Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance Summary and Reviews

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
by Barack Obama

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $7.98
You Save: $6.97 (47%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $6.65 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Barack Obama
Edition: Paperback
Published: 2004-08-10
ISBN: 1400082773
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Three Rivers Press

Book Reviews of Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

Book Review: Not a campaign booklet, but a frank personal insight
Summary: 5 Stars

It is a rare privilege to have such a personal insight into the life and background of a prominent politician. Often it is written about leaders that nobody knows what they are really like as people. But in Barack Obama's case, it is laid out in quite frank detail in this book.

Like most people outside Illinois, I had not heard of Barack Obama until he gave his speech at the Democratic Convention on 27 July (it can be read on his website: www.obamaforillinois.com), and I was fortunate to find the last copy of his book in a Chicago bookshop in August. The opening of the convention speech is a brief outline of the background that formed the book. His father was a Kenyan who went to study in Hawaii, and his mother was living in Hawaii having grown up in Kansas. They parted company soon after Barack was born.

The book is about his childhood and how he adapted to life after his father left his mother. She remarried an Indonesian man, and they went with him to live in Indonesia for some years. Barack returned to the US to finish high school. After graduating, he went to work in Chicago among underprivileged black communities there before deciding to go to law school in Harvard.

Obama's style of writing is extremely personal and analytical of how he dealt with certain issues in his life - his absent father, the colour of his skin, the remarriage of his mother, how he learnt of his father's death, his work in Chicago, his decision to become a lawyer and his rediscovery of his roots in Kenya (including his grandmother, uncles and aunts, and various half-brothers and sisters). Despite having led a very different life in a different part of the world, I was regularly struck by similarities between his life and mine - and can only assume that every reader would have the same reaction.

On a slightly critical note, the book is written at times in quite a fictionalised style that took some time to get used to. It cannot really be believed that Obama remembered every word and pause in quite so many conversation (not to mention what he saw through the window during the many pauses in conversation).

That aside, this is a great book which appears not to have been written with an eye on a political career (future Republican opponents will doubtless make great play out of a small, passing reference to drug use). It was first published in 1995 when Obama was fresh out of law school, commissioned as a result of his having been the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review. Even if his political star were to fade without the widely tipped shot at the 2012 presidency, I would recommend anybody to read his book.

Biographies & Memoirs Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Some Splendid Biographies
A Personal Stand: Observations and Opinions from a Freethinking Roughneck ImageA Personal Stand: Observations and Opinions from a Freethinking Roughneck
by Trace Adkins, Keith Zimmerman, Kent Zimmerman
Villard; Published: 2007-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.00
Price in other shops: $23.95
The Color of Water 10th Anniversary Edition ImageThe Color of Water 10th Anniversary Edition
by James McBride
Riverhead Trade; Published: 2006-02-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.40
Price in other shops: $14.00
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier ImageA Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
by Ishmael Beah
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 2007-02-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.89
Price in other shops: $22.00
Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself ImageThings I Overheard While Talking to Myself
by Alan Alda
Random House; Published: 2007-09-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.85
Price in other shops: $24.95
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl ImageAnne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank
Bantam; Published: 1993-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.18
Price in other shops: $5.99
Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction ImageBeautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction
by David Sheff
Houghton Mifflin Co; Published: 2008-02-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.48
Price in other shops: $24.00
A Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive ImageA Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive
by Dave Pelzer
HCI; Published: 1995-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.88
Price in other shops: $11.95
The Vixen Diaries ImageThe Vixen Diaries
by Karrine Steffans
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 2007-09-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.00
Price in other shops: $24.99
Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life ImageBorn Standing Up: A Comic's Life
by Steve Martin
Scribner; Published: 2007-11-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops: $25.00
My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir ImageMy Grandfather's Son: A Memoir
by Clarence Thomas
Harper; Published: 2007-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.15
Price in other shops: $26.95
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win ImageA Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win
by Shelby Steele
Free Press; Published: 2007-12-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.37
Price in other shops: $22.00
Faith of My Fathers : A Family Memoir ImageFaith of My Fathers : A Family Memoir
by John McCain, Mark Salter
Harper Paperbacks; Published: 2000-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.14
Price in other shops: $14.00
Obama: From Promise to Power ImageObama: From Promise to Power
by David Mendell
Amistad; Published: 2008-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.70
Price in other shops: $14.95
Living History ImageLiving History
by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Remainder; Amazon Remainders Account; Published: 2004-03-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.88
Price in other shops: $16.00
Biography - Barack Obama ImageBiography - Barack Obama
Release date: 2007-10-30; DVD
Best price: $13.24
Price in other shops: $24.95
Barack Obama: An American Story: An American Story (All Aboard Reading) ImageBarack Obama: An American Story: An American Story (All Aboard Reading)
by Roberta Edwards
Grosset & Dunlap; Published: 2007-08-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.32
Price in other shops: $3.99
Barack Obama: Working to Make a Difference (Gateway Biographies) ImageBarack Obama: Working to Make a Difference (Gateway Biographies)
by Marlene Targ Brill
Millbrook Press; Published: 2006-01; Library Binding; Book
Best price: $19.14
Price in other shops: $23.93
Barack Obama in His Own Words ImageBarack Obama in His Own Words
by Barack Obama
Carroll & Graf; Published: 2007-03-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.22
Price in other shops: $12.95
Hopes and Dreams: The Story of Barack Obama ImageHopes and Dreams: The Story of Barack Obama
by Steve Dougherty
Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers; Published: 2007-02-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.84
Price in other shops: $9.95
Great Speeches by African Americans: Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Barack Obama, and Others (Thrift Edition) ImageGreat Speeches by African Americans: Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Barack Obama, and Others (Thrift Edition)
by James Daley
Dover Publications; Published: 2006-04-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.46
Price in other shops: $3.50