Chapters 1 and 2, Dead, The Bicycle Summary and Analysis

The eighth of twelve children, James McBride grows up in a chaotic but loving home. Unlike his friends, he doesn't look like his mother. His mother is a Polish Jew, raised mostly in Virginia. She marries a black man and lives the majority of her adult life in New York City where people are a little more tolerant of her inter-racial marriage and children.

James's father dies of lung cancer before he is born, but his mother remarries another kind-hearted black man who chooses not to live with them during the week for the sake of his sanity. Most of the time it's just Ruth and hermany children at home, trying to make ends meet.

The book is written from two points of view: that of James and that of Ruth. Ruth's words...