Anyone who knows me will have been subjected to my overwhelming praise for this book over the past week or so. The memoirs of Barack Obama (now officially the Democrats' presidential candidate) were written shortly after he became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review in the mid nineties, and are written with an honesty and grace that is a joy to read. I know Obamania has taken over the media and it's become almost boringly de rigeur to salute him as a beacon of hope amidst the quagmire that has become American politics over the last few years, and that this risks being tiresome so far ahead of the US elections, but what can I say? I really enjoyed this book - give it to someone without a context and I reckon they would relish the opportunity to read about such a varied and interesting life, irrespective of their political leanings. As this was written so long before Obama became a senator, it is devoid of the polemicising and tub thumping which accompany many political biographies: the book comes over as more of a novel than a standard biography, colourfully written and without the turgid, didactic prose one comes to expect from political figures. Obama's family and friends are drawn vividly and candidly with a ready humour and sensitivity and the narrative thread is really accessible.
In Dreams from My Father Obama deals with his family's histories both in America (on his mother's side) and Kenya (on his father's side), pulling them together to plot his own story and experiences as a mixed race child growing up in a middle class white family in the sixties and seventies, and all the attendant confusions and complexities which went with it. He depicts his childhood in Hawaii with grandparents Toots and Gramps with real affection, and also fondly discusses his move to Indonesia with his beloved mother and stepfather Lolo which makes for fascinating reading and helps to explain his later work with some of the dispossessed sections of American society. His school and university days are relayed with a frankness that is also refreshing for someone of his stature - his experiences with marijuana are a far cry from Bill Clinton's disclaimer that he 'didn't inhale' - and his search to feel a sense of belonging and find out about a father he never really knew allows us a glimpse into a man's heart as well as his ideals. Obama's father moved back to Kenya to his other family and children shortly after he was born, and they only met a handful of times before he died. Obama was raised by his white American grandparents for a good proportion of his childhood and his situation was a unique one for the time. The book details his struggle to find an identity which was more than the reductive racial binaries society offered at the time, and is truly moving. A particularly distressing moment comes as a child, when he chanced upon a Life magazine article about a black man who tries to lighten his complexion:
'The man had received a chemical treatment, the article explained, to lighten his complexion ... There were thousands of people of like him, black men and women back in America who'd undergone the same treatment in response to advertisements that promised happiness as a white person ...
I imagine other black children, then and now, undergoing similar moments of revelation. Perhaps it came sooner for most - the parent's warning not to cross the boundaries of a particular neighborhood, or the frustration of not having hair like Barbie no matter how long you tease and comb, or the tale of a father's or grandfather's humiliation at the hands of an employer or cop, overheard whilst you're supposed to be asleep. Maybe it's easier for a child to receive the bad news in small doses, allowing for a system of defences to build up - although I suspect I was one of the luckier ones, having been given a stretch of childhood free from self-doubt.
I know that seeing that article was violent for me ... I could correctly identify common greed or cruelty in others, and sometimes even in myself. But that one photograph had told me something else: that there was a hidden enemy out there, one that could reach me without anyone's knowledge, even my own. When I got home that night from the embassy library, I went into the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror with all my senses and limbs seemingly intact, looking as I had always looked, and wondered if something was wrong with me. The alternative seemed no less frightening - that the adults around me lived in the midst of madness.'
How distressing is that passage? It really illustrates the extent of the poisonous taint of racism and as the book goes on, Obama shows a profound understanding of how such prejudice can create problems which are as much to do with poor self-image as they are about social exclusion, and contribute to a vicious circle of inequality. Throughout the book, Obama presents his life story in an enjoyable, pacey style without denigrating the importance of it's themes - race, inheritance and identity. He describes how he flirts with a number of political and religious groups (by now we are probably all aware of comments about his involvement with the controversial figure Rev. Jeremiah Wright) before finding a vocation as a community organiser in Chicago, discussion of which offers some of the most inspiring moments in the book, as we see him as a young man cutting his teeth on the campaigning trail. Also affecting is the description of Obama's revelatory trip to Kenya with his half sister Auma, which offers him the opportunity to demystify the past and come to terms with the man his distant father was, for good and for bad.
Barack Obama's compelling story makes the reader appreciate how much family, whether present or absent, shapes you. It also brings home the huge issue of race in America and the stereotypes which bedevil people of all ethnicities as they pass through life and try to break down traditional and modern boundaries. This book presents us with a man who is both morally and intellectually impressive: the fact that Obama worked as a community worker in Chicago's deprived neighbourhoods assures us that he has a more rounded life experience than the likes of the privileged but frankly stupid Dubya, which makes me hopeful that the US will soon have a leader who is compassionate and intelligent (qualities sorely lacking in the current White House incumbent). The book ends on a high note, inferring that we could all benefit from leaning on family and community to achieve positive ends. It might sound sappy, but the tone of this book is neither sentimental or naive - but hopeful.
Barack Obama has yet to outline some of the policies which he promises will give America the 'change' it needs, but he clearly has an understanding of the world and its problems on a micro as well as a macro scale which can only bode well for his inauguration into world politics. He is evidently an idealist and whilst I agree that he could benefit from anchoring these ideals to more concrete plans, it's irrefutable that if he becomes President we will all be living in truly historic and optimistic times. Yes, I evidently have a new hero. Go Barack!
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