The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother
by James McBride
295 pages, Publisher (1995)
Read October 2025
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store
by James McBride
380 pages, Publisher (2023)
Read May 2024
Having now read both of these titles, I’m struck by how they speak to each other. Of course it makes sense; McBride’s tribute to his mother shares the true stories of his mother (and grandmother) that influenced The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. Both were Sisterhood book club picks (the novel was also a summer read title recommended by one of our rabbis), though I only attended the discussion for the memoir a few weeks ago.
I listened to both as audiobooks and the productions were amazing. From our sisterhood discussion, it seems that having McBride’s mother’s “voice” in my ears made the structure much more obvious than it appears on the page. The alternating chapters between James’s story and his mother’s created a rich, layered narrative that the audiobook production enhanced beautifully.
Having read the novel first, I was fascinated to learn what parts of his mother’s life McBride mined for it. He takes the nuggets and polishes them into a wonderful rich story. It doesn’t feel forced. Ruth/Rachel/Ruchel’s experiences as a young Jewish woman in the South, her complicated relationship with her family and faith, the Jewish community’s interconnection with Black neighbors, these threads run through both books.
Our discussion focused on Ruth and how despite her choice to leave Judaism, she sounds like a very typical Jewish mother. We all wished we could see the children following her to various cultural events in the city.
Personally, I found the memoir incredibly touching and moving, a way to understand a parent in ways we don’t when we are younger. McBride’s curiosity about his mother, his need to understand her silences and choices, drives both the memoir and echoes in his fiction. The novel takes those lived experiences and builds them into something new while honoring their truth.
These books work together to explore identity, family, faith, and belonging. The memoir grounds you in the real lived experience; the novel shows you what an artist can do with those experiences when given room to imagine. Both are worth your time, and reading them as a pair enriches both.
Our book club decided what we want is stories from all of McBride’s siblings. Curiosity for sure.
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