Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
Book Review: A Masterpiece of Writing
Summary: 5 Stars
I was moved in reading this. Obama writes this from a time before he was a politician. There is a freshness here, a willingness to be vulnerable, that no politician, even as honest a one as Obama, can fully approach. This felt like pure biography, a window into Obama's soul.
I came to understand who Obama is. He is truly a child of two continents, and multiple cultures. He is Kansas, and Hawaii, and Indonesia, and Kenya. And it isn't enough to say that he has the blood of those peoples, and has lived in those lands. He is also a mixture of those cultures, for all their familiarity and strangeness to Western eyes. He is the child of a father with multiple wives, and a great grandfather living in a mud home. He witnesses poverty in Indonesia and comes from a family line of poverty- not the easy poverty of the U.S., but the extreme form of the 2/3rds World. He takes parts of all his family, and weaves them into his own narrative, developing a commitment to justice and equality as a white American, and a black African.
This book felt personal to me. I grew up in a foreign culture, and lived in Hawaii. I went to Occidental College, and have a father with multiple wives, who had a wanderlust bigger than he could contain. Obama did all this, had all these experiences. He copied me- he just did it exactly ten years before I did. And so throughout the book, I kept on thinking of where I was when he writes. I'm being born in a foreign culture when Obama is living in Hawaii. As Obama begins his work for the poor in the South Side of Chicago, I am going to live in Hawaii with my family, beginning my own dreams. And, to a very small measure, my story becomes interwoven with Obama's.
Obama's family history is even more amazing. Towards the end of the book Obama's grandmother tells the story of their family. It begins with a genealogy, of who begat whom. Then we come to Opuyo, who traveled from a faraway land in Kenya to a land he didn't know. Opuyo sired Obama (first name), who was not the eldest brother, and therefore didn't have land or wealth. He ended up working for another, wealthier family. He worked so hard that the family became very impressed by him, and gave Obama their daughter in marriage.
Obama married others, and built up his lands, so that his son, Onyango, came from a family of means. But at this time the white man was entering the land that would be Kenya. Onyango alone of his village saw the potential of this new world, and left the land of his people's to work for the whites in other areas of Kenya, and in other African countries. Though he was often ostracised by his family, Onyango learned the white's ways, and was therefore the first of his village to understand modern life and technology, and used that to his advantage, gaining more wealth and lands. He took many wives, and one son was born Barack Hussein Obama, who had a son by the same name, who later went on to run for President of the United States.
Do these stories sound at all familiar? Consider. Barack Obama's grandma began her story with begats. She then told of Abraham, going to a land that was not his own. Abraham's grandson Jacob was not the eldest son, so he worked for his uncle Laban for many years, and eventually won the right to marry Laban's daughters. Jacob's son Joseph was often ostracised by his family, and went to the foreign land of the Egyptians to learn their ways, becoming a man of great wealth. The similarities are rather eerie.
Sometimes I sit and imagine how God might have appeared to Ipuyo, just as he did to Abraham, telling him to go to a new land. He would say that he would bless Ipuyo, if he is willing to take this risk and trust in the Lord, and one day his descendant, a descendant he would never meet, this descendant would become great in a faraway land that Ipuyo had never heard of. Or God might come to Obama (first name) when Obama had no work and no hope. God calls Obama to trust in him, and one day a descendant with his name, his great grandson, would rise to become the most powerful man in the world.
And this descendant would be a child of promise, who would obtain this position as long as he walked in humility and followed the ways of God, using his power to serve others, just as King David did. Obama's life, the lives that made him, are so steeped in Biblical parallel, that one almost expects the tear-filled conversion to Jesus Christ when Obama shares it half-way through the book.
This is the kind of window into who Obama is that this book provides. We see here that Obama truly comes from a more communal culture, a culture where family matters, and family means your uncles, aunts, grandparents, great grandparents, second cousins, and all the ancestors. This is who Obama is, and I would recommnd it to all who would seek to know who Obama is. Come November you may end up voting for him, or you may vote against him. I would counsel you not to make a decision either way until you have come to read this book.
Book Review: Searching - Who Am I? Great Autobiography- Audio CD
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this audio version of "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance"- so well written, poetic and he did an excellent job reading it! I think the word that comes to mind regarding Barack Obama, author and now presidential candidate, is that he is 'very reflective'. I find this trait particularly appealing. I can understand why he is seeking the story and ancestry from his father, since his father is the one that left him. We tend to question the mysteries and secrets in our lives. This childhood obstacle obviously made him stronger and he did a lovely job describing the people that were still there for him - his mother and his grandparents. I hated to have this book end. It touched me in many ways- surprised, amused and sad.. It is most insightful appreciating what it is like to be an African American. The book does a wonderful job, in my opinion, on giving an influential perspective to anyone who searches or is searching for answers when given up by a parent or parents and yearns to have a better understanding of their heritage. ...definitely would recommend this book
Book Review: Getting to know Sen. Barack Obama
Summary: 5 Stars
This has been a wonderful insight into one of our democratic candidates for the presidential election. Sen. Obama's writing style is wonderful and I have a much greater awareness of him. This is an excellent book for every one to read.Book Review: A life story told with courage and compassion
Summary: 4 Stars
Gives an insight into the life and family of one of the most gifted politicians of our times.
Book Review: A racist and racecard puller for president? really??
Summary: 2 Stars
"I ceased to advertise my mothers race at the age of 12 or 13."-Obama writes, "Our rage at the white world needed no object...no independant confirmation; it could be switched on and off at our pleasure."
OBAMA sounds like A RACIST to me!
its a good thing for obama that "typical white people" dont read books; or this would of killed his chances long ago!
Is this the kind of stuff that MLK Jr would have said or did? No...he had every reason to be hateful towards "other races" that "oppressed" him; but he wasnt...he simply went out and created the change he wanted to see; he didnt blame anybody or go to a church that talked about hate and blame...what kind of god would that be that tought such things?
How come oprah left rev wrights church in less than two years....but obama has been there for over 20 yrs?