Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama

This is a memoir that I just finished for another one of my classes; it was fascinating and was given to read at a very appropriate time with the upcoming elections. Barack Obama gives a detailed portrayal of his entire life up to before he became a politician. His life begins in Hawaii, where he was born into a white family living with his white mother, grandmother, and grandfather. His father was forced to move back to Africa to follow through on a deal he had made with his country to go to school in Hawaii and bring back the knowledge of the Western world to advance their own Kenyan culture. His mother later meets an Indonesian man and the two plan to move to Bali Indonesia. In Bali Barack fits in very well with the Indonesian culture and while he is kept sheltered from issues of race he is forced into a new world filled with an open problem of power struggle. Barack moves back to the states, lives in Hawaii throughout his high school years, then attends several different colleges. His college career takes him all across the country he begins in Los Angeles, then transfers to Colombia University in New York city where he graduates, after school he moves to Chicago where he becomes active in the community. In Chicago he makes the decision to attend Harvard Law School, launching him into the political role he plays now, but that is where the story ends.
This memoir not only did a lot to open up my opinions to Obama but because the class I read it for was an Africana Philosophy class the issues of race where the main topic. The way Obama talks about race and coming to terms with his identity as neither white nor black is fascinating. The honesty that exudes from this book is enlightening, and sometimes because of the presidential campaign one would think that it could harm him, but I think differently. He spells out completely the frustrations he deals with not just for the first couple years of his life but throughout his entire life having to cope with being mixed race. His roots in Hawaii and Indonesia build his character and shape how he becomes such an interesting man. The lessons in Bali he learned from the very apparent reality of the power struggle of a third world country. He sees how the poor are taken advantage of and how people can be forced to do things or behave in a certain way, which might be seen as dishonest but for them is survival. Obama takes these lessons and applies them to his life in high school, Colombia, and then in Chicago where he really finds his niche in the black poor communities. The memoir is great and if your interested in knowing more about the man you are voting for or against I highly suggest reading it to gain some insight on the background of the huge political even that is taking place at this very moment.