NOVEL IDEAS


Jun 01, 2022

Literary Icon James McBride Makes A Rare Appearance At The Nantucket Book Festival This June.

story by Robert Cocuzzo

photography by Joel Saget/AFP

James McBride rarely does interviews any more. The National Book Award winner, Presidential Arts and Humanities Medal recipient and Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at New York University says his fifteen minutes of fame are over and it’s time to pass the torch to the next generation of literary talents. However, that’s not to say that people no longer want to hear what he has to say. As the author of half a dozen books exploring race and class in America, McBride’s perspective has never been more necessary.

The cornerstone of his bibliography, The Color of Water—a memoir about being raised in a poor Black neighborhood by a white Jewish mother—is considered an American classic, impacting millions of students in the same way that To Kill a Mockingbird did a generation earlier. His latest novel, Deacon King Kong—centering on a shooting in 1969 Brooklyn— has amassed an array of awards and landed on the recommended reading lists of everyone from Oprah to Obama. James McBride will be appearing at the tenth annual Nantucket Book Festival as both a featured author as well as a member of the Rock Bottom Remainders, a band made up of best-selling authors that will perform on Saturday, June 18th. In light of his first visit to the island, McBride waved his no-interviews policy and spoke exclusively to N Magazine about a range of topics, including his process, race in America and the significance of Juneteenth, which coincides with the final day of the book festival.


In the spirit of the Nantucket Book Festival, what was the first book that you encountered that spoke to you and inspired your literary career?


When I was very young, I read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. That was a seminal work for me. I think it set the tone for a lot of my understanding about how the outside world viewed African American life. Even though [Lee has] been criticized for how she depicted Calpurnia and the characters in the novel—people find all kinds of stuff to nitpick over—that’s just a great book. And she was a great writer and a very humble person. That book, probably more than any, pushed me towards the literary life.

It’s interesting you bring up To Kill a Mockingbird, because that’s required reading for so many students. Now you’re in a position where your books are required reading for so many students, particularly your memoir, The Color of Water. Where does that sit in the psyche of you as a writer, especially as someone who had a mother who was so deliberate in trying to drive you and your siblings toward pursuing education?


If you’d have told me this forty years ago, or when I was a kid, that my mother’s life, part of my life, would be part of school curriculum in any country, I’d say you probably were losing your mind. But I think it shows that the evolution of American life is moving forward, however painfully it goes. My mother’s formula actually worked, as flawed as it was in retrospect. The things that she emphasized—school, education, religion, discipline—those things work…If there is one common element in those books—and I’m not comparing myself to Harper Lee at all—but there are characters, like Atticus Finch and Ruth McBride Jordan, who tried to look to the biggest story in terms of what they wanted for their children. What they wanted for their children is what most of us want, which is our kids to live a good life, to be happy however they are, in whatever form they decide to take, whatever sex they choose, whoever they decide to marry. If you’re lucky, you get eighty years. That’s maybe thirty thousand days. How much time do you want to waste on hating somebody because they’re not like you? So if those books have anything in common, it would be that. And the fact that they’re still being read by people all over the country, I hope it’s considered a piece of good news in a time of not so-good news.

When you sit down now to write, does it enter your mind that what you put down on the page could have some impact on the discourse that’s happening as a country?


If I thought on the big scale, I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed. Really. I wouldn’t be able to do it. I’m not that smart. I’m very lucky to make a living putting words to paper. And I try to make what I write funny, and amusing, and entertaining, and to have some goodness in it, and to push into areas that are interesting but that are not ridiculously violent or ridiculously stupid, because violence is easy on the page, but the ramifications of it last a lifetime. I try to write books that make people feel better. I try to write things that I’d like to read, that make me feel good about people, because generally I do feel good about people. I try to keep cynicism out of my work because cynicism is toxic to creativity. Skepticism is okay. Skepticism is healthy. But cynicism is toxic to creativity and, frankly, to all forms of creation, be they political, sociological or even economic.

This year the book festival culminates on the 19th of June, which is Juneteenth. What are your thoughts on Juneteenth being recognized as a national holiday and how do you think that day can best be commemorated?


I would just commemorate it by loving somebody. Nothing we do now is going to change the past. As long as we just try to be nice to each other and listen with each other, I think that would be a good way to celebrate it…I’ve always been happy with how our New England brothers and sisters have tried to conduct themselves with regard to matters of race. So I’m glad it’s being celebrated up there in Nantucket. I wish that it would be celebrated in places like Columbia, South Carolina, and Houston, Texas, and Moss Point, Mississippi, with that kind of fervor. Until we start accepting each other’s real history, we’re never going anywhere. That’s the fact. That’s the truth of it.

In terms of history, there’s been some that have said that we shouldn’t be celebrating Black History Month because it’s another form of separation? Do you share in that opinion?


Should there be a Black History Month? I mean, it doesn’t matter that much. Sure. Why not? It’s not that important that we put it all in a month. I’ve never thought about it too much because I don’t really pay attention to these kinds of things. I live with real history. Living with real history means you read three newspapers every day, and you try to bring justice to wherever you are. These labels, and these committees, and these people—there’s a lot of blabbing and not enough muscle flabbing. I think Black History Month is a good idea, a good thing. And until we come up with something better, why not? Why not keep it going? I think the bigger question is how do we find ways to talk to each other honestly, without texting, tweeting, and TikToking, and Flickflocking, and all this other nonsense? The more important questions are, how can we stop giant media from controlling the way we talk to each other, and manipulating information, and news that is disguised as propaganda, and propaganda that’s disguised as news? That’s a much more important question, in my mind, than the whole business of Black History Month.

There was a huge upswelling of support and calls for social justice in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and other Black men and women, particularly at the hands of police. It captivated the nation. What were some of the takeaways from that period of time, and were there missed opportunities?


What happened to George Floyd is not new. This has been happening all my life. So I like the fact that people were paying attention to this poor man and the details of his life, and not treating him like he was just another story on the news. Yes, there’s always missed opportunity to discuss these things in a real way. I can’t say how, specifically, we might have had missed opportunities with regard to George Floyd, but I’m sure glad we started talking to each other. And I like to think that the deaths of Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, and so many like them have given us the opportunity to examine in fruitful ways how we can change police tactics and change how we view each other. We need to figure out that this race thing is just a game that just pits us against each other. When you go to an old folks’ home, they’re not so worried about race anymore.

What are you looking forward to with the Nantucket Book Festival?



I’m looking forward to just trying to inspire young people. I mean, I’ve had my fifteen minutes, man. It’s time for somebody else to have their time. I don’t remember meeting anybody like me when I was young. I just don’t remember it. And so I’m mindful that young people think I’m smart. That’s really a problem for them, I think. I’m honored that people will be listening to me.

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