Book Review: Dreams from My Father

I've just finished reading Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father, which he wrote back in 1995, long before entering politics. As long-time readers know, I greatly enjoyed Obama's speech at the DNC last summer, and I've been looking forward to a chance to read the book for quite a while. If it was half as good as the speech, I thought, it would be more than worth the read.

It was indeed. This is an absolutely fascinating memoir of growing up unsure of who you are and where you belong, encompassing important discussions of race, class, background, and the painful confluences of each. The book is written with a fluidity and natural style that is incredibly rare in any book, let alone a first-hand account. Its focus, as indicated by the title, is on Obama's search for the story of his father, a father he met just once in his life - but combined with that quest are the stories of Obama's experiences growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia with his maternal family; his periods of despair and insecurity in college; his job as a community organizer in Chicago.

As someone who has admittedly never had many of Obama's experiences, never felt similar insecurities or faced his hardships, I was afraid it would be difficult to identify with him. His beautifully-crafted prose, his ability to compel through vivid description, put that fear to rest almost immediately. I got more real insights into the racial divide in America through his descriptions of working in Chicago than I have through any other account I've ever read, and his recounting of the eventual visit he made to Kenya to meet his father's family is heart-breakingly poignant (not to mention painstakingly detailed).

This book is worth reading no matter whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, an independent or a libertarian - black, or white, or both, or neither. It's not about politics, it's about experience, and more than anything else, it's about hope. It has earned an immediate place on my favorites list, and I'm sure that I will read it again and learn even more each time. No matter what trajectory Obama's career takes in the future, he has provided America with a lasting legacy in the form of Dreams from My Father.