Customer Reviews:
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 Inspiring, powerful stuff ... and a must read. October 30, 2008
I purchased this immediately after reading "Miracle at St. Anna" by the same author ... and after googling his name. What a great, inspirational, moving tribute (to his mom and his family) and story (for us all). This, along with movies like American History X, should be mandatory reading/viewing in high schools all across this country. Can diverse peoples get along? To quote Sarah Palin (irony intended): "You betcha."
This is a wonderful read. Bravo to Mr. McBride.
 Good Book October 15, 2008
This book is an autobiography by James McBride about the conjunction of an African-American male by the name of Andrew Dennis McBride and a Caucasian female by the name of Ruth McBride. After having twelve children, life becomes hectic in the McBride household. However, this chaos isn't quite as severe as the abuse that Ruth receives as a child.
Tateh, Ruth's father, sexually abuses, beats, and works Ruth as a youngster. Ruth is forced to work in a store that Tateh owns to help support the Jewish family. Because of this and Tateh's cheating on his wife, Ruth decides to run away after her brother, Sam, did also. She is pregnant from her African-American boyfriend, Peter, and doesn't want to deal with the havoc that would be given from her family as well.
After leaving her family and separating from her boyfriend, Ruth meets a new Christian man in Harlem, where she runs away, by the name of Dennis. Because Ruth despise the racial slurs thrown at her for being Jewish her whole life, she decides to convert to a Christian. The couple open a church called The New Brown Memorial Church to remember their favorite preacher, Reverend Brown. Unfortunately,before Dennis's and Ruth's eighth child, James, Dennis passes away from lung cancer. After moving onto her final husband, Hunter Jordan, she gives birth to four more children.
Throughout this memoir, James is able to relate his life to his mothers. Because of this, he becomes addicted to drugs, but eventually is able to straighten out his life with his sister, Jack, to recognize the importance of independence and hard work.
First rate memoir October 12, 2008
I started to write first rate mixed-race memoir, but hell, this is just plain first rate writing no matter how you slice it. As one of 12 kids in desperately poor conditions, McBride survived and triumphed, as apparently did all 11 of his siblings. And they owe much of this to their mother, who did her best for them. This is a "double memoir," being the story of both the author and his mother, a Jewish immigrant who survived an abusive and nearly loveless childhood, but finally found love - twice - and somehow successfully raised all those kids, the products of two good matches with men who took their parenting responsibilities seriously. I wonder if Barack Obama has read this book. There are undoubtedly personal and racial identity problems here to which he could relate. If I could call him up, I'd certainly recommend it to him. I'm also recommending it to another author I know, Stella Suberman, who wrote the warm memoir of growing up Jewish in the south, THE JEW STORE. But hey, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know a little more about the nature of being a human being. - Tim Bazzett, author of Reed City Boy
 Double standards October 12, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Lets imagine that a Jewish author writes a book that features all the well known evil racist stereotypes of Afro-Americans. Everyone would be up in arms (justifiably) and condemn the book. Here we have a book penned by an Afro-American that contains many anti-Semitic stereotypes supposedly related to the author by his mother who pathologically rejected her Jewish roots, and everyone praises the book. I am both puzzled and offended. In addition if his mother had used the same child rearing practices 20 years later her children would have been sent to foster homes.
Better than expected October 6, 2008
I think this story trancends race. It's really just a story of a mother who made choices and gave her all in an extremely trying environement. I was moved. I read this after reading Miracle at St. Anna which was great!
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