Dreams From My Father

Author: Barack Obama
Category: Purchases

This book was selected for the book club I didn't want to be in. I'm actually going to make it to the discussion this time so bravo for me, and I guess it also means I should start showing some unconditioned allegiance. Henceforth, it shall simply be referred to as, "book club."

Obama was asked to write this after being selected as the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review, a fact that escaped me before now. As my Dad would chide me for never reading or watching the news (which I do actually do now, occasionally), I likewise didn't pay much attention to things besides a few key issues during the election so it's no surprise to me that this book was teeming with new information that most of the rest of the world probably already knows. It was like meeting someone for the second time without all the social awkwardness and with all the familiarity of an old friend.

I guess I particularly liked the candidness (is that a word?) with which I felt he wrote. It was published in 1995 so it's pretty clear to me that he had no idea or intentions of being the President, which I think made this a more honest account of his personal history than it may have been otherwise, or if a different kind of person was writing it.

He's a great storyteller and a rather good writer. And my opinion of his massive intelligence is completely solidified. I was going to say that I was less interested in his personal struggle (the main theme of the book) and more in his personal history, but of course one gives way to the other and by the end the two were indistinguishable. Extraordinarily educational and highly recommended.

EDIT: Changed the category to Book Club.