Date of Publication: February 1996
Publisher: Riverhead Trade (Trademark of the Penguin Group)
Summary:
The Color of Water was a book written by an African American, James McBride. He tells the readers about his life living with a Jewish mother Ruth, seven biological siblings, and four step siblings. McBride’s father Andrew McBride passed away when Ruth had eight children and was remarried to Hunter Jordan who had four children but later on he passed away as well. McBride grew up in a house crowded with children and with a mother who stuck out like a sore thumb everywhere they went. After McBride’s stepfather passed away, his mother tried to keep the twelve children under control, especially the teenagers such as the author James McBride.
When James was in the ninth grade, he was a bright student at school and made some friends in his class. The next year, he decided to drop out because he made new friends who taught him how to shoplift. During this time, he would leave the house early in the morning and come back late at night assuming no one was there to stop him except for his mother. Later on, McBride went back to education and music which helped him get into college. When he finished college, he goes on a journey to the town his mother grew up in and tried to find out about his mother’s past for interest and to write about. As years passed, the twelve children passed college, had their own families and made their own money. Every year, during Christmas, the children gathers at their mother’s house all going wild as if they were still children and having fun together.
Quote:
“In running from her past, Mommy created her own nation, a rainbow coalition that descends on her house every Christmas and Thanksgiving and sleeps everywhere…” (McBride 277)
Reaction:
This quote was near the ending of the book when McBride’s family gathered at their mother’s house for Christmas. There they spent a lot of time together playing, talking and laughing. When McBride was young, he felt embarrassed when he walked out with his mother because she her skin color was different from his. Now, he appreciates the fact that she has different colored skin because she started a unique family with many different skin colors and have really close bonds. It’s amazing how when people are young, things that happen don’t seem special but as they grow older, they seem to appreciate everything that happened.
