with their highest potential in mind, whilst dealing with others’ reactions to them and their own confusions. And yet through more than just those listed struggles and losses and pain, she found her way through in what is both an eye-opening and inspiring read.(less)

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Feb 28, 2013 Damontay Tyson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book that I read was The Colony of Water, A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother. The author of the book is James McBride. The story is about a boy named James who lives in Brooklyn's Red Hook Projects. He had a white mother and when ever he would ask why she had different colored skin she would always respond " I am only light skinned." Later he asked his mother if he was black or white. She then responded "You are a human being."
Later in the book there were a lot of family disputes. He...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Sampriti Roy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A wonderful read...so touching...so refreshing!
As the cover says,this book is a black man's tribute to his white mother. The story recounts the tale of the protagonist,a black man,who achieves his own redemption and arrives at a greater peace by finding the his white mother's actual roots,something which she had covetedly hidden from her children,all her life.

The events or scenes are not larger than life,nor is the plot ostensively contrite. And yet,the story has a warm appeal,an honesty worth t...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Derek rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoirs, biography

here are two voices in this complex and moving narrative, and -- on the surface -- they could not seem more different. One is the voice of a black musician, composer and writer who traces his own evolution and that of his 11 brothers and sisters from childhood in a Brooklyn housing project to accomplished maturity.

The second voice is that of Rachel Shilsky, daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox Jewish rabbi in a virulently anti-Semitic and violently racist small Southern town. She recalls her...more

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About James McBride

James McBride is a native New Yorker and a graduate of New York City public schools. He studied composition at The Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio and received his Masters in Journalism from Columbia University in New York at age 22. He holds several honorary doctorates and is currently a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. He is married with three children. He lives in...more

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“God is the color of water. Water doesn't have a color.” — 34 people liked it

“It was always so hot, and everyone was so polite, and everything was all surface but underneath it was like a bomb waiting to go off. I always felt that way about the South, that beneath the smiles and southern hospitality and politeness were a lot of guns and liquor and secrets.” — 27 people liked it

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