This memoir by the author of the novel The Good Lord Bird was both an absorbing window into one man's search for
his identity and, as the subtitle states, a tribute to and biography of his indomitable mother, Ruth McBride Jordan, who grew up an Orthodox Jew in segregated Virginia and went on to raise twelve Black children during a time when her two interracial marriages could cause street riots (James was the eighth child). The title comes from her answer to a question James asked as a child, about what color God is. Both James and Ruth emerge as strong, compassionate people, role models more than 20 years after the book was published. I plan to read everything McBride has written.
Publisher description:
An African American man describes life as the son of a white mother and Black father, reflecting on his mother's contributions to his life and his confusion over his own identity.