Book Review – DREAMS FROM MY FATHER by Barrack Obama

Author: Barack Obama
Pages: 442

Many an autobiography is written, each with its own purpose. I do not know if Barack Obama’s intentions behind writing this autobiography of his are directed towards fame and acceptance by the American plebeian but it definitely is intended to raise his pecuniary conditions so he could be adequetly funded to stand firm in the election fray for senatorship of Illinois then.

What his purposes were should not be much of our business while how the book is written and its inspirational and entertaining capabilities is very important. I mind the reader to note that this book had been written when Barack Obama was a first time contestant for the state of Illinois senatorship elections. Ergo, the book cowers only his youth and years after he completes his law at Harvard.

This 442 paged book has a very slow yet gripping story of Obama that he describes in a very lucid language and with bounteous clarity. He describes his life concentrating more on his familial roots. The book intermittently plunges into Obama’s family’s past as he tries to trace it. His father is an aboriginal of Kenya and mother Hawaii. Though he spent most time with his mother for his father seldom stayed with them, his characteristics, thoughts, strengths and weaknesses are more of the latter. His father had been introduced to USA by Kenyans so they could understand the latest developments in the states and reproduce them. This way, incidentally, Obama’s Hawaiian mother and Kenyan father joined maritally.

While his mother was an affable, good matron, always supporting him as a child, his father rarely stayed with them. After he finishes his under-graduate at the Occidental College, he embarks upon the journey to Kenya to understand his past and his roots. This phase of his life when he spent time exploring his father in Kenya, he describes very vividly with good fluency of thought (so is it of the language).

And then his appetite for knowledge for his family’s roots satisfied, he goes on to Harvard to pursue his Law studies where he stands out to be the first African-American to be Harvard Law Reviews editor. And there at Harvard, he also meets his gonna be life mate Michelle.

With many insights into conditions of African-Americans in the States, their status, his struggle as a social worker and crowd mobilizer and most importantly, his exploration of his past , the book is a fluent and a smooth account of his young life in very lucid words. Anyone interested in Obama or even those wanting just to read a good book, Dreams From My Father is perfect!