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Loading... Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritanceby Barack Obama
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. I love biographies and memoirs and read a lot of them by retired politicians. What a treat to read a memoir by a world leader that was written long before he entered politics. Barack Obama's first memoir is readable, accessible, reflective and has no "spin". This is really a personal journey about Mr. Obama understanding his personal history in the context of the larger history of America and Africa. Well written and thoughtful. A rare opportunity to get to know a now-famous person. As one critic pointed out, this is possibly the only unguarded memoir of an American who would go on to become President. This is a fascinating story even without the remarkable new epilogue, and well told. What a rare privelege it is to read a political autobiography that was clearly actually written by the subject, and is so forthright, honest and readable. There are no doubt other good examples of political biography, but I am not a big reader of the genre and consequently cannot think of one as good as this. This books greatest advantage is it was written long before Obama had any thought of being elected as president of the United States. Consequently he gives us the kind of reflective account that reveals the true man, without showing signs of editing by political advisers. Not that this book was written without any focus on future career. The book is reflective, but it is heavily influenced by issues of race and what it means to be a black man in modern America. The reader is left with an impression of a vision that is not spelled out in so many words, but hinted at. You feel that Obama has a hope for a new kind of conversation between races in America - but the book merely brings tensions and issues and hostory to the surface, without being in any way didactic. Ultimately though this is a personal story of Obama's own self discovery as he comes to terms with who his father was - the absent father he never knew. As he describes the family grave in Kenya, you have to wonder - was there ever a president of the United States befoe whose father's grave was so unaddorned (I suspect this has changed by now, of course - but nevertheless, the point is that you just feel so connected to Obama here). Elected the first black president of the United States, Obama's place in history is assured - whatever happens now. This book will be an invaluable aid to historians of the future - a real and personal first hand account in the words of the man that history will remember. Reading the book, and particularly his searching for faith in the churches of Chicago, I felt that maybe he has not yet found what he is looking for. The section closed on an emotional note, describing the sermon on "The Audacity of Hope" - a title he took for his next book. But nowhere did there seem to be any mention of the Christian gospel and how he responded to that personally. That is not a criticism of the book though - it is just something revealing in the work. All in all this was an excellent book. Off my usual subject matter but well worth reading. Dreams From My Father is both an internal and external journey that is eloquently and sensitively written, a journey that questions cause, motive and effect. From the first moment you are captivated by Obama's narrative voice and what he has to say. This is a life-changing book. You will never think the same way about race, humanity or American society ever again. Not since reading Black Like Me when I was an adolescent has a book had such a profound effect upon my social consciousness.
All men live in the shadow of their fathers -- the more distant the father, the deeper the shadow. Barack Obama describes his confrontation with this shadow in his provocative autobiography, "Dreams From My Father," and he also persuasively describes the phenomenon of belonging to two different worlds, and thus belonging to neither.
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(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:23 -0400)
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One of the many refreshing things about Barack Obama is his self-deprecating sense of humour. Responding to the unrealistic expectations for his presidency, Obama said 'I've been sent by my father from the planet Krypton to save the Earth.' Unfortunately, the irony of this self-comparison to Superman was probably lost on many of his dedicated followers, who clearly believe that – once in office – he can exercise a few super powers and rid the world of all its thronging ills, economic and otherwise. But as Dreams from My Father proves, Obama is no fool, and knows the cold realities that face him, even though this intelligently written book is filled with optimism and hope. Which is understandable enough; after all, what else could Obama offer?
The politicians who can actually write may be counted on one hand, but on the evidence here, Barack is among their number (he reminds us that William Faulkner said the past is never dead and buried – it isn’t even past; can you imagine Barack's predecessor in the Oval Office quoting Faulkner – unless the allusion was written for him by one of his speechwriters?). In fact the book -- Obama’s remarkable life story – was, of course, written before his destiny was irrevocably changed by his success in the US presidential election, and it is a striking account of a young man coming to terms with the problem of his identity and issues of belonging in a racially divided country (a racial division that Obama – by the very example of his success – may do a considerable amount towards healing). The son of a black African father and a white American mother, Obama details the dramatic journey that constituted his parents’ life before his own trip to Kenya to confront the sobering realties of his father’s life. It is a book about coming to terms with the past – and comparisons with writers such as Proust in such areas are not as ridiculous as they would be if almost any other politician were involved. (