initely makes it unique. Although it is just like any other book, in that its successfulness will be judged by sales as well as how it affects readers, the author only went through all of the research done in writing this book in order to quench his own thirst for finding out where his roots lay. This is quite evident in the reading, which seems to mention the history, and story behind nearly everyone, as well as every place. This makes for many interesting stories, but often-times ones that are too preoccupied with showing the reader what it meant to the author, and not as concerned with the enjoyment of the reader.This, of course, spawns another problem. With an author who is only concerned with showing the reader how it affected himself, you are deprived of what you really want to know about a given character. James has eleven brothers and sisters, all of which have something to add to the story, and yet the exposition given to each of them is far from satisfactory. Much more detail could have been given on what they thought of their mother, how each of them found out about her, who teaches and lives the motto “Don’t tell anyone your business.” For this reason, the children have the challenge of digging up the truth about their mother, and James takes it to the next level, by writing a book.What the book does offer a younger reader, like myself, is insight as to what it was like to grow in the 1950’s and 60’s in a biracial family. The hardships that these children, James especially, and his mother endure, are depicted quite well. Each shows how strong of a person Rachel was, and also helped to strengthen the children, which would benefit them later in life. However, the most important thing that came from these anecdotes of racism in the memoir was what it taught me, as a reader. The way that Mommy reacted during each of these instances showed that you truly could ignore people that have nothi...
