★★★☆☆ Excellent introduction to Barack Obama

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

Barack Obama

I read Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance early in 2006, I think, for what was at the time an obvious reason. It was becoming clear that Barack Obama was going to be a serious contender in the 2008 US presidential election. I had heard Obama's speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention (and it was a beauty), but knew little about him otherwise. So, when I heard that he had published a book, I wanted to read it.

Now, it is customary (or at least not unusual) for new US presidential candidates to publish a book to introduce themselves to those US citizens who read books. Most American presidential candidates are not intellectually capable of writing a book, so these potted campaign books are usually ghost-written, stump speeches puffed up to book length. They are typically brief and yet achingly tedious.

Dreams from My Father is not one of these. It was written by Obama himself, and having been published in 1995, was not written in support of a presidential campaign. And it is intelligent, interesting, and certainly helped me to think this was a candidate I would be happy to vote for. This was a well-educated man with ideas, broad and interesting life experience, and the ability both to think and to express his thoughts.

Later in 2006 Obama published the campaign book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, which I also read. It is not the typical campaign book I described above. It revealed a more mature and polished version of The Guy Who Wrote Dreams.

Now, if you have a reason to read this book, for instance if you want to better understand the 44th president of the USA, then you should do so. It's a good book and will not be a waste of your time. But frankly, if you're just looking for an entertaining or interesting book, and if, like me, you have 177 books in your want-to-read list, you can probably do better. Dreams from My Father is a good book, but there are SO MANY good books out there waiting to be read...

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