The Color of Water

January 22, 1996
Writer and musician McBride recounts a telling conversation with his mother: "Am I Black or White?" "You're a human being. Educate yourself or you'll be a nobody!" With the help of two remarkable African American husbands (James is the youngest of eight McBride kids; his father, Rev. Andrew McBride, died before he was born in 1957, and four more children were born during a second marriage), Ruthie Shilsky McBride Jordan infused her children with two values--a respect for education and religious belief. What makes this story inspiring is that she succeeded against strong odds--raising her family in all-black lower-income neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens in New York City, where opportunities for her children to get into major trouble abounded; how she did this is what makes this memoir read like a very well-plotted novel. An orthodox Jew born in Poland and raised in the South, Ruthie's early life included her abusive father, an itinerant rabbi who ran a grocery store where he exploited his black customers; a caring but helpless mother crippled by polio, who spoke no English; and a hardscrabble childhood in rural Virginia, where she was shunned by whites and blacks alike, because she was a Jew and also for her father's business practices. McBride skillfully alternates chapters relating his life story and his coming to terms with his mixed ethnic and religious heritage with chapters conveying his mother's travails and her development into a fervent Baptist; the latter in her own voice. This moving and unforgettable memoir needs to be read by people of all colors and faiths.

In this touching homage to his mother, James McBride paints a portrait of growing up in a black neighborhood as the child of an interracial marriage. Although raised an Orthodox Jew in the South, McBride's mother abandoned her heritage, moved to Harlem and married a black man. A wonderful sense of realism is offered by the dual-voiced narration. AndrÄ Braugher's earnest presentation is matched perfectly with Lainie Kazan's character-rich representation of the headstrong matriarch. The result is not only a duet of victory over racial intolerance, but also a very personal celebration of familial bonds. R.A.P. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine


McBride's book tells two stories: One recalls his upbringing in a black family in the 1960s and '70s, and the other recounts his mother's growing up an Orthodox Jew and leaving that life to marry a black man in 1942. JD Jackson and Susan Denaker deliver the son's and the mother's parts in successive sections. They're expressive, have good voices, and are adept at pacing and at giving the text its proper emotional tone. Denaker has more opportunity to show her creativity by providing character voices, which she does well, if slightly overdone. Jackson, when relaying the conversations of the mother with her son, gets to give voice to her character, and he does so in a way that fits Denaker's performance. The two halves of this skillful reading add up to an affecting whole. W.M. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine