The Color of Water by James McBride | Post# 1

Although I recently began reading this book, I can already tell that it will become one of my favorites. The story actually contains two parts, the story of the child and the story of the mother as a child. Both tales tell of hardships faced, such as family issues, racism, and more. The story does a good job on describing the life of a large, poor family with a mother who is always talked about behind her back. What really draws me to the book is that each chapter switches off between the story of the child in the 60's or so, an with the mom in the 20's or so. The story has a unique personality, as if the author is speaking with you face to face. One part of the story that stick out for me was the part where the main character is talking about how they are not allowed to say the word "lie" and must say "story" instead. Immediatly, he starts talking about his succesful brother Dennis. He describes Dennis as being the pioneer of the family and describes, as he calls them, "stories" of him. This shows that although they have a large family, they aren't very close.