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Lädt ... The Color of Water : A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother (Original 1995; 2003. Auflage)von James McBride
Werk-InformationenDie Farbe von Wasser von James McBride (1995)
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Black Authors (31) » 15 mehr Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. Ruth McBride Jordan was a fierce woman. She was born a Polish Jew, emigrated to the US, and changed her name 2x to disassociate herself from her past. She also fell in love with, and married 2 black men, which caused her to be shunned by her family. Along with her husband, Dennis McBride, she had 8 children, converted to Christianity, and began a church. She then married Hunter Jordan, and had more children. All her children grew to be successful. This is an amazing story told by her son, James, and is interspersed with Ruth telling her life story to him, while he weaves the tales into his own life. I loved it. I thought it was remarkable the way Ruth forged her own path, and although naive at times, was able to make it through. Moving story.
Wie fatal die entschlossene Weigerung dieser Frau, irgend etwas anderes zu sein als sie selbst, sich auf die nächste Generation überträgt, macht den Leser schier atemlos. Wie erfolgreich sie und ihre Kinder andererseits Teil des amerikanischen Traumes werden, nicht minder. James McBride liefert mit seinem Debut nicht nur eine Familiengeschichte ab, sondern ebenso ein Sittenbild des amerikanischen Südens der 40er Jahre und New Yorks in der Mitte dieses Jahrhunderts. Und dieses Bild ist alles andere als schwarzweiß. Gehört zu VerlagsreihenKnaur Taschenbuch (61278) Hat als Erläuterung für Schüler oder StudentenAuszeichnungenBemerkenswerte Listen
James wächst als eines von 12 Kindern einer weißen Mutter und eines schwarzen Vaters in New York auf. Seiner Mutter, der Tochter eines tyrannischen orthodoxen Rabbis, entlockt er ganz allmählich ihre Lebensgeschichte, zu der sie alle Verbindungen gekappt hatte. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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![]() GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)974.71004960730092History and Geography North America Northeastern U.S. New York New York (city)Klassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:![]()
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They're both extraordinary stories: Ruth's for its sheer improbability, and James's for being the kind that you'd think would end up one way that actually ends another. James' story has plenty of struggle and heartbreak, but Ruth's is just heartbreaking. Everytime you think it can't get much worse for her, there's another twist and worse it gets. And somehow it ends well, with Ruth being the last in her family to finally get the chance to go to college and graduate and James as an acclaimed writer. It's a testament to resilience, of refusing to let your lowest moments define and drown you, of defying the voices that would dismiss you and discount your worth.
But it's also just very good writing. McBride's juxtaposition of his experience of his childhood against his mother's early life is balanced, neither story feels as though it is given the short shrift in favor of the other. He renders his mother's story in what feels like essentially her own words, not flinching from the difficult parts, of which there are many. Much of this is heavy stuff (interested potential readers should know there's sexual abuse, abortion, death, and racism herein), but while he doesn't sugar-coat it, neither does he dwell on it in the way that books about hard lives sometimes do. Ruth is a woman who came through a lot of terrible things and carved out happiness for herself in a world that did not want to give her any. And though he was raised with much more love and care than his mother was, McBride's own upbringing was still challenging and he managed to come through it, too.
Memoir can be a hit-and-miss category, for me. Not everyone's life story is all that dynamic or engaging for anyone outside of it, and even if it is, so much depends on the skill of the telling of it. But when executed well, as this is, it can be an enlightening window into a realm of experience outside of our own. I don't necessarily know that this is a book for every reader...there's a lot of darkness here, and while it does end well, there's not necessarily a sense of triumph and uplift to counterbalance it. For me, this is part of why this book works, because it doesn't seek to lionize its subjects or turn itself into a paint-by-numbers tale of conquering adversity, but for other readers that might be hard to deal with. But I do think it's a book that should be read, and I do recommend it, so if what I've written here intrigues you, definitely pick it up! (