James McBride is a household name after his Absolute Banger - The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store.
In 2024 this book was everywhere, and I wanted to read it and also didn't want to read it, so in the end, it being in very high library demand, I never picked it up. I'm imaging I'll find it at my lovely used store soon enough because so many copies were sold, it's going to drop in there soon.
But, as I am reading on my 2025 Water Theme, I did decide to pick up The Color of Water: A black man's tribute to his white mother. To be honest, I wasn't sure I was going to like this book.
But, my water theme demands I pick things up that don't seem to be exactly my style. In this case, I am so glad that I did. The one message that I took away from this novel is that, despite what people say about the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's in America, things really were not exactly as orderly and homogenized as people would like to believe.
McBride's Mother, an immigrant, grew up in a strict household. She left, married two different black men, had 12 children and raised them in a chaotic world. Reading this in 2025 it's easy to sort of "move the timeline" especially because of the dual timeline. The James timeline is that of the 1960's-1970's and beyond while Ruth's timeline starts way back in the 1930's. So sometimes it's easy to think of Ruth's life as mostly happening around say 1974 - when the world was a more tolerant place than it was before and would be after.
We are generally taught - in the US- that things like inter-racial marriage, and 12 children wasn't really something happening in the 1940's and 1950's but reading from Ruth's story it's obvious that while she stood out, she knew several other people in similar relationships/families. So, I love that this book really shows this as not an unusual phenomena, but something that did occur occasionally (more frequently than textbooks or advertising from the times show), despite it being risky and difficult. Ruth was a brave woman, just by existing every day with her family.
There is more to this story than just that, but I think it's one that gives different things to different people, and that for every reader there's areas that are so relatable and meaningful and others that slide by- like water in a stream. And for me, what really stood out was the time frame for Ruth's life and how she really did take the harder road and had no real regrets about that.
Did I enjoy it, yes! I thought it was worth my reading time, and I really did enjoy especially Ruth's timeline. Do I recommend it, also Yes. Will it be one of my top ten reads? Not that likely despite it being a good piece of writing, and very impactful, I suspect it will fall into one of those books I recommend, but didn't love with my whole chest. This is likely because it was just too real, and reminds me that we're still a society working on itself. This is a great book for book clubs, classes, and event that want to generate discussion.
STATS
First Published : 1995
Pages: 336
Available as an Audio Book : YES
Trigger Warnings: parent death, child death, SA, child abuse, racism, poverty,
As always - this is not a complete list, read responsibly!
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