My Black Beauty

“Black Is My Favorite Color”, written by Bernhard Malamud is about a man, whose name is Nathan. He writes about his environment and experiences with people who have colored skin. At the beginning of the short story he writes about a guy whose name was Buster and that Buster’s father was put into prison because he committed a crime, which is a typical situation for the part of New York where he lives. After Buster’s father was put into prison Nathan invited him to the movies, buys sweets for him and other stuff and wants to be a friend of him, but Buster still disregardes all of this.

Nathan further writes about a situation in which he picks up gloves for a woman, whose name is Ornita, but she does not want his help because he has white colored skin and she is black. But one day she goes into Nathan’s liquor store and buys something and he gave her a discount. From now on Ornita visits the store every two weeks and they start to talk to each other. Ornita and Nathan now often meet and even fall in love after some time. But one day when he brought her home they get robbed near to her apartment and she does not want to see Nathan anymore.

The short story sets in New York. Nathan is the protagonist and the person who narrates the short story.

The first time I read this story, it was quite difficult for me to understand, especially the beginning of the short story. If you read it more than once you will be able to understand more details. I would not recommend it to teenagers who like to read in order to relax. After I read the short story I had a lot to think about it a lot because it includes a lot of difficult themes like racism. If somebody does not want to read shallow stories it is a quite good story and I would really recommend it.