Rating: 
Summary: Leaves you wanting more...
Review: Like many of the reviewers below, I found this book to be touching and inspiring. James McBride, a black man, tells the story of his immigrant, white Jewish mother with great sensitivity and with an impressive lyrical sense. It's a remarkable story, one that deserves the acclaim it's been receiving since its initial publication three years ago.The book is actually more of a dual biography (a dual auto-biography in fact, since every other chapter is related in Ruth McBride Jordan's own words--culled from taped transcripts). Chapters devoted to James' experience growing up in NYC with 12 siblings and his eccentric, but devoted and insprirational mother, are juxtaposed with Ruth's (nee Rachel Shilsky) own experiences growing up as a Jewish girl in the American South. The book spans an era from the 30's to the late 90's--in under 300 pages. It's conciseness is a genuine strength. However, I'd be lying if I said it didn't leave me wanting to know more about this remarkable family. For starters, I'm curious to learn more about the author's eleven siblings. Scenes from McBride's early childhood are vividly portrayed, and family dynamics are outlined well enough. But later episodes seem sketchy. Did James lose touch with older siblings during his rebellious teen years? What happened with Helen, the sister who ran away from home as a teen, only to return a few years later with a child--and a nursing degree? And that is what's remarkable about the entire clan. Despite troubled times, all of the twelve children became accomplished, productive professionals. Somewhere along the line, even the rebellious ones absorbed their mother's message about the need for education and the need to strive for excellence. I'm sure all twelve have their tales to tell. Perhaps someday they will--or perhaps James has a sequel or two up his sleeve.
Rating: 
Summary: This is an author who doesn't want to know....
Review: Reading this book made me angry, and reading all the 5-star reviews only made it worse. The book makes clear that the author's mother abandoned her entire Jewish family, married an African-American after apparently having no social life whatsoever except having previously become pregnant by what seems to have been a con man, never contacted her Jewish family again after she abandoned them except to ask them for money, and never thereafter went to see her mother even when the mother was dying in a hospital a quick train ride away. She converted to Christianity and then spent a lifetime concealing information about her past from her children. When one son, a sometime-reporter, decided that her story would make a good book, he took down uncritically a frankly completely unbelievable story about a miserly, money-hungry, child-abusing, wife-abusing, violent rabbi father, someone who seems to have stepped off the pages of an anti-Semitic tract. The Jewish family life described in this book comes right out of the pages of the Jew of Malta, complete with bloodthirsty and barbaric rituals, mindless rules, usury, and utter hatred of others. In writing this up, the son makes no effort to contact his living aunt or many living cousins who might have cast any doubt on his mother's story. Given that even to the casual reader it is apparent that the mother's tale is a carefully constructed rationalization and justification of her own decision to cut all family ties, the son's uncritical acceptance of this fable is shocking. I would take this as a work of fiction until proven otherwise.
Rating:
Summary: Ruth Brown finds herself through a long journey of heroism
Review: The book The Color of water is a great book to read because it shows how a
person can overcome the hardships of life, about one person journey's to find
their true identity and shows their heroism along the way. This story portrays
how Rachel Shilsky changes to Ruth Brown and struggles to cope with her
difficulties relating with her family, her religion and racism. In this hero's journey, she faces many obstacles. Among these is her family and
how they changed her. As a young child her father, sexually abused her making
her hate him. She felt guilty and had low self-esteem. He was a very
unloving man that treated his family cruelly. He did not love her mother
and also put the children right to work. They would work in his store from right
after school until dark. Another factor in her family was her mother. Her mother
had a stroke when she was younger and lost all working motion of her left side
of her body. This crippled her, yet she still was a great Jewish wife, never
giving her husband a reason to be upset. Meanwhile, Ruth had to hide what she
wanted from her family and was always running away to see her boyfriend Dennis
whenever she could. Dennis came to create some controversy between Ruth and her
family, especially when they found out he was African American. She comes about
overcoming her family when she moves out and goes to live with Dennis leaving
her loving mother and sister at home. She later returns to help her crippled
mother but leaves again afterwards. Another factor that shows Ruth's heroism, is the fact that she came to love a
black man. Her family did not want her to be involved with any African American
people and were very upset with the whole idea of it, as were many people at
that time. She chooses to marry Dennis and in result her family doesn't accept
her anymore. Even though Ruth and Dennis were singled out and unaccepted by
society, all they needed was their love. Ruth and Dennis lived together for many
years not caring what anyone thought and at the same time risking their lives
every time they were seen together. Ruth learned to accept people for who they
were and to overcome racism. Another obstacle that Ruth had to face throughout the story was her religion.
She was brought up in the Jewish faith and practiced it until she got older. Her
religion and her strict father kept her from doing many important things in
life, including graduating from high school. When Ruth left home to be with
Dennis she accepted his faith and later on became Christian. By becoming
Christian she left behind her memories of her past and started brand new with a
new family and home. She became dependent on Jesus and put the faith of Him in
the hearts of her children. This showed that Ruth could overcome some of the
worst things that happened in her childhood and become a better person for it. This book shows that Ruth could overcome the many perils of her life and create
a better life for her children even if it was hard at times. She showed her
strength and heroism by standing up to her father and leaving home and also by
coming to grips with her past after she had healed from the pain of remembering.
She is a true hero for being strong and keeping faith through the toughest of
times and she has showed us all that hard work does eventually pay off.
Rating: 
Summary: Mommy, what color is God?
Review: This book is an amazing voyage of discovery. McBride unravels a life forgotten and buried by a mother who was born in 1921 to a Jewish Rabbi and his wife in Poland, and found Christianity and love in the arms of a black husband and her 12 children. The book tells two stories. The author tells of growing up in the projects of New York with a white mother and she tells her story of a young Jewish girl growing up in the south and then Harlem, always an outsider wanting only what all girls want, the love of her family and to be accepted. It was early on in life that Ruth Shilsky realized that this would never happen. She found herself up against some of the greatest odds a person could face in an era of blatant racial prejudice and a family that turned their back on her because she dared to be different. The life she made was a remarkable one and the children she produced are all extraordinary people, to put it in the words of the author. An inspiring read of warm languid prose, I couldn't put it down, nor could I stop rooting for "Mommy" who just never stopped moving forward. 3/2/01
Rating:
Summary: Buy this book for your mother!
Review: This is one of the best books i have ever read! the racial issue between a black man's perception of his white mother is presented equally with the outpouring of love and respect he has for her; simply as a mother of 12 children in Harlem who put all her children through collge and grad school. the stories about trips to church, to camp, riding public tansport, getting homemade haircuts, and how awful a cook his mother was are universal and are presented evenly with the tender moments of love and respect and joy he has with his mother. the other half of this book is his mother's autobiography; the story of a young polish Jewish immigrant living in Jim Crow Virginia, abused by her father. the thinly veiled pain and anguish of memory that McBride's mother reveals futher illuminates his respect for his mother in his own chapters as he describes his mother founding a Baptist church in Harlem with his father. this book is a gift to mothers everywhere!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, Moving, and Inspiring Memoir
Review: This memoir has identified James McBride as an inspiring author who honors, respect, and identifies that his mother is white. This memoir is about James McBride going behind his mom's history and finding out why his mom is white and why he is black. The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother is an astounding book and I absolutely love reading the book. I have read it in two days and I have never read a book the way I read The Color or Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother. I have read it twice already and I will continue reading it over and over because this book is truly wonderful. Many moments in the book are heartbreaking, moving, and shocking. Other than this being a great book, I find it to be a great experience in reading it.
This book is truly a wonderful, moving, and inspiring memoir.
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