The Color Of Water- Part I

The Color Of Water is a loving memoir written by James McBride in honor of his mother. From the first nine chapters, I've found that this is a very beautiful and thought-provoking book. McBride uses very descriptive and precise details describing his family, surroundings, life, and friends.

McBride was a young black boy growing up in the Brooklyn projects who had eleven other siblings and was the son of a Polish woman who came to the United States because of the outbreak of WWII. McBride and his family struggled with the difficulties of living in the projects and racism.

Prior to reading The Color Of Water, I knew much about the Civil Rights movement. I just wasn't that interested in it, not to say that I didn't believe in Civil Rights. McBride's book offers both insight into what racial and religious tensions were like during the segregation era while describing his love for his belated mother.

So far, I have really enjoyed the book. James McBride does a fantastic job at putting everything in this book on such a personal level that it felt as though I almost experienced it myself, making it even more difficult to bear the thought of actually experiencing it.

The Color Of Water is a beautiful memoir that I can't wait to finish reading.

On Writing Final Essay

Although I thought that On Writing would be entertaining all the way through, that wasn't the case. It's just that it's very hard to focus the rest of the way. Stephen King goes from writing about embarrassingly funny childhood stories to this boring, almost condescending, for lack of a better word, lecture about how to be a "good" writer. Let me explain.
First of all, it's based on the reader's opinion whether he or she enjoys a writer's works or not and secondly I don't believe that there is a written formula somewhere that says, "Follow these rules and you'll be a good writer!".
In my opinion, I do not believe there is even such thing as a "good" writer. Just what the reader is able to enjoy or not. Just my honest opinion.
I believe that even though King wrote about how most autobiographies are filled with "bullshit", he fell under the same spell, with all due respect to King.
I thought the first half of the book was very enjoyable. And I know most people would say, "But Stuart! The first half of the book was filled with disgusting stories! A real reader would be able to enjoy all of the book." And it's snobby people like that that ruin art today, whether it be film, literature, music and others.
The point of my rant is for people to just try to enjoy what they read, write from the heart, and don't try too hard. Nothing can be perfect and nothing will be perfect. If you don't like it, move on.
Overall, like I said I did enjoy about the first half of the book and I disagreed with most of the rest. I do thank Stephen King for what this book has taught me. Maybe not what he intended but I did learn from it. Most who read On Writing enjoyed it although I guess that I'm one of the few who didn't.

Ready for The Color Of Water.

-Stuart