Rating: 
Summary: A page turner
Review: I borrowed this book from a friend of mine who just raved over it (a Jewish white male). I'm white & my boyfriend is black. We share many values, but we certainly have some cultural differences as well. So, I figured there would be some pearls of wisdom to be gleaned here and there. I got a lot more than that and ended up reading the entire book in one sitting. Mr. McBride's story reflects human reality, with all of the contradictions that go along with being true to oneself, even when the truth itself must be buried to do it. If you are interested in issues of spirituality, identity, values, sheer willpower, and, of course, motherhood and family, you must read this book. It's amazing.
Rating: 
Summary: A must read by people of all race
Review: This is a beautiful tribute to the author's mother, who is an extrordinary woman.
Rating:
Summary: The Life of Differemt Race Parents
Review: The Color of Water is by a black man and it is a tribute from him to his white Jewish mother. The black man, James, tells his life and what it was like growing up with a white, Jewish mother in the mid 1900s. His mother, Rachel also tells her life story. Both of them did not have the most fun or easiest childhood. They both went through hard times but stuck through them all.
Rachel was a Jew who immigrated to America with her family. She was afraid of her father because he was not that nice of a man, and her mother was crippled. Her father did not love her mother. Her mother knew it, but she had a commitment with him and would not divorce him. Rachel's father would get in bed with her at night and touch her but she couldn't tell anyone because she was so afraid of him. Rachel got pregnant by her secret black boyfriend when she was 15 years old. So she moved to New York with her grandmother, where she had an abortion. She later married a different black man and had eight children. He died from cancer and years later she re-married another black man, and had four more children for a total of 12 black children. Her husband died years later and she never re-married, but continued to raise her children.
James was a black boy with a white, Jewish mother, Rachel. James was ashamed of his mother being a different race and avoided going out into public with her. He was always afraid of kids from his school teasing him, even adults gawking at him and his mother. He never met his biological father because his mother was still pregnant when his father died. When she re-married he considered his stepfather his dad. He called him Daddy and loved him very much. When Daddy died, James didn't know how to react to losing someone that close to him so he got into the wrong crowd. He was gone every night, out with his friends getting high, drunk or stealing. He went and lived with his sister where he realized that doing drugs is not helping him with his problems. He finished school and became a reporter. He then decided he wanted to find out who he was and to do that he needed to find out who his mother was. So he went to the south, where his mother grew up, to find out about her family. When he got back, he interviewed his mother and wrote this book about the two of them.
This book was a good historical book; it taught me a lot about the immigrants and different races in the early to mid 1900s. I learned a lot about their feelings and how much they went through during their one life. This book was educational but interesting at the same time.
At the beginning of the book, I didn't understand who was who and where the book was going. I was very confused and almost didn't finish the book. As I continued to read, it got less confusing and more interesting, but sometimes I would have to go back towards the beginning because I was confused about something.
I would recommend this book to anyone who has someone in their family of a different race so they can learn more about what that family member would go through if this were the mid 1900's. I would also recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the racial problems America had in the early to mid 1900's. It was a really interesting book, and I learned a lot about the reality of racial difference.
Rating:
Summary: nicks magical review
Review: The Color of Water (by Nicholas Tucker) Book Review.
In The Color of Water, the author, James McBride, splits his narrative into two points of view. In one, Mommy talks about what her life was like growing up, and what it was like as an adult. In the other James, Mommy's son, also tells us how Mommy raised him and his siblings, and told us some of the hardships of his life. Mommy was the daughter of a Jewish Rabbi, and she, her mother, father and sister all lived in Suffolk, Virginia. The father wasn't really in love with the mother, and in the south they weren't all that kind to Jews. Mommy grew up spending all of her free time manning her father's store. She loved her mom, but was not fond of her father. When she graduated from high school she went to go work in a factory that her aunt owned. Her aunt wasn't nice to her, nor was she nice to the workers. A fellow, African American, named Andrew McBride became Mommy's first husband. With the support of Andrew, she converted from Christianity. They also tried to keep their marriage a secret, because when whites married blacks in those days, it was looked down upon. Together they had eight kids, with James being their youngest. Andrew died of a brain tumor and then Mommy married her second husband, Hunter Jordan. Together they had five kids and he died of a stroke. Mommy became more to herself, and she became less strict in raising her children. All her kids went on to secondary educations and all had well paying professions.
What I think worked really well in this novel is the way that it had alternated between two views. On e chapter would be the mother telling the reader about her life, and the other chapter would be James, the author of the novel, telling the reader about his life and what his mother was like when he and his sibling were growing up. This worked really well because you get what really happened to the mother, and then you get to see how she turned out, and how she raised her kids based on her experiences.
