A Multi Colored Coat was created for the author’s six children. It melds stories from his unusual past with what he has learned about living a meaningful life.
“An Orthodox Jewish cross between Educated
and Hillbilly Elegy”
“a master of storytelling”
“elevates the everyday to seem extraordinary”
Excerpts
Kindness
I grew up in a house in rural Oregon. Unlike my parents’ house in Idaho, it was only 35 minutes from downtown Portland. We had running water from a well and electric power from the city (most of the time).
It had all the accoutrements of a proper house. But the neighborhood was still tough. Sometime before we’d moved in, there’d been a string of robberies in the area. The locals had worked out who was responsible. They went to the police. The police didn’t do anything. So, the neighbors banded together and burned the robber’s house down.
The robberies stopped.
The neighborhood wasn’t exactly welcoming to new folk…
Fulfillment Parenting
A few people have suggested that Rebecca and I pen a book on child-rearing. We’ve demurred. Again, it is presumptuous. Are we good parents or are we just blessed with good kids? Are our kids good or do we just need to wait a little longer for them to morph into proper teenage and adult monsters?
How do you measure or judge “good” kids?
I’m not asking these questions facetiously.
My grandfather used to say, “check back when they’re 30.” He was right. You never know whether a kid has turned out well. It can even be hard to tell if they’ve turned out badly. Beyond that, it can be d-mned hard to tell whether the parents had any role in either outcome…
Reviews
entertaining and insightful
Rodney and Chana Cox, two Ivy League alumni, started their family on the Salmon River, in the Rocky Mountain wilderness of Idaho. Chana brilliantly describes their time there in “The River Went Out of Eden”.
A Multi Colored Coat can be partially seen as a development of this extraordinary story from the perspective of their son Joseph, a remarkable author on his own. Joseph’s deep appreciation of his mother’s role and influence is emphasized by many fascinating chapters in the book entitled “In my mother’s words”.
The book is entertaining and insightful. Not only could I not tear myself away from it, but the book raised so many thoughts and questions that I immediately began to reread it. Its heroes, Joseph, Bec, and their six kids, Rodney and Chana, Ben and Nechama, and many others, became very close and dear to me. Please, Joseph, keep it going.
a fun yet deep grasp of the human spirit
I was asked to read this book by a good friend! Little did I know that after receiving the invitation, I read the book not only once but twice! The first time I read it as a casual reader looking to be entertained by the numerous stories of the Author’s life growing up and finding himself. I was very satisfied but felt that I had not dived into the text enough to truly understand the meaning behind each story.
The second time I read it, I focused in on the lessons, how every experience leaves us a changed person and it is up to us how we respond to those changes and what course we take from that experience. Joseph has a fun yet deeper grasp of the human spirit and what it is that makes us get up every morning to face the world. I hope that you get the chance to read the book and receive the same pleasure that I did. But be careful, you might just learn something about yourself along the way!
wonderful combination of life insights
I have read other books by Joseph Cox, and this one had a wonderful combination of life insights, humor, dealing with challenges and his devotion to his faith. You come away believing that you have gotten to know him and his beliefs about life, child raising and his commitment to living a faith-full life. I plan to read it again!
we want more!
I couldn’t. It was embarrassing. I was at a family event when I was loaned a copy. I basically ignored everyone and kept flipping pages. Now I own a copy and consider the author and his wife my personal friends. More, Joseph. We want more of your writing!
master of storytelling
If you’ve never crossed paths with Joseph Cox, you won’t believe that the story detailed in this book is true. Only a wildly imaginative author of fiction could weave such a tale of adventure, pain, faith, despair, resourcefulness, creativity, desperation, and deepest joy. Indeed, Cox has written other such tales from the wanderings of his genius, but this volume is informed only by the reality that has been his life. He is a master of storytelling and a thinker whose inspiration you won’t want to miss.
I bought 4 more copies … for my own kids
Joseph was raised in the wilderness with his siblings by parents with eclectic opinions on what it takes to raise kids when civilization is less conducive to building children into young adults. But somewhere in their experiments are lessons we all should be learning from. I bought 4 more copies to rock the boat in my own kids’ assessment on what it takes to be an adult member of society, and to raise one. You’ll find plenty of food for thought on this score in this book.
This book is a guide, may we all internalize it
For many years I have watched as Joseph and Bec have parented their lively children, and I have always admired how they do it. Seriously, role models. This book gives us the opportunity to hear how they decided to parent in the way that they do, and provides accessible real world tips and methods. This book is a guide, may we all read and internalize it!
you can’t appreciate the world for what it really is without people like Joseph.
In a bizarre coincidence, my two most interesting friends (sorry, everyone else; it’s not even close) published autobiographies the same week. Each one is a triumph in its own right but reading them back-to-back was one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life.
Tareq Azim and Joseph Cox literally could not be more different. Joseph is a self-taught Orthodox Jew whose family lived in the woods completely cut off from humanity; he was homeschooled, homeless for a while, and his claims to fame include being the youngest American ever prosecuted for racketeering and having a small hand in saving the purple potato from extinction. Tareq is a Muslim athlete descended from one of the most prestigious families in Afghanistan who fled when the Taiban took over and is now one of the top NFL and UFC trainers in the world.
Their stories are equally fascinating. I have spent countless hours listening to Joseph’s stories about the unbelievable things that have happened to him (note: unbelievable, but true; I started to doubt him at one point, and then he told me the story of how his car blew up and I decided that was enough. “Joseph, I love your stories, but that didn’t happen”, I said. He disappeared into his bedroom and came back with a series of pictures of him and his car, on fire, that set me straight. I never doubted him again. In any case, I can personally verify the veracity of a number of his stories that happened later in his life). I have also spent countless hours with Tareq, listening to how he has changed the world in the past and how he plans to do so in the future.
But that’s where the similarities end. Joseph grew up, got married, had kids. Tareq faced down the Taliban and somehow successfully started an Afghan women’s boxing league with the purpose of empowering the women of Afghanistan. Joseph wrote 11 books, the best-selling of which sold 170 copies. Tareq’s first book hit #1 immediately. And so on.
But what struck me about the books is that, although the stories are wildly different, the tone is the same. Both are living truly extraordinary lives and looking to improve the world, but they’re doing it in fundamentally different ways. Tareq looks at the world and asks himself how he can mold it to make it better. Joseph looks at the world and asks himself how to see the greatness in what’s already there. Tareq seeks out the world’s most extraordinary individuals and makes them better. Joseph sees the extraordinary in the people you meet every day.
There’s wisdom and value in both perspectives. The world wouldn’t be where it was without people like Tareq; but you can’t appreciate the world for what it really is without people like Joseph.
I grew up in a world that applauded uniformity and broadcast the message that there is only one path to a good life. I’ve come to believe that the nice thing about a multidimensional universe is that there are infinite paths between any two points.
My Other Books
To learn more about my other 10 books, visit JosephCox.com