| Friday, January 16, 2009 |
| The Color of Water |
The Color of Water is a book written by James McBride. This book is a memoir for his mother who raised 12 children. James' mother, Ruth, is a "light-skinned" daughter of an Orthodox rabbi and her family immigrated from Poland to a small town in Virginia. The story retraces his mother's footsteps who abandoned her family because of her husband—an African American minister. James has always wondered about the rest of his family and who his identity was. As he grew up, he learned that his mother is a different color. His family faced racism yet his mother never admitted that she was white. McBride also talks about his childhood and as he grew up; he was an interracial child who was poor, but his mother commanded a lot from her children. She expected good grades from them and managed to send all 12 children to college. Her children ranged from doctors, to writers, and to professors.
Ruth, or otherwise known as Rachel, is a character that is strong and a great mother. She loved a black man even though her parents despised black people. Her parents stopped caring for her and didn't love her anymore. They wanted Ruth to stay out of their lives. Ruth didn't care what color people were. She really didn't care what others thought of her and she just ignored them. People would give her comments for being with black children, but the comments didn't get to her. I felt bad of how Ruth's parents didn't love her anymore because of her marriage. Though in this story you can tell that James really loves his mother no matter what color she was.
This book is a inspiring memoir; it shows the hardships and love that the family had. The family went through a lot of things. McBride's father and step-father died and left Ruth to take care of her twelve black children. James dealt with shoplifting, bad grades, doing drugs and creating violence because of his fathers' death. The book jumps around though which left me confused at times. One moment he was talking about leaving for college and the next it was Thanksgiving.
The author switches off chapters between him and his mother. At first I thought it was the same person, but it turns out to be two different stories—one with his mother dealing with childhood and adult life and another with McBride's memories growing up. I thought it was kind of confusing at first, but then I kept reading it and it started to make more sense.
This book is long but worth reading if you have the patience. It's a nice book to read especially to learn about cruel racism was and how James tried to find his true identity. This book is a inspiring American story and I recommend it to anyone especially teenagers that would like to learn about racial issues, life lessons, and finding yourself. |
posted by charisse @ 9:34 AM  |
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