#3 Dreams From my Father

[rcloenen-ruiz.livejournal.com]

This is the third book I'm reporting on, although it's not the third book I've read. But I wanted to write about it while the reading experience is still fresh. I'm pretty sure a lot of people in this community have read this book already, but I only found an English version of this book on Tuesday.

Dreams From My Father is Barack Obama's account of growing up as a child of mixed race and mixed cultures. In this book, Obama shares his quest for identity, and his experiences of racism and prejudice as well as his experience as a community organizer. It also tells of his journey to Kenya. His experience on going home is recognizable. I identify more with the going back home experience of his sister Auma. And I kept thinking of how there are certain parallelisms with regards to family dynamics (extended families, expectations, etc). When he writes about that feeling of being one of the people and of not being watched (with regards to skin color and race), I cried. Again another moment of recognition.

There is so much about this book that moved and inspired me, so much I could identify with. I kept crying while I was reading it, so I suggest keeping a box of tissues at hand if you haven't read this book yet.

Obama has a wonderful writing voice and it's suited very well to memoir and inspirational writing. The voice is true and honest, and the writing is transparent with not a word too much. I could go on and on about it.

Anyway, I am planning to get a Dutch version of this book so my son can read it too. Needless to say, I highly recommend this book.

**Thanks to jinian for pointing out the slip in my title. For some weird reason my fingers typed "of" instead of "from".

Comments

[jinian.livejournal.com]

(The title should be Dreams From My Father. Great book, I agree!)

[rcloenen-ruiz.livejournal.com]

Gah! Thanks for pointing out my error. I've duly corrected that. Yes it is a great book :)