I was reading James McBride’s 2006 memoir The Color of Water. I picked up his book unexpectedly in my local bookstore when I was looking for some books on Martin Luther King Jr.’s at the African American month section. Well as you probably know, I mentioned him a few blogs back about the Spike Lee talk that I attended. He was sort of the interviewer in that award and appreciation event for Lee. Later I learned that he was also the author of the 2002 novel Miracle at St. Anna that is being made into a film directed by Lee.
So, I was just curious thinking this must be another novel he wrote. It grabbed me immediately by the subtitle that it is actually his memoir and “A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother”. First page, ehm interesting, I thought. Second page, wow, this is an unusually interesting story, I was drawn (or drown, doesn’t matter which word) in so deeply after that. Now I understood the real reason he wrote the novel Miracle. Well, I say my thought about his real reason, there was actually funny moment that night at Lee’s talk and kind of revealing the humble character of McBride. He asked Lee, why did he want to make this movie, Miracle? Lee quickly replied, something like this, ‘you understated your role man, YOU are actually the one who came up with this great story.’ Then Mc Bride explained the reason or the origin of the novel for him, which registered in my impression of that time just as a typical writer’s interest on a particular issue. He also added that compared to the huge success of his previous novel, Miracle was actually doing very poorly in the market before Lee made it into a film.
But, I think the real reason he wrote that novel is not merely a writer interested on a particular issue but instead it is a deep personal existential urge. It can be found in his memoir, The Color of Water. The story in Miracle (see my Feb 12th blog entry) is so intertwined with his own personal life, his family, and mostly his beloved ‘Ma’. He dedicated the memoir to “my mother, her mother, and mothers everywhere.”. In that memoir, he talks directly to your soul about his mother who “raised twelve black children and sent us all to college and in most cases graduate school. Her children became doctors, professors, chemists, teachers – yet none of us even knew her maiden name until we were grown. It took me fourteen years to unearth her remarkable story – the daughter of an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, she married a black man in 1942 – and she revealed it more as a favor to me than out of any desire to revisit her past.”
This is a story about a mother’s pure and saintly love. I and probably most people would rarely cry reading a book. But I did on this one because I was so emotionally moved. Try it, read this book, you would probably cry too. Read it also to grow your soul. You will be so grateful about life, love, and family. You will look up at the ceiling and say ‘ah, life is beautiful, indeed.’
So, I was just curious thinking this must be another novel he wrote. It grabbed me immediately by the subtitle that it is actually his memoir and “A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother”. First page, ehm interesting, I thought. Second page, wow, this is an unusually interesting story, I was drawn (or drown, doesn’t matter which word) in so deeply after that. Now I understood the real reason he wrote the novel Miracle. Well, I say my thought about his real reason, there was actually funny moment that night at Lee’s talk and kind of revealing the humble character of McBride. He asked Lee, why did he want to make this movie, Miracle? Lee quickly replied, something like this, ‘you understated your role man, YOU are actually the one who came up with this great story.’ Then Mc Bride explained the reason or the origin of the novel for him, which registered in my impression of that time just as a typical writer’s interest on a particular issue. He also added that compared to the huge success of his previous novel, Miracle was actually doing very poorly in the market before Lee made it into a film.
But, I think the real reason he wrote that novel is not merely a writer interested on a particular issue but instead it is a deep personal existential urge. It can be found in his memoir, The Color of Water. The story in Miracle (see my Feb 12th blog entry) is so intertwined with his own personal life, his family, and mostly his beloved ‘Ma’. He dedicated the memoir to “my mother, her mother, and mothers everywhere.”. In that memoir, he talks directly to your soul about his mother who “raised twelve black children and sent us all to college and in most cases graduate school. Her children became doctors, professors, chemists, teachers – yet none of us even knew her maiden name until we were grown. It took me fourteen years to unearth her remarkable story – the daughter of an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, she married a black man in 1942 – and she revealed it more as a favor to me than out of any desire to revisit her past.”
This is a story about a mother’s pure and saintly love. I and probably most people would rarely cry reading a book. But I did on this one because I was so emotionally moved. Try it, read this book, you would probably cry too. Read it also to grow your soul. You will be so grateful about life, love, and family. You will look up at the ceiling and say ‘ah, life is beautiful, indeed.’
