by Barack Obama
I decided to read this book before The Audacity of Hope, so that I would be pleasantly surprised when I read the best seller of the two. Dreams from my father is not a page turner. It is not an immediately captivating book unless you happen to identify with the identity struggles Barack describes going through as a young American trying to negotiate his being half white and half black in a country where you must pick a race. The tales of the black experience in America, much like the documentary Black in America, disturbed and saddened me. My favorite part of this book was Barack’s first trip to Kenia. Discovering his father’s difficult inheritance of confusion, multiple families and self-destruction. A story of which he was only as small part, not the center and to which he was certainly not the unique heir. With that, there was also a sense of community, enjoyment of good food in the company of family and the mixed feelings of seeing for the first time what his heritage through many generations had really been like. I saw this book as a voluntary offering by Obama on what makes a man: his demons of youth and how he was able to come to peace with who he is today. The vulnerability of this book is very touching and one can see his next book was already brewing when he wrote this one.
