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List Price: $29.95 | | Publisher: Phoenix Audio
Salesrank: 234804
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| Our Price: $11.79 |
| Used Price: $11.91 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Editorial Review:
This national bestseller tells the story of James McBride and his mother--a rabbi's daughter, born in Poland and raised in the South, who fled to Harlem, married a black man, founded a church, and put 12 children through college. Unabridged. 6 CDs.
Description of The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother:
Order this book ... and please don't be put off by its pallid subtitle, A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, which doesn't begin to do justice to the utterly unique and moving story contained within. The Color of Water tells the remarkable story of Ruth McBride Jordan, the two good men she married, and the 12 good children she raised. Jordan, born Rachel Shilsky, a Polish Jew, immigrated to America soon after birth; as an adult she moved to New York City, leaving her family and faith behind in Virginia. Jordan met and married a black man, making her isolation even more profound. The book is a success story, a testament to one woman's true heart, solid values, and indomitable will. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children and, despite being sorely tested, never wavered. In telling her story--along with her son's--The Color of Water addresses racial identity with compassion, insight, and realism. It is, in a word, inspiring, and you will finish it with unalloyed admiration for a flawed but remarkable individual. And, perhaps, a little more faith in us all.
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother Reviews:
Easy to read and most informative 
2009-10-18 - I will keep this short. Mr. McBride wrote a very good book alternating chapters about his mother's Jewish childhood with chapters about his mixed race and Christian childhood. I finished the book with more respect and appreciation for both Jewish and Christian religions, and for Whites and Blacks. I very much recommend this book.
Rife with jewish cliche' 
2009-09-01 - "I opened the lunch bag Mameh had packed for me and inside, tucked between the knishes and matzoh balls and chopped liver, was her Polish passport..."
Maybe we should throw in some kugel? Perhaps some pastrami on rye?
Between the hideous onslaught of Jewish stereotypes (positive and negative stereotypes are mentioned, but the negative capture the spotlight), at least the author included some of the delicious things we cook when we're not robbing poor people, slagging off disabled family members and spitting racist remarks in yiddish.
Mixed feelings 
2009-08-29 - I found this book interesting and entertaining. I was fascinated by his mother's early life and I enjoyed the stories of the children raising themselves in New York.
What I didn't like was the underlying principle that says if people have professional degrees, then their mothers must have done a great job.
This mother had 12 children even though she was living in poverty. She left the children alone at night while she went to work. She never cleaned and rarely prepared a meal for the children but let them fight for the jars of peanut butter she brought into the house, with the weakest going without and all of them going hungry. She beat the children and let the oldest beat the younger ones. She did do a good job of teaching her children the importance of education but that education was paid for through the generosity of the same Jewish people she taught her children to think of as cold and unfeeling. Oh, yes, she also refused to visit her own dying mother.
The book is interesting and not without value but I'm surprised that it is taught in high schools as a tribute to a wonderful mother.
what a waste of time!
2009-07-08 - I found it odd that McBride felt the need to arbitrarily state the race of every character in the book, given the title. I agree that the story was sloppy and disorganized, not to mention repetitive. This book was more like a shout out to the people he had come across in his life, with long winded introductions to random people that not only had nothing to do with his mother, but took away from her story. He repeatedly lists his numerous awards and reminds the reader how accomplished he is in a poor and uninspired style. The listing of the children and their degrees was just too much for me, and the epilogue had little relevance to anything and it was left to the reader to determine in any case. It seems to me he was trying to reassure himself that his mother was indeed a wonderful person, not an irresponsible baby factory as the facts depict. Furthermore, it seems as if he thinks himself incapable of racism solely because his mother is white, which is illustrated by his obsession with race apparent in every chapter. What an awful, self serving book! There were numerous contradictions and I would have greatly appreciated some insight or continuity in whatever point this book is trying to make.
Touching story of multi-race parent/child
2009-06-27 - This is a very well written book that incorporates 2 lives, mother and son and what it was like to live in a black community with a white mom. The mom's background was a strong Jewish family with a Rabbi as a father.
