#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 … 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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When my father gave me Dreams from My Father in 2008, I assumed it was a typical political autobiography, so I put it on a shelf and never got around to opening it. Over the years since, I’ve heard great things about the book. A couple weeks ago, as Obama’s presidency wound down, I finally decided to read it.
I’m glad I did. What a wonderful …
I came to this book a long time after having first heard of it. I felt pretty skeptical of how good it would be. I was very pleasantly surprised with the excellence of its writing, and more importantly the depth that writing covers.
Since this was written before he was even a state senator in Illinois, it is separately impressive for having …
This was the first book I read about President Barack Obama’s life. And although I got through it, I found it a rather challenging read.
Since it was his first memoir, part of my challenge may have stemmed from the fact that as a new author, he may have been personally responsible for much of its content, style and word structure. In short, …
It is a very interesting book about President Barack Obama’s life, from which I learned a lot about Africa and its costumes, but at times is a little bit boring. But I am not keen in politics, thou. It is a well written book.
As a 65 year old white woman I still have things to learn. This book will put you in the shoes of people of color. It will make you uncomfortable for sure but it will also help open your eyes to the world of people you could not understand.