The Color of Water by James McBride

First published: 1996

Type of work: Biography/autobiography

Time of work: 1920-1994

Locale: Brooklyn, Harlem, and Queens, New York; Wilmington, Delaware; Suffolk, Virginia

Principal Personages:

• Ruth McBride Jordan, (born Rachel Deborah Shilsky), the Jewish mother of twelve biracial children
• Tateh, Ruth’s father and former rabbi
• Andrew “Dennis” McBride, Ruth’s first husband, a black musician and minister
• James McBride, the book’s author and the eighth child of Ruth and Dennis

Form and Content

In The Color of Water, James McBride tells the life stories of himself and his mother, Ruth McBride Jordan, in alternating chapters. James persuades his mother to reveal her early identity as Rachel Deborah Shilsky, born in Poland into an Orthodox Jewish family. After her family immigrated to the United States, her authoritarian father Tateh abandoned his career as an itinerant rabbi to run a grocery store in the largely African American section of Suffolk, Virginia. Ruth tells James that her father, although scrupulously religious, was a brutal, racist man who intimidated his meek, disabled wife and his two children—especially Ruth, whom he also abused sexually.

Rachel Shilsky is sent to New York for an abortion after she becomes pregnant by her African American boyfriend. She soon moves permanently to Harlem, changing her name to Ruth as a way to close the door on her painful past. Her father officially disowns her when she marries an African American man, Andrew “Dennis” McBride, but she is happy to become a part of the Harlem community, especially a favorite black Baptist church. Eventually, the deeply religious couple moves to Brooklyn, where they found their own Baptist church. In Brooklyn, Ruth gives birth to her eighth child, James, and after Dennis dies, she marries another African American, Hunter Jordan, with whom she has four more children. With no interest in domestic order or domestic arts, Ruth instead instills in her children the value of learning. After her second husband dies, she finds a way to educate them on a bank clerk’s wages, sending all of them to college and some to graduate school.

Ruth will not discuss her race with her children, suggesting that her skin color is unimportant, and informing them that God is neither white nor black but “the color of water.” Nevertheless, the Black Power movement of the 1960’s leads James to feel increasingly concerned about Ruth’s safety and status in the black community: Even though his mother will never admit she is white, James is sure this is the case. The combination of the freewheeling 1960’s and his confusion about his mother’s identity lead James to leave school, to keep bad company, and to steal and take drugs. Although he eventually goes to college and becomes a professional journalist, James still feels that many of his remaining problems are related to the mystery of who his mother really is.

After he persuades his mother to tell him her story, James visits Ruth’s hometown in Virginia, where he meets members of the Jewish community who welcome him warmly, allowing him to feel he is on his way to resolving a number of other conflicts in his life. As he stands outside the town’s synagogue, where his grandfather once conducted services, James no longer sees his mother as a source of anxiety or embarrassment but embraces her heritage as a part of his identity. In the end, James accepts his mother’s two selves: the sad and angry Rachel Shilsky, who nevertheless retained her culture’s respect for learning and right conduct, and the independent and indomitable Ruth McBride, whose joyful and generous spirituality became the bedrock of her new life.

Critical Context

The Color of Water won high acclaim among reviewers and critics. The book reviewer for The Nation, Marina Budhos, praised the novel for its vivid and accomplished storytelling. Educator and activist Jonathan Kozol praised its emotional power, and Jack Geiger of The New York Times described the novel as a complex exploration of race, religion, and identity in which the power of family love emerges triumphant.

In addition to its extremely positive critical reception, the book spent over two years on The New York Times best-seller list; it became the number-one novel on The New York Times paperback best-selling fiction list, remaining there for forty weeks. The novel has sold more than 1.5 million copies in the United States, has been published in more than twenty countries, and was made into a film for television. Considered a major contribution to the genre of the modern biography, The Color of Water regularly appears on course lists and as required reading at numerous American high schools and universities.

Bibliography

Booker, Harmony Nicole, and Emmanuel S. Nelson, eds. African American Autobiographers: A Sourcebook. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002. McBride is included in a compendium of sixty-seven African American autobiographers from the mid-eighteenth century to the early twenty-first century. Includes biographical material, a discussion of themes, and a summary of the book’s critical reception.

Budhos, Marina. “Black Man, Jewish Soul.” Review of The Color of Water, by James McBride. The Nation, April 22, 1996, pp. 32-34. Praises the biography for its literary merit and its contribution to the current debates on race and identity.

Geiger, Jack H. “Rachel and Her Children.” Review of The Color of Water, by James McBride. New York Times Book Review, March 31, 1996, p. 16. Praises the memoir as a complex and moving story of family love that transcends race and religion.

Kovach, Ronald. “James McBride: Illuminating the Past—and Going Beyond It.” The Writer, June, 2003, 22-27. Insightful combined article and interview with McBride about his life, work, and the creative process.

McBride, James. “Man in the Middle: James McBride Writes of His Mother’s Struggles.” Interview by Esther Iverem. The Washington Post, December 13, 1997, p. C01. Incisive interview with McBride on the Color of Water’s reception in the Jewish and African American communities; includes McBride’s reflections on race in America.

Ramsey, William M. “Knowing Their Place: Three Black Writers and the Postmodern South.” The Southern Literary Journal 37, no. 2 (Spring, 2005): 119-139. Highly perceptive discussion of The Color of Water as a postmodern social narrative of a contemporary family.