Dreams from My Father
Books | Biography & Autobiography / Presidents & Heads of State
4.1
(7.6K)
Barack Obama
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARSIn this iconic memoir of his early days, Barack Obama “guides us straight to the intersection of the most serious questions of identity, class, and race” (The Washington Post Book World). “Quite extraordinary.”—Toni Morrison In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance. Praise for Dreams from My Father “Beautifully crafted . . . moving and candid . . . This book belongs on the shelf beside works like James McBride’s The Color of Water and Gregory Howard Williams’s Life on the Color Line as a tale of living astride America’s racial categories.”—Scott Turow “Provocative . . . Persuasively describes the phenomenon of belonging to two different worlds, and thus belonging to neither.”—The New York Times Book Review “Obama’s writing is incisive yet forgiving. This is a book worth savoring.”—Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here “One of the most powerful books of self-discovery I’ve ever read, all the more so for its illuminating insights into the problems not only of race, class, and color, but of culture and ethnicity. It is also beautifully written, skillfully layered, and paced like a good novel.”—Charlayne Hunter-Gault, author of In My Place “Dreams from My Father is an exquisite, sensitive study of this wonderful young author’s journey into adulthood, his search for community and his place in it, his quest for an understanding of his roots, and his discovery of the poetry of human life. Perceptive and wise, this book will tell you something about yourself whether you are black or white.”—Marian Wright Edelman
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Author
Barack Obama
Pages
464
Publisher
Crown
Published Date
2007-01-09
ISBN
0307394123 9780307394125
Ratings
Google: 3
Community ReviewsSee all
"I wanted to like this so much more than I did. It's neither a true biography nor a portrayal of racism. It unfortunately reads more like a stream of consciousness than a well written book."
E F
Elizabeth Fordham
"Great book, would love to read again."
M S
Mirijam Stewart
"This is a pretty anti-climactic memoir / biography / social analysis with an unclear reason for being written. Maybe I'm just not used to someone telling their history while simultaneously trying to tell that of someone else's. Especially someone they never really spent much time with. That, and add an almost too colorful writing style (for the content type), and numerous conversations that reveal more about the radical ideas of a few of Obama's random friends from back in the day, and less about either Obama or his father. <br/><br/>For those reasons, I gave this 3 stars. However a couple other things should be noted:<br/><br/>1. This book says a lot about our President before he ever intended to be President. Before he ever intended to be even Senator. That's incredible. That's a gift we don't often have when it comes to politicians. Two years after everything, it's just as empowering to look back on his thoughts, impressions, and concerns from a younger eye. <br/><br/>2. I really liked Obama's forward, which he wrote many years later as a Senator. It may be the more eloquently written part of the book. <br/><br/>3. I listened to this book read on Audible by the author. That in itself deserves a star of its very own. <br/><br/>All said, I would not ravingly beg you to read this, but it's short, and wouldn't be anyone's waste of time. This is the biography and an autobiography of a young man, made before he became anything. It may inspire you. At the least, it may take you into places and conversations that you would never be otherwise."
J A
Josh A