- This event has passed.
Book Group
Monday, February 17, 2020 @ 11:15 am - 12:30 pm MST
Augustana’s Book Group meets the third Monday of each month at 11:15 a.m. in the Anna Paulson Room, and we usually bring our lunch. You don’t need to read the books in advance—just join us for fellowship and great discussion!
February Book Group
Monday, February 17, 11:15 a.m., Anna Paulson Room
Our selection for February is The Color of Water by James McBride, who retraces his mother’s footsteps and, through her searing and spirited voice, recreates her remarkable story. The daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi, she was born Rachel Shilsky (actually Ruchel Dwara Zylska) in Poland on April 1, 1921. Fleeing pogroms, her family emigrated to America and ultimately settled in Suffolk, Virginia, a small town where anti-Semitism and racial tensions ran high. With candor and immediacy, Ruth describes her parents’ loveless marriage, her fragile, handicapped mother, her cruel, sexually-abusive father, and the rest of the family and life she abandoned.
McBride also shares candid recollections of his own experiences as a mixed-race child of poverty, his flirtations with drugs and violence, and his eventual self-realization and professional success. The Color of Water touches readers of all colors as a vivid portrait of growing up, a haunting meditation on race and identity, and a lyrical valentine to a mother from her son.