The Color of Water, by James McBride - Margie Hickman

This Tideline theme is a difficult one for me because, as a life-long reader and a librarian, picking just one thing I have read that is memorable or meaningful seems impossible. So, I tried to remember when I have read something that I just would not stop talking about, exhausting everyone around me, and a title came to mind—The Color of Water, by James McBride, published in 1996.

McBride is one of the best American writers being published at the moment. The Color of Water is the story of his mother Ruth, most of which he learned only after he became an adult, which he alternates with the story of his own childhood and teenage years and his relationship with his mother. She was a Polish-born, Southern-raised Jewish girl who moved to New York City, married two Black husbands, converted to Christianity, and raised twelve children, mostly in New York housing projects. The author writes that as a Black child with a white mother growing up in the sixties and seventies, race and color were on everyone's minds, yet when he would ask "What color am I? What color are you? "she would just say that it didn't matter. To the question "What color is God?" her answer was that God is the color of water. Her answer to most problems was to think about education and God—the other things would sort themselves out. Of course, when any of her children got into genuine trouble, she was usually there to fight for them. Even though poverty and discrimination were constants in their lives, all twelve went to college and on to a variety of professions.

I read this book in 1998, while I was raising two teenagers and leading a pretty routine life. And yet, I felt stressed and worried a good bit of the time. Reading this book took me out of myself and helped me learn through the experience of others. It also reinforced this truth—never underestimate a strong-willed mother.