This is a picture of the author, James McBride and his mother. Throughout the book, the chapters alternated between James McBride and his mother telling about their lives, specifically how they grew up. I found it interesting how the memoir was kind of comparing their lives to show how similar and how different they were.
The author was explaining how growing up, his life was hard being Black and Jewish. He was teased for being Black and not looking like his white mother. Sometimes people said he was adopted and at one point he did start believing them. He was a curious little kid and grew up doing drugs and had a little crisis then grew up being a musician and an author clearly.
The authors mother, Ruth McBride Jordan was Jewish. She was an immigrant from Poland. Her father was an Orthodox Rabbi who sexually abused her. While I read about her father sexually abusing her and not loving his wife kind of pissed me off and I wanted to knock some sense into him. I honestly don't understand sexually abusing someone you are related to and love. It's really disturbing to me and probably others.
I kind of have a love hate relationship to this book. Some points I can relate to, which I love. Other parts piss me of and make me confused about why people would do certain things. Some pieces of the authors mother's story made me feel bad for her and also worry about her family. What confused me the most is why the author never told us about his mother's sister and why he never really talked about his family on his black side. Overall, I loved the book and I recommend people to read this book especially if they're biracial like me.
I like how you were honest about how you felt while reading the book. I was also confused at some points in the book, and I was surprised at the thing the author and his family experienced. While reading the mother's chapters, I saw why she didn't want to tell her children such personal stories, and that she must have really loved the author to tell him about her life and let him make it open to the public.
ReplyDeleteTwo things. First thing: I too hate the father. He isn't like a father figure at all in a sense. He's like a cold, corrupted boss. Ruining his children's lives by overworking and abusing them, then abusing his wife. I also gained sympathy along with that anger, because I realize it's a lot to move on in life when one's past is awful. What I really liked about Mrs.McBride is how much she loved her children, no matter what color or beliefs they had.
ReplyDeleteSecond thing: James looks like my bus driver what the heck...