Dreams from My Father : A Story of Race and Inheri

I read this before Obama ran for POTUS, and fell in love with him then. ( )

This book is both enlightening and frustrating. Let's start with the enlightening part. Obama is both visionary and inherently a good guy. He is able to pull together his life experiences in Hawaii, in Indonesia, in California, in Harlem, in Chicago and in Kenya and see the same thing everywhere. Good people dealing with the hand they have been dealt. With the yearnings, the rejections, the accomplishments and the striving of just daily life. I can see the commonalities now that Obama has put them in front of me. Rather than focus on the differences he points out the similarities. He genuinely seems at home wherever he is while always also maintaining a search for more. He fits in. He finds commonality and while critically examining the situation he avoids being judgmental. Well played. We learn a lot about where he came from and how his early experiences shaped his life. He spent a lot of time with his maternal grandparents. He was constantly dealing with the issues of both being black and not having a father present in his life. Much of this book is spent in his search to figure out who his father was. He built up many myths in the many hours he spent wondering about his father and his trip to Kenya both filled in lots of the blanks and simultaneously destroyed several myths he hoped to maintain.

Before getting to the frustrating parts we need to recognize how this book came about. This is not the book of a former president. It was written long before he assumed central stage. According to Obama publishers had approached him after he became the first black President of the Harvard Law Review. They felt his life story would make a saleable book and gave him an advance which may have been his first experience of having some money. My guess is he decided to treat it as an opportunity to look deeper into his roots. Much of the book is his very detailed recall of conversations with tons of people, what they were wearing, what they said, what they looked like, etc. I had to wonder if he was constantly making notes or had one fantastic memory. My guess is he wrote things down in a diary but he makes no mention of that, just my guess. One disturbing feature is the way the book ends abruptly; I wondered if an editor just gave up. Obama details at length an extended trip to Kenya and then announces to everyone in Chicago he's heading to law school at Harvard. I had not realized he was a community organizer before he went to law school. One thing that the Kenya trip reveals is the extensive Islamic family who opened their arms to him. It also makes clear the problems, both legal and inter-personal, that result from polygamy which characterized that family.

Now for the frustrating parts, and there are several. Obama is an eloquent orator and has a brilliant mind so my expectations were very high. He delivers in many way, see above, yet he disappoints in others. This book is in a sense his attempt to portray himself as just a black man dealing with life as he's been dealt it. I wanted more. He's exceptional and only seems to want to admit that he's been the benefactor of several gifts - he's more interested to come across as one of the guys. He's not. Get over it. He never seems to hear me. The biggest disappointment is the glaring holes. There is almost nothing about his mother. Yes the basic facts are there but I felt that Obama was respecting her wish to keep her out of this. We at least learn that her first name was actually Stanley because her father had wanted a son. There is virtually nothing about Columbia and Harvard. Surely they helped create him to some degree. It barely mentions that he becomes a civil rights lawyer after returning to Chicago from Harvard.

My hope is that the next book will help with what I was looking for. Stay tuned. Fingers crossed. ( )

Well-written. Much is said about Obama lacking experience, but reading about his life experience, and what he has learned from it, and how he has applied it to work and to his vision is pretty inspiring. Thoughtful, intelligent...very hopeful. ( )

Very gripping story. Amazed at the intensity that Barack had in finding his father and I think that's true of others whose fathers were not around when they were young. ( )

this book was surprisingly beautiful and i didn't really expect that. refreshing to read an autobiographical piece from a politician from BEFORE they ran for office, seemed way more authentic and open. ( )