This is on The Color of Water by James McBride. The main characters are: Dennis, Rosetta, William, David, Helen, Richard, Dorothy, James, Kathy, Judy, Hunter, and Ruth, AKA, Rachel, AKA, Ruchel Dwarja Zylska.James is a black child born of a white mother living in Brooklyn's Red Hook projects. The main events in James' life are as follows.
James drops out of high school after his stepfather dies. His mother also starts riding a bike to grieve over his death. I will have more details on that later. His older brother Richie lies to James, saying he was adopted. In 1966 Black Power permeates the neighborhoods of Brooklyn. James' siblings would march around their house singing songs like “Blacks Are Scared of Revolution.” A Black Panther is standing next to his mom at the school bus stop, so he turns around and punches his kid. James' older brother Billy {AKA William.} gets beaten for not memorizing a bible verse he was supposed to recite in front of everyone in the church congregation. Helen becomes a hippie and leaves home.
James' and company make a commitment to going to school.Richie goes to court for a crime he did not commit. James, Kathy, and 2 uncles were driving in a car and the driving uncle was drunk and went 100 M.P.H. up the I-95.His stepfather suffers a stroke and dies of a relapse. James then begins smoking weed and drinking alcohol. After being kicked out of summer school he would be sent to his sister Jack's house. Jack let him, a 15 year old, hang out with other drunks at a place they called The Corner. A drunk named Chicken Man gives James advice on how to handle things, for he was fired. Chicken Man gets into a fight with a woman, forgets about it, and is stabbed and killed later. One day James' mother decides to learn how to drive. In doing so, she nearly injures James' 2 year old niece, Z.Richie gets a ticket for making an illegal U-turn. James gets into the American Youth Jazz Band.
He later gets into Oberlin College. He speaks with Aubrey Rubenstein, who yields info about his mother's past. James' mother has a reunion with Francis Falcone.I recommend this book for children ages 13 and up because it has a lot of profanity. The book was good, but it had too many irrelevant parts to each chapter. On a scale of 1-10, I would rate this book as a 7.Like for example in chapter 8; it says that they were bitten by animals they kept which has nothing to do with brothers and sisters. Another example is in chapter 16 it talks about his stepfather's first car which has nothing to do with his mother learning how to drive his new car. In chapter 10 James asks what a tragic mulatto is which has nothing to do with school.
