From the President of the United States (Dreams From My Father - Barack Obama)

Member Name: Whizz11

Product:	Dreams From My Father - Barack Obama
Date:	03/06/09 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great read, moving,

Disadvantages: None

I absolutely love Barack Obama. He is a great President so far, a wonderful husband and father and actually seems like a really nice guy. I really think he is America's saviour and has the ability to be one of the greatest presidents of all time. I wanted to get to know more about him as a person so I could understand his political standings even better and so that's what prompted me to buy his book, Dreams from My Father.

It was written in 1995 before he even had an inclination about running for president. It came about around the time he was a law school at Harvard and had just been voted in as the first African-America President of the Harvard Law Review.

The book is described as a story of Race and Inheritance. Barack is half black and half white, his mother being a white woman from American and his father being a black man from Kenya in Africa. At times in the beginning of the book and when he was younger he seems confused about his background and where he comes from and his place in this world. He then embarks on a journey to discover himself and what family means to him. It's quite a poignant book at times and definitely makes you think. Barack didn't really know his father, only having met him once and describing him on the back of the book, "a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man," but he was still quite upset when he found out he had died. This leads him to his big journey of discovery.

Barack led quite an interesting childhood and definitely not that of a future president. He grew up in beautiful Hawaii (lucky guy) with his mothers family, then spent some of his childhood in Indonesia and then moved to New York and Chicago. He also didn't have a particularly political background, not really deciding what he wanted to do until he got into community projects in Chicago. I found this first portion of the book where it explains all his campaigning a bit long but it describes his life as well and where he was at that point and I can see what he was building up to. It's interesting when you read this book and the interactions he had with others. They talked to him just as a normal guy, which he was and is, but it must be funny for them knowing now that he became the most powerful man in the world when they just knew him back in the day as a regular joe.

It was interesting for me reading this as a white woman because obviously I don't understand the struggles he had as a white guy/black guy and how he saw himself but I guess now I can understand why people have these certain feelings and how a life like that might be quite hard to quantify. It's a hard going book, it wasn't easy to read by any means but it is so worth reading and definitely gives you an insight into the man.

The favourite part of the book for me was when Barack goes to Africa to visit all his relatives although it's quite easy to get lost with all the characters as his father had various wives and children and he has half sisters/step sisters that are all in the book. He describes Africa beautifully and really makes you want to visit and see it for yourself.

It's fairly long, about 440 pages but definitely a book I recommend.

Summary: Dreams from my Father - Barack Obama