Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

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It's a hit!

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to gain insight into our current president's character. Though couched in terms of race, I feel w... (show more)

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to gain insight into our current president's character. Though couched in terms of race, I feel what makes this book excellent is that it can apply beyond race, to anyone who asks the question: where do I fit in?

Obama travels across the globe in search of answers for himself. What he discovers in Chicago and Africa is not all that he had imagined. Life is complicated. Familial and political relationships are not so easy and simple as we'd like. It's Obama's realization of this truth that really garnered my respect.

The issue of 'being authentic' is raised: what does it mean to be an authentic black American? What does it mean to be an authentic Kenyan? And finally, simply to be an authentic person?

After reading this book, I am all the more convinced that Obama is truly a thoughtful, reflective, intelligent man who will bring honor to the office of President. (show less)

 

 

by Facebook-gebruiker

No, it's a flop!

Don't get me wrong, I was and still am really thrilled when Barack Obama won the American election and this book is well written. Mr Obama is just... (show more)

Don't get me wrong, I was and still am really thrilled when Barack Obama won the American election and this book is well written. Mr Obama is just as talented a writer as he is an orator. Nonetheless, this book lacks soul. I felt as though he was telling me a very select history, carefully choosing his words lest they come back to haunt him in the future. As a result the work felt too broad and unemotional. I found it hard to get close or feel any connection with the narrator.

Furthermore, I hated the uneven manner in which the author treated the various members of his family. I felt as though he was unduly critical of his mother's family who raised him and not critical enough of his African family.

In particular, there was little criticism leveled at the author's absentee father. To the author, Barack Obama Snr is some kind of enigmatic wonder. As for myself, I thought the man was selfish and a user. I respected him less and less as the book went on. I began to resent the writer as I felt as though he was disloyal to the family who stayed behind to look after and care for him. Overall, I thought the book was a little too self-pitying for my liking. I regret reading the book as I now think less of Mr Obama. (show less)

 

 

by Natalie Cutajar

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  I came to this book as (1) one of 70 million Americans who voted for Barack Obama in 2008, (2) a white man, and (3) a listener of the audio edition.

  As a Democrat who voted for Obama in 2008, I was surprised by the clarity of his liberalness. During the campaign, he emphasized his ability to unite Americans, conservatives and liberals, but make no mistake, Obama is clearly a liberal. I'm not expressing buyer's remorse, I mostly knew what I was getting when I voted for him, but I was still st... (show more)

  I came to this book as (1) one of 70 million Americans who voted for Barack Obama in 2008, (2) a white man, and (3) a listener of the audio edition.

  As a Democrat who voted for Obama in 2008, I was surprised by the clarity of his liberalness. During the campaign, he emphasized his ability to unite Americans, conservatives and liberals, but make no mistake, Obama is clearly a liberal. I'm not expressing buyer's remorse, I mostly knew what I was getting when I voted for him, but I was still struck by how liberal his vision for American society is, and how it evolved.

  As a white man, I was struck by how important race is, has always been, to Obama. Again, during the campaign I got very little sense of how he has worked all his life to help empower black people, but he has. Now he was commissioned to write a book about race, but still, his blackness is central to and pervades his personal identity. As a member of America's majority race, like it or not, that's not familiar to me. Being white in American allows you to forget about race most days. This book reminded me that that thoughtlessness is in itself a privilege. And it allowed me to see that Obama is a black leader who turned his race-consciousness into a drive to make life better for all Americans, black and white, rich and poor, young and old.

  As someone who listened to Obama read this book for the audio edition, versus reading the text, I loved it. Simply for the voices. Obama has a rich and innate sense of the power of storytelling, and is one of the best oral storytellers alive in America. His sense of humor, his warmth, all come through when he's doing the voices of his family and his friends, and this, almost irresistibly, endears him to the listener.

  I liked this book, and I was glad that I got to know Obama better, now that he's President. Some of the themes of his presidency were very apparent in this book. For example, his supreme confidence: in one early passage he says that he does not posses the skill as a writer to describe the events of September 11, 2001. Then, he immediately proceeds to. He's always been someone who believes he can do the impossible, that comes across very clearly here. (show less)

   

  by Lowen Baumgarten on Jun 03, 2009 at 03:04AM

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  This is a remarkable book. And I deeply hope that this thoughtful man becomes the president.

  This book, which is not ghosted, was written when he was 33 years old long before he had any thoughts of a political career. In it he explores what is means to have a black Afrcan father that he never knew and a whilte American mother and seemingly to belong no-where. As he grows up he has to discover what it means to be black while being raised by white parents and, while doing so gives the ... (show more)

  This is a remarkable book. And I deeply hope that this thoughtful man becomes the president.

  This book, which is not ghosted, was written when he was 33 years old long before he had any thoughts of a political career. In it he explores what is means to have a black Afrcan father that he never knew and a whilte American mother and seemingly to belong no-where. As he grows up he has to discover what it means to be black while being raised by white parents and, while doing so gives the reader a gentle and loving education into the issues of race.

  As a white 'middle class' girl these are not issues that I have ever had to consider. It's easy for me to say 'I don't see colour, I only see people' as I have never had to see colour, I have never been reminded of my colour or had assumptions made about me based upon it.

  But the book isn't just about colour - it's also about our inheritance, whatever that may be, it's about our personal history and having a sense of it, about understanding our parents and being able to forgive them because of that understanding. And about embracing and celebrating our inheritance.

  It is a deeply moving book and I found myself crying in it more than once despite the fact that it is not written in a way that manipulates emotion. I would give this book ten stars even if it were written by an unknown author who never wrote another word. The fact that it is written by a man who may be president, is purely an added pleasure.

  If a truly great book is one that alters us in some way and enables us to see the world around us differently - then this book succeeds on every level. (show less)

   

  by Isabel Losada on Jun 29, 2008 at 01:58PM

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