Wise and profound, Dreams from my Father is Barack Obama's 1995 memoir detailing his journey to understand his place as a man of mixed race and the place of the black race, in America.
Born to a Kenyan father and white mother and raised by his grandparents in Hawaii, Obama led an adventurous life, later moving with his mother to Indonesia when she remarried. After attending Occidental University in Los Angeles and then transferring to Columbia in New York, he finally ended up in Chicago where he started working as a community organizer in the toughest and poorest neighborhoods on Chicago's south side. Here one can really see where Obama got his passion for the issues he supports.
Haunted by the stories of his father, whom he only met once when he was 10, and fascinated by the issues of the black race, led Obama on an Odyssey to Africa to discover his roots in Kenya. Meeting many sisters and brothers, aunts, uncles and grandparents, these real life characters he met while there are some of the most interesting, strong and most resilient people one could ever hope to encounter, and also showcasing the struggles of the people of Kenya, along with the natural beauty of the African plains.
Written by his own hand and in his own voice and at times lyrical and poetic, this book is an in depth look at what made Barack Obama the man he is today.


Story ****
Readability ****
Overall rating ****

I was a bit hesitant to pick this book up, because I was concerned that it may be simply a book written by his PR agent, but it wasn't. It goes through the struggles that Obama had trying to live between the chasm of two worlds, being of mixed race.

I think anyone who has felt like they were part of two worlds, yet part of neither and anyone who has grown up in unusual circumstances, will get something out of this book. Obama deals with the paradoxes of his life in a very smart and human way. He talks frankly about the times he felt defeated, and the times he felt like he was soaring.

Obama seemed to know that he was destined for greatness, to write such a long autobiography at the age of 33. That is my one criticism of the book - it seems a bit overly-confident to write a book such as this before he became president. Perhaps he somehow just "knew".

Despite this, I would recommend reading it. Obama is one of the key figures of our time, and it is nice to know that he is "one of us" with a single mom and a mixed background trying to deal with the struggles, rather than part of some distant elite.

This book was written before Obama had aspirations of becoming President. It gives great insight into the life that made Obama the man he is today and why he has the ideas he does about which direction to take the country in and why he may be one of the best presidents the United states has ever had.

fascinating memoir that reads like a novel and reveals one man's search for racial, cultural, and personal identity. Wonderfully written, skillfully paced, and surprisingly candid with full-blown characters that live and breathe. Takes you from the author's boyhood in Hawaii and Indonesia to his young adult years on the south side of Chicago to the discovery of his extended family and ancestral roots in Kenya. A terrific book even if you are NOT obsessed with Barack Obama!