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Ruth did this for her children by making them get an education and teaching them about racial ignorance and how to overcome it. He wrote this masterpiece as a tribute to everything his mother went through for him and his siblings. It shows the same intolerance and slander against one ethnic group. I also beileve it shows a side of this country some would like to deny exists or acknowledge.
It is more however showing the side of not only racial boundries shattering but the loving care a ffamily really gives. As to the one star review i would like to point out that what you have stated is a false accusation as well as ignorant beyond belief. Your view point does not represent the message the book is trying to send which i believe is that though there may be obstacles in one's life, they can overcome them and make their situation better. This book is a true story by james Mcbride. As a final note I beileve you have to understand that the author tells the truth and cannot hide the reality of what really happened. This however just shows how close minded people are when they think opoinions such as these.
Statements such as that one is what brings hatred and anger into this world. The book however is nto this at all.
His mother is also human and like many humans has flaws. The racial problems they went through describe a story many have gone through before and shows a side of society that not many understand.
It shows how a mother has the greatest impact on a child and to them seem bullet proof and act in such a manner. Your statement however is saying the only reason this book is applaued is it was written by a black man whos mother happened to reject and renounce her jewish faith and it offends you because of this.
Further more you say that if it were a jewish man who wrote a story such as this it would be rejected and deemed outrageous. When you really see the side so many hide, you see struggles and hardships many face but bury away for they have something greater to think about, they think about their children, familys, loved ones and close friends and making it better for them.
Readers must get that this book shows the flaws as well as how strong and a great mother Ruth really was.
McBride wrote a very good book alternating chapters about his mother's Jewish childhood with chapters about his mixed race and Christian childhood. I will keep this short. Mr. I finished the book with more respect and appreciation for both Jewish and Christian religions, and for Whites and Blacks. I very much recommend this book.
"I opened the lunch bag Mameh had packed for me and inside, tucked between the knishes and matzoh balls and chopped liver, was her Polish passport."Maybe we should throw in some kugel. Perhaps some pastrami on rye. Between the hideous onslaught of Jewish stereotypes (positive and negative stereotypes are mentioned, but the negative capture the spotlight), at least the author included some of the delicious things we cook when we're not robbing poor people, slagging off disabled family members and spitting racist remarks in yiddish.
She never cleaned and rarely prepared a meal for the children but let them fight for the jars of peanut butter she brought into the house, with the weakest going without and all of them going hungry. I found this book interesting and entertaining. She beat the children and let the oldest beat the younger ones. I was fascinated by his mother's early life and I enjoyed the stories of the children raising themselves in New York.What I didn't like was the underlying principle that says if people have professional degrees, then their mothers must have done a great job.This mother had 12 children even though she was living in poverty. She left the children alone at night while she went to work. She did do a good job of teaching her children the importance of education but that education was paid for through the generosity of the same Jewish people she taught her children to think of as cold and unfeeling. Oh, yes, she also refused to visit her own dying mother.The book is interesting and not without value but I'm surprised that it is taught in high schools as a tribute to a wonderful mother.
What an awful, self serving book. That being said, I do wish he would have spent more time on her story, which seemed very interesting, as most of the book was about his own coming of age.
I agree that the story was sloppy and disorganized, not to mention repetitive. This book was more like a shout out to the people he had come across in his life, with long winded introductions to random people that not only had nothing to do with his mother, but took away from her story.
I found it odd that McBride felt the need to arbitrarily state the race of every character in the book, given the title. It seems to me he was trying to reassure himself that his mother was indeed a perfect person, not an irresponsible, distant, aloof one as the facts seem to depict.
He repeatedly lists his numerous awards and reminds the reader how accomplished he is in a poor and uninspired style. The listing of her progeny and their degrees was just too much for me, and the epilogue had little relevance to anything and it was left to the reader to determine in any case.
Furthermore, it seems as if he thinks himself incapable of racism solely because his mother is white, which is illustrated by his obsession with race apparent in every chapter. There were numerous contradictions and I would have greatly appreciated some insight or continuity in whatever point this book is trying to make.
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