book review: "The Color of Water"...

... written by James McBride, back in 1996. Pretty unusual for me to be reading something with a publication date back in the previous century. It was in the library holdings, checked out by a friend who recommended, then loaned it instead of returning it before the due date. A small paperback, with the printed statement that the book had spent two years on the New York Times bestseller list. Which is high praise, and makes it at least worth looking at - so I started in the middle!

Below the author's name on the front cover is also the small factoid reporting he is also the author of "Miracle at St. Anna's", which might be worth reading as I found this one so interesting. McBride has spend years as a journalist, working at a number of news/media outlets, and might have other books to his credit, but I have not yet googled....Oh. I lied: He won the National Book Award in 2013, so obviously quite prolific, publishing a number of highly regarded tomes.

The title refers to McBrides' mother's response when he was a youngster of about nine years of age. He was trying to understand God, hoping to get a straight answer from his mom: she was a white woman of Jewish descent, who had married a black man, had children in many shades of brown, that were raised as Christians.  The response he got from his mother was a vague as many when she was questioned about her heritage, family history and life before she became a mother. She told him that God was the color of water, as James tried to understand where he and siblings fit into the schools, churches and neighborhoods they inhabited.

She was an amazing woman, widowed when pregnant with her seventh or eighth child, often seen by others as a misfit in the communities she chose for her family. Ultimately she had twelve children, all well educated, and successful in their professions and communities. The book is written in different voices, half the version as experienced by McBride as a child and young man, the other half a recorded narrative as told to him by his mother when she was persuaded to finally talk about her life. When she chose to leave her family, the Jewish community sat Shiva, and considered her dead, so she never had any contact with family members as an adult. But she was a capable resourceful woman, and did an amazing job of nurturing and guiding those children into capable, contributing adults.