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Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (Paperback)

~ Barack Obama (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (569 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, Obama was offered a book contract, but the intellectual journey he planned to recount became instead this poignant, probing memoir of an unusual life. Born in 1961 to a white American woman and a black Kenyan student, Obama was reared in Hawaii by his mother and her parents, his father having left for further study and a return home to Africa. So Obama's not-unhappy youth is nevertheless a lonely voyage to racial identity, tensions in school, struggling with black literature?with one month-long visit when he was 10 from his commanding father. After college, Obama became a community organizer in Chicago. He slowly found place and purpose among folks of similar hue but different memory, winning enough small victories to commit himself to the work?he's now a civil rights lawyer there. Before going to law school, he finally visited Kenya; with his father dead, he still confronted obligation and loss, and found wellsprings of love and attachment. Obama leaves some lingering questions?his mother is virtually absent?but still has written a resonant book. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Obama argues with himself on almost every page of this lively autobiographical conversation. He gets you to agree with him, and then he brings in a counternarrative that seems just as convincing. Son of a white American mother and of a black Kenyan father whom he never knew, Obama grew up mainly in Hawaii. After college, he worked for three years as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side. Then, finally, he went to Kenya, to find the world of his dead father, his "authentic" self. Will the truth set you free, Obama asks? Or will it disappoint? Both, it seems. His search for himself as a black American is rooted in the particulars of his daily life; it also reads like a wry commentary about all of us. He dismisses stereotypes of the "tragic mulatto" and then shows how much we are all caught between messy contradictions and disparate communities. He discovers that Kenya has 400 different tribes, each of them with stereotypes of the others. Obama is candid about racism and poverty and corruption, in Chicago and in Kenya. Yet he does find community and authenticity, not in any romantic cliche{‚}, but with "honest, decent men and women who have attainable ambitions and the determination to see them through." Hazel Rochman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews

569 Reviews
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4.4 out of 5 stars (569 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
365 of 417 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring Life Story...Somewhat Less Than Complete, August 30, 2004
U.S. Senate hopeful Barack Obama has an inspiring story to share, and yet he doesn't simply rest on his laurels in this critical evaluation of his life and in his continuing search for himself as a black American. He wrote "Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance" almost ten years ago, but his stock has obviously surged since his star-making speech at the Democratic National Convention last month, perhaps to the chagrin of Hillary Clinton...unless she is dreaming of a Clinton-Obama ticket in 2008! Growing up mulatto in Hawaii and Indonesia, Obama discusses trying to come to grips with his racial identity through a period of rebellion that included drug use, becoming a community activist in Chicago and traveling to Kenya to understand his father's past. It is in Kenya where he discovers a nation with forty different tribes, each of them saddled with stereotypes of the others. It is also in Kenya where he recognizes the dichotomy that has been his lifelong existence between the graves of his father and his grandfather. His description of this defining moment is worthy of a passage in Alex Haley's "Roots".

Obama is also candid about racism, poverty and corruption in Chicago, and he pulls no punches in his account of this period. Because the book stops in 1995, it does not get into much detail on his learning experiences, culminating in both missteps and triumphs, as a state legislator. For all the value the book provides on Obama's history, I would have appreciated a more substantive update than the preface on the last decade, as he gained political prominence in Illinois, so that we understand more why his time in the spotlight has come at this moment. Perhaps that will be Volume 2. I was also disappointed he spent so little time writing about his mother and the influence her side of the family has had on him, a narrative gap Obama acknowledges and over which he expresses regret in the preface. Perhaps inclusion of such details would have made for a less compelling story from his originally intended Afro-centric perspective; but at the same time, I think a more balanced look at his own racial dichotomy would have made his story resonate all the more given where he is now.

Obama is open in the preface about using changed names and composite characters to expedite the flow and ensure privacy of those around him, but it does somewhat lessen the impact of his story when one starts to wonder who was real and who was a fictionalized character. Regardless of these literary devices, this book is still a very worthwhile look into the background of someone who is on a major upward trajectory in the current national political scene.
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110 of 129 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected - but in a good way, January 31, 2005
By Seano (Norristown, PA) - See all my reviews
I first heard Barack Obama's command of the English language in his address before the Democratic National Convention. His speech brought to mind leaders of the past who had the eloquence and passion to light a fire in people with words alone. When I saw his book, I bought it to read more of his firey, inspirational leadership. What I got instead is an insightful, sometimes painfully honest apprisal of the beginnings of that leader's life, and it surprised me. This book was written when Sen. Obama was just out of Law School. He was offered a publishing deal after being elected the first black President of the Harvard Law Review. What he wrote is a memoir that is very obviously written by a brilliant young man. I say brilliant because his observations and examinations on racial constructs and communications in America is astute and deeply personal. As a bi-racial man growing up in both white and black America, his viewpoint is unique and his eyes were wide open. I say young because unlike most memoirs written after great accomplishments and long careers, the voice of this story is at the beginning of what may be greatness, not the end. Obama gets a chance to look back and examine his formation, and in doing so gives a beautiful and wonderfully full 'state-of-the-union' as regarding race. It's not the same old stuff, and it is. It felt like my favorite college professors who could make you stop in the middle of a class and realize that you just saw something you thought you knew in a whole new light, and you could never see it the old way again.
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66 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Coming of Age, Coming to Terms, Coming to Grips, October 18, 2008
This review is from: Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (Hardcover)
This is NOT the usual self-serving "autobiography" of a politician that was ghost-written by his speechwriter and rushed into print just before the primaries. In this lyrical, beautifully written memoir, a young man struggles to come to terms with his heritage as a child of biracial parents. It is unusually honest, even noting in an afterword where his memory clashes with that of his sister: did he meet her in an airport or a bus station? There is a painful rawness as he speaks of Kansas, which shaped his grandparents, of Hawaii, where his parents met and parted, of Indonesia where his mother remarried, of returning to Hawaii to live with his grandparents and go to school. He touches upon the wounds of youthful rebellion, of pulling back from the brink.

He says little of his mother but one can get a sense of the strength and compassion of her character by the fact that she raised her son to admire and see greatness in the character of the man who had abandoned her--who had in fact other wives. He visited only once, when the author was ten. Later, as an adult, the author travels to Kenya, his father's country and meets his sister and his African relatives. He learns that his father was not the man he thought and that although his father had potential, it was never realized.

The author returns to America to wrestle with the issue of his brown skin and how some people in America react to that. There is self-discovery on all levels of this reflective book. To write like this a man must grapple with the demons of his own soul and emerge victorious. It's the kind of journey and coming of age that equips a hero to slay monsters, I think.

This book is not about politics. If you are interested in Obama's political philosophy, turn to The Audacity of Hope.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars As Obama knows best, Da Nile is Indeed a River in Africa
So, we've been told by 99.99% of the American Media that:

Obama is not a Socialist!
Obama is not a Marxist! Read more
Published 3 days ago by James J. Smith

5.0 out of 5 stars A book worth reading
Barack Obama hasn't disappointed me as a writer. His story of race and inheritance is excellent and is a book that all Americans should read to understand what makes Obama... Read more
Published 13 days ago by Jose Alejandrino Baluyut

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent memoir
I never knew that President Barack Obama was a writer before he entered the political world. So I decided to pick this one up last year and read more about my new... Read more
Published 16 days ago by Heather Crozier

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable regardless of politics
Written by now-President Obama when he was a recent law school grad, Dreams from My Father outlines a young man's search for a sense of purpose and place. Read more
Published 22 days ago by G. Burnett

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting insights and a well-crafted autobiography
If you want to know what makes Barack Obama tick, this is the place to find it. In this autobiography, he recounts his rich, broad family history--ultimately taking us to four... Read more
Published 23 days ago by K. Olson

4.0 out of 5 stars Red or Blue, you ought to consider this one...
With apologies to my conservative friends, I enjoyed this book and have true respect for the author. Read more
Published 1 month ago by D. Porter

2.0 out of 5 stars Dreams from My Father
Boring, amatuerish.
However, the book reveals much of why Obama is such a liberal and pro entitlement programs.
Published 1 month ago by S. coffman

4.0 out of 5 stars A "highwayscribery" Book Report
(written before the 2008 presidential elections)

The book was a Christmas gift from the scribe's sister Rosemary and was received with the usual mild surprise that... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Stephen Siciliano

5.0 out of 5 stars Dreams from My Father....
A very well written book in Obama's own hand telling his life's story and how he arrived at some of his visions for America.
Published 1 month ago by Mr. Joel L. Sys

4.0 out of 5 stars Great inspiring story...To be continued
Plain Talk Vol. 1 (Everything you ever and never wanted to know about racism and stereotypes)

Plain Talk - Volume 1

I envy those who read this book... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Plain Talk

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