Perhaps a belated read, but wow, totally exceeded expectations: a lovely, thoughtful, well-told autobiographical book about identity, culture, and justice written by a man grappling with (in this book, perhaps a little obsessed with) the tensions inherent to these subjects. His sense of fairness, his careful thinking, and his empathy are all traits I very much admire. ( )

I may come back to this book. I truly enjoyed reading the first part, about his childhood, and I'm impressed with the writing. But I just can't drum up the enthusiasm to read about his Chigago years. Putting this on the Lost Interest shelf for now. ( )

I get intimidated by long reviews, so I will keep this one short:

Obama, as a writer, is incredibly articulate and meticulous. As politicians go, he's honest with his mishaps and up front with his "reckless" behavior in his past, which was really quite tame for the average well-intending American.

Through reading this book, I came to see that Obama is very human like the rest of us, yet has the insight, dedication, and cultural experience that few of us have the chance to absorb out of life. His struggle with multi-racial identity, his frustration with uncooperative people, his stubbornness to succeed in his ambitions, and his open-minded attitude towards people of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds are apparent in his stories of his childhood, then young adulthood, and visit to Africa to explore his (1/2-)roots.

I would not say this is an intense read. There is a humbleness and mildness to his writing that made this book a very leisurely and mind-opening experience. ( )

A straightforwardly readable memoir of a young man's finding a way to define who he is and what direction he will take against a background of disparate voices shouting all sorts of truth and myth. It almost completely avoids the necessary coyness imposed when a young man tells his story to a culture requiring the myth of righteousness and purity of faith and at least gets over that lightly. Obama's time with his grandparents in Hawaii and the summer in Kenya came across most clearly, perhaps because the first was processed through affections and the second through an intense requirement to make it comprehensible. ( )

As a non-American, I have always been a strong admirer of President Obama. He is a brilliant man and has conducted himself with great dignity during and after his Presidency.

Having said that, I found this book disappointing. It is well written although could be more concise and use less flowery language (as Obama himself says in the Preface to the 2004 edition). Some of the anecdotes and conversations seem forced and too well remembered to ring true.

I just found it difficult to reconcile the first 80-90 pages of the book, where he describes growing up with his white mother and grand-parents in Hawaii, with what becomes his evidently very strong identification with the African-American history and experience. There is a “jump” or “choice” here which I don’t think he explains well.

The section on his experience as a “community organizer” in Chicago was very interesting as a description of the inner-city African-American experience. It bears comparison to autobiographies and biographies that I have read by African-American musicians and sportsmen. It is just that, given Obama’s childhood, it doesn’t quite ring true.
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