about the book
the color of water
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother intertwines the story of James McBride with his reconstruction of the life of his mother, Ruth. The book moves both forward and back as it braids the two stories together. Chronologically, we follow the events of James' own childhood and adolescence-raised one of twelve children in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn. When his stepfather dies, McBride experiments with drugs and drops out of school. We look back through his eyes at the mystery of his mother's past: a Jewish immigrant from Poland, Ruth was raised in Virginia by a strict (and abusive) father and frail mother; an unplanned pregnancy leads to her eventual escape to New York City where she eventually marries Dennis McBride, an African-American and devout Christian. Twice-widowed, she raises her family on her own. The stories of Ruth and James are set within the larger context of pivotal periods in American history: hers, the segregated south; his, the racial tensions of the 1960's and 70's. The book examines how discrimination, experienced by both Blacks and Jews in the south, reemerges in the division between people of white and black skin in Brooklyn. These social borders are reflected and embedded in McBride's own divided racial consciousness and in conflicting dualities that structure the book and inform its dominant themes. James' desire to protect his mother from those people, black and white, who condemn her mixed-race marriages and family contrasts with his own embarrassment with her, at times, odd behaviors. Her rebelliousness and religion, strength and vulnerability inform and parallel his expressions of loneliness and independence, exclusion and freedom. James' exploration of his mother's past helps him come to grips with these divisions and conflicts. In a similar way, The Color of Water reminds us that the vanished past is nonetheless constantly present as each of us sort through to discard, accept, or change family traditions and expectations, religious and social prejudices that we inherit.
- Ben Withers
Faculty and Department Chair, Art Department
reviews
"…[a] complex and moving narrative…suffused with issues of race, religion, and identity.…The triumph of the book…is that race and religion are transcended in these interwoven histories by family love, the sheer force of a mother's will and her unshakable insistence that only two things really mattered: school and church.…It is her voice - unique, incisive, and once unsparing and ironic - that is dominant in this paired history, and its richest contribution."
"At a time of increased consciousness of the complexity of roots and racial relationships…McBride's account of his mother's life - and his own - is more vibrant than gloomy, more quirky than tragic"
"A lot of people don't see it as a story about race…They see it as a story about a woman who defied the odds."
"…filled with many priceless moments…[the] book is the affirmation of those values that have made us a great people.…This book is a reflection of…America, seen in the mirror of one family, primarily held together by one woman. And if you are asked by one of your children or grandchildren what color God is, you will have the answer…"