Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
I saw him for the first time on TV during the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston. And only later did I learn that he wrote a couple of books– Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
I just don’t pay attention to politicians who write books. They’re all about politics and I’m not really interested in politics anyway.
Then he ran for President of The United States. My curiosity about him increased. So I decided to get both the books he wrote. I chose to read Dreams from My Father first.
Imagine my surprise for when I read this book, there was no trace of him here as a politician. Instead he wrote about his childhood living with his grandparents and mother in Hawaii then several years in Indonesia. Then he returned to the US and grew up as a teenager in Hawaii. And of course the center of the story was about the father who never was there for him and the struggle he went through as a biracial child and his interest in being a community organizer.
After I finished reading it, I thought I have known him before. His writing was filled with hope and determination to get what it takes to be successful in what he loves doing. And I didn’t see him as a politician at all–just an ordinary guy trying to make sense of his world around him for he thought that due to his differences he had to double his efforts in order to reach his dream.
But what attracted me the most about this book is his voice. Even though there were some confusing first person narratives, but understandable, that he tells the story that he was told and then he used the third person point of view when he really should stick to himself as the focal character.
I love his writing style. He wrote it as it is. Sincere. Genuine. I felt the connection, the attachment with his story. His writing is filled with emotion–you can feel it on every single page. When I reached the final page, I had nothing but praise and hope for him to reach his goal: be it personal or professional.
I rarely read books written by male authors. Reading his book helped me to understand better about creating the male character. And I still didn’t believe this, but men rarely chat. So if you happen to look for book that is written with genuine voice, you will find it in Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.
His other book:
