color of water
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The Color Of Water is a book which is well written and enlightening. Within these pages you will find the story of James McBride's life while growing up in all-black projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. Through his research and investigation of his mother's past and life we learn he was one of twelve children belonging to a Jewish white mother and a black minister. He was an adult before he found out the truth about his mother. This is really the story of his mother a self-declared "light-skinned" women who tried to hide her ethnicity most of her life. However she was unfaltering, persistent, and dedicated to raising and loving all her children. She would not admit she was white no matter how many times she was questioned by James. Through out his childhood he knew they were different and this caused him as a child to be ashamed of his mother and her behavior.
In The Color of Water, McBride retraces his mother's footsteps and, through her intense and spirited voice, reconstructs her remarkable story which in turn helps him understand who she really is and he as her son is. She was the daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi, born Ruchel Dwara Zylska in Poland...