The "New York Times"bestselling story from the author of "The Good
Lord Bird," winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction.
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.
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