A very personal quest – eloquent, non-judgmental, moving
Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
My review on Amazon | Book on Amazon
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed Aug 7, 2009
My husband read out a few passages from this book and my interest was piqued. I read it over the last couple of days, at a pace normally reserved for racy thriller fiction! Obama tells his story eloquently, and without trying hard – and boy, what a story he has to tell! I’m sure there are thousands of people of all races with a rich, exotic background such as his, and have similarly searched for themselves and their roots. But Obama has a wonderful ability to bring these things together within a larger context – of Black America, the economic and social and cultural class struggles, of Indonesia, of Kenya and its tribes, of Africans in America, of Africans in Africa…
This book describes a very personal quest for one man’s roots, a reason and purpose for his life, but with a difference – he not only describes his own reasons, dreams, perspective, but a variety of the other characters’ points of view. He has made a genuine effort to understand where people are coming from – irrespective of race, color, religion. Even describing some negative aspects of some people, he bothers to go back a little way and discover the reasons behind their bitterness, pettiness, false bravado, whatever… A very non-judgmental attitude, which obviously makes for a great leader, a great human being.
He has certainly achieved a memoir with neither a negative nor a positive spin on people and events – he simply chronicles them as he experienced them, as he heard them. For all that, it is not neutral or wishy-washy – opinions are clearly expressed, both his own, and the other characters’. Reading about his childhood, and description of his mother and maternal grandparents, my first thought was “Wow! He must be really close to them to write about them like this!” I also liked the parts he left unsaid (mainly gathered from subtle hints of his dating life), protecting the privacy of the women he dated.
The other thing about the book is, at all times his own achievements and opinions are nicely understated. You get the impression of a very unassuming man who has traveled a lot since childhood, seen and accepted realities stripped of pretenses.
He has an excellent way with words, the ability to make every sentence, every word count. I found the writing so moving, that in some parts, I had tears streaming down my face. Though I’m not American, it’s a very good feeling that Obama is the President of America. But I digress – the book is worth adding to your collection just on account of its literary and human story value, President or no President!