What I thought didn't work in the novel was the ending. He starts telling us about what it was like when all of the sibling grew up, and they all got together with all of their kids. They told us what would happen on Christmas and other holidays, and then he ended the book. I thought this didn't work because he got me interested in how he raised his kids and how his brothers and sisters raised their kids, and that interest was never satisfied with information.
Overall, I thought this was one of the best autobiographies I've ever read. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading about a hard working mother who has conquered her trials and tribulations, and all she wants is her children to succeed in life. My favorite part was reading how the mother grew up in the south, where she was discriminating upon, and molested by her father. To read how she grew up through all that, and still raised thirteen kids to the best of her ability was most gratifying. I liked how James McBride, the author and Mommy's son, stressed in the novel that Mommy never told her kids about her past. I liked it because it meant that much more reading the novel knowing that this is the first time she is ever telling anyone about her past. I really encourage people to read this book. You don't have to like autobiographies, but I guarantee this book will touch you as it has touched me
Rating:
Summary: breath taking
Review: I first read this book about two years ago and I have yet to read anything else this good. I couldn't put the book down and usually I don't like to read. I envy James McBride's mother for her courage and strength. There were times when I was laughing myself off of a seat and times when I needed a box of tissues. I felt like I was apart of the story and my heart went out to everyone mentioned. I guess all I really want to say is , "Wow."
Rating:
Summary: Past history isn't history, it isn't even past.
Review: "The Color of Water" is a wonderful, moving story of an amazing family. I was absorbed in the narrative immediately, and transported to a world quite unlike any I'd read about in a while. The author, James McBride, recreates his childhood after he came to better understand the life of his mother, a white Jewish immigrant who abandonded a painful childhood to move to New York and raise a family of 12 children. She was disowned by her family when she married a black man, and spent most of her exiled life in black neighborhoods in New York. She fits in quite well, much better than she would elsewhere. Only as an adult does the author find out the full story of his mother's previous life, and it is told by his mother in gripping first person segments between chapters written by him. Although this device could have been distracting, it's actually the most effective way of doing it, because it reinforces how removed that life is from the one his mother has lived since. But, as all good memoirs remind us, our past isn't history because it informs who we are to this day. Ruth McBride's life is amazing, both for what she endures and for the fact that manages to instill in her children a strong faith in God. She values education above all, and all of her children are hugely successful today. Anyone who has tried to balance their own life and finances will marvel that one woman was able to do all that she had done. This book isn't perfect, but I really enjoyed it. McBride is only an average writer, with a tendency to fall into cliches and repetitive phrases. What lifts it up is the story itself, which is moving and inspiring.
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Summary: Black, white, tan, yellow. Doesn't matter. Read it.
Review: Beautiful memoir by a gifted musician and writer, offering a hymn of praise to his Jewish mother (Orthodox, born in Poland, abusive childhood, etc.) who married two remarkable African American husbands, gave birth to a passel of kids, and refused to discuss issues of race with her many children. She answered their question, Am I Black or White?" by telling them, "You're a human being. Educate yourself or you'll be a nobody!" How this remarkable woman succeeded in raising what? about 11 kids in a crime ridden, all-black ghetto, instilling in them respect for religion and education, is at the core of this book. Told in a linear format, alternating chapters of his childhood with his mother's story (told in her voice), it sucks the reader along like riding the rills of a swiftly-moving stream. When the author asked his mother what color God is, she replied, 'The color of water,' i.e. colorless. But this novel is anything but colorless.
Must reading for all thinkers, people of all races and religions.
Rating:
Summary: An Incredible book!
Review: My husband purchased this book for me for Christmas. It was hard to put down! I would recommend this to anyone ... enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: fascinating subject, somewhat flat narrative
Review: The substance of this story is fascinating: an Orthodox Jew emigrates to the USA from Russia, grows up in a small town in the South, moves to New York City, marries a black man, and raises 12 bi-racial children in the Red Hook housing projects and Queens during the 1960s and 1970s. Outrageous, right? The book alternates McBride's own narrative with his mother's story told in her voice. The mother's voice is compelling, honest, and unapologetic. McBride's is rather flat and at times didactic, robbing the book of some of its power. Ultimately this was a book I felt should fascinate me, but I had to force myself to finish it and care about the fate of its characters.
Rating:
Summary: the best
Review: this was such a great book, i enjoyed every single page of it. A great read for all ages!!!
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