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

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Summary: The Colour of Water by James Mcbride
Review: I was nine years old when i read this, and as a mixed race child, this has really lifted me spirtually. It tells you about two cultures and made me feel better about life. It is the best book I have ever read for three years. I am a very stubborn reader, so to give this book five stars must mean that it is a remarkable piece of writing.

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Summary: It Should Have Been Better
Review: This book proved disappointing the second or third time the author mentioned his "good" hair and the fact that he and his siblings were so educated. The strength in this book is the mother's story. She is more honest, yet there are things she overlooked. Too bad. This could have been a good book.

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Summary: A tribute to a great woman
Review: The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride

The Color of Water is really two stories in one. James McBride chose to honor his mother by writing this book about her amazing life, but at the same time he wrote about his own life, and what it was like growing up in a family of 12 kids whose one parent was Black and the other Jewish.

McBride chose to write the book with chapters that alternated between his point of view and his mother's. In regular print was James' story - How he never really knew that his mother was Jewish. How it was always difficult to fit in because his mother was not black. What it was like growing up in poverty with 11 other siblings. And, never really knowing who he was, because he only knew his father's family, and never could get a straight answer from his mother about hers. "None of your business", Ruth would always answer whenever James asked a simple question about her family background.

In Italics in alternating chapters, the story picks up with James' mother, starting with her family's escape from Poland during WWII and coming to America to make a new life. Her life was never easy. Being Jewish living in the Deep South was hard enough, but she also was the daughter of a very strict Rabbi, who wasn't the good father the outside world would have expected him to be. Her mother was crippled with polio, and suffered in silence.

When Ruth decides to leave her family to move to New York, her life takes a turn. James ponders whether his mother's life would have been better if she had stayed in the south with her family. But for Ruth, there was no other way. She made her new life in the black ghettos, fell in love with two very strong but different men, both of whom were black, and still continues to live her life with Black Americans, the only people she has ever felt comfortable with and accept her for who she is.

THE COLOR OF WATER is definitely one of the better books I have read this year. Although I found McBride's writing style to be somewhat lacking, what I did find powerful was his story. The story of his mother comes from the heart, and is indeed a tribute to the most important woman in his life - Ruth McBride Jordan.

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Summary: satisfied
Review: This is an inspiring,well written,easy to read novel about a Jewish woman who has to overcome many obstacles throughout her life.Mainly racial and with poverty.The woman is James McBride's mother.She was very secretive about her life.Her children knew little about her.When sha was 17 she ran away from Poland to America.That is where she met her and fell in love with husband,who is a black man.He had already had children before they got together.They lived poorly,in Harlem.She faced lots of racism while living there, but always kept a smile on her face.

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Summary: Inspirational Story But Don't Bring High Expectations
Review: James McBride's The Color of Water was a quick and easy read. The main reason for its quickness came from the fact that it was an irresistible page-turner. McBride does an excellent job of portraying life in the projects as well as tackling the racial issues of intermarriage. He discusses the Jewish side of his family with surprising accuracy in terms of vocabulary and traditional background, and simultaneously manages to express the hardships of his mother's life as well as his own.

The Color of Water is a choice book for memoir-lovers and those who appreciate topics that deal with race. McBride handles the issue beautifully, as he is most fit to do so, being of mixed color himself. An especially moving recurrence in the story comes from the gruff responses by McBride's mother to any question of race, belonging, or any other topic concerning the rest of the world. McBride set the childhood view of his mother on a pedestal fortified by her own beliefs: education, religion (Jesus), and privacy among others. At the same time, the chapters that alternate between mother and son show a weaker side of Mrs. McBride, but provide a good balance to the book. While watching his mother's story unfold as McBride makes certain realizations about his own life, a basic question is answered. Often in memoirs readers wonder what it was in a person's upbringing that impacted that person's personality. Here the reader is allowed the opportunity to make that connection himself.

If there were one area of lacking, it was the description of McBride's siblings. I would have like to have known more about his relationship with his brothers and sisters, as this area seemed strangely weak in comparison to the focus given to his parents. The additional background would have strengthened the book by providing and even broader picture of the lives of those who shaped James McBride into the author of the autobiographical, The Color of Water.

After finishing the book, there was an unsettling feeling of unfinished business. I had enjoyed the book but would have had a better experience had my family not built it up to me so highly before I read it. Unfortunately, starting the book with such high expectations was disastrous for the outcome. This does not in any way mean, though, that I do not respect James' McBride's work on this piece and the hardships he has grown from, because I do. I only wish that I had had the opportunity to read the story having heard nothing about it. My recommendation to all prospective readers is to go in with a clean slate and try to read the book devoid of outside feedback.

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Summary: The Color of Water
Review: The Color of Water by: James McBride is a book that needs to be read by people of all races.The main character in the book is Ruth McBride Jordan who was born in Poland and moved to America with her family. Her family never expressed any of their feelings or emotions. Her family later disowned her and believed she was dead because she married outside of her race. Ruth didn't believe in discussing her past with anyone, especially her children. Her children never got a chance to really know the one person who they all grew to love unconditionally. Ruth McBride Jordan had to overcome many obstacles. She is someone we can all look up to in many ways. Ruth McBride Jordan is someone that started out with nothing and now has so much to offer. I would recommended this book if you enjoy books that keep you guessing to the very end. I was amazed by how simple, yet understanding this book was.

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Summary: Roots
Review: In my opinion, this is not an anti-semitic book. On the contrary, it is about James McBride's quest to retrieve his Jewish roots. It is very telling that the book ends with his participation in a Jewish religious ceremony--as a member of the wedding of his best friend, David Preston, son of a holocaust survivor, a service his mother Ruth also attends. This episode concluded the book because it was so obviously symbolic of the journey James had taken. Because, far from being anti-semitic, the entire issue of the recovery of Jewish identity is crucial to this novel. When James goes back to Suffolk, it is to seek out its Jewish community, and he finds he is, in fact, welcomed by them. As he says, "Like most of the Jews in Suffolk, they treated me very kindly, truly warm and welcoming, as if I were one of them, which in an odd way I suppose I was. I found it odd and amazing when white people treated me that way, as if there were no barriers between us. It said a lot about this religion--Judaism--that some of its followers, old southern crackers who talked with southern twangs and wore straw hats, seemed to believe that its covenants went beyond the color of one's skin." In point of fact, James is not at peace and at rest until he has uncovered his mother's roots as a Jew, and secured this identity as part of his own heritage. In putting together his mother's whole identity, he himself becomes whole as well. As he says, "Now, as a grown man, I feel privileged to have come from two worlds. My view of the world is not merely that of a black man but that of a black man with something of a Jewish soul..."

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Summary: Ummm...
Review: Personally, I thought this book was just looking for some sympathy from its reader. Sure its sad and all that he's had this crazy life, but please, we all have nutty lives and we all have even nuttier stories, but we are not all compelled to write a hudge novel about it and then have sophomore English classes make it apart of their required curriculum. Thats rediculous.

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Summary: color of water
Review: I thought this was a really great book. I think James was a very interseting person.

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Summary: Good Book
Review: I enjoyed reading this book. A lot of times, because of the area that I live in, I'm not exposed to the different issues that McBride addresses in his novel. The book really showed me how so many people are persecuted because they are of a different religion or race. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to know how to look past people's differneces and see them for who they truly are.