Book Review

The Color of Water
By James McBride
291 pages. Riverhead Books. $14.00

As a child, James McBride grew up blind to his background as well as his mothers Ruth’s. He grew up as a black child in Harlem with a white mother. When he finally realized that she was different, she would tell him to mind his own business as a way of protecting him. The Color of Water, by James McBride, is an autobiographical memoir about his life and a tribute to the life of his mother.

This memoir takes place in two different time periods as well as settings. The reader is switched from Ruth’s life to James’s life as often as the chapters switch. McBride does a great job of making the story flow even while switching the point of view of the book every chapter. Most of Ruth’s life as a kid takes place in Suffolk, Virginia. This is a little town down south where she grew up and her family ran a store. The reader is given a vivid picture of the town, the store, and the family without hundreds of lines of straight description. The same can be said for James’s chapters in the book. He grew up in Harlem, New York with his mother and sisters and brothers. The reader again gets a good sense of what the city is like and what James is going through considering his family’s situation.

James McBride is the author as well as the Narrator of the book. He spends most of his time looking for racial and religious identity so he can figure out who he is as a person. His mother won’t tell him so when he is old enough, he visits the town that his mother grew up in to try and learn. He seems as though he cannot be satisfied in life until he learns of his past as well as his mothers past.

Ruth McBride is James’s mother. She grew up in a very Jewish southern family. Her parents believed strongly in their religion and even forced her at some points to follow their beliefs. Her father was a very racist man, but even growing up in this southern family Ruth had different morals. She grew up to marry a black man and change her religion, however, religion was still a major part of her life.

Tateh is Ruth’s father. He started his family’s store in Suffolk. This is where he raised Ruth and where she spent most of her time. He would force Ruth to work long hours in the store and she had little time for anything else. Also Tateh took every chance he could get to cheat the black man. He would purposely charge them extra on all their purchases just because he hated them. Finally, he would force his religious beliefs on Ruth to the point that she couldn’t even enter a church for school graduation.

The Color of Water weaves back and forth between the lives of James and Ruth. The reader learns about both of their lives and their struggles and successes in these lives. James gets involved with drugs and we see what comes of this. Also Ruth gets involved with prostitution, but finds her way out. Also we see how a poor family is able to accomplish so much and how Ruth is able to put all of her children through school. This is a colorful memoir discussing the themes of race, religion, and self-motivation, that is a great read for anybody interested. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.