Lawrence.com

I was watching all the inauguration hoopla back in January and remember one of the commentators talking about how it was nice to have a literary president; one who was a well known author first rather than a well known politician. So when I got the chance to read “Dreams from My Father”, I went for it.

This is probably one of the best books on race that I’ve ever read. Obama breaks the book into three sections: describing his life growing up in Hawaii, followed by his work as a community organizer in Chicago, and finally, going to visit his extended family in Kenya.

The section in Chicago is probably the weakest, although it does give a lot of insight into how he was able to run a successful presidential campaign. The section on Kenya was interesting, if a little confusing (lots of extended family appearing for a minute). It was interesting to get an American who has a vested interest in Kenya rather than reading ethnographies like I normally read.

Really, the first section, talking about his youth, was by far the best. It’s deep philosophy about what it’s like being a black man in an entirely white world. One of the things that makes the first part of the book so striking is that he grew up after the civil rights movement. He discusses issues that the civil rights movement supposedly took care of, how he and his friends were at a moment when race was being redefined once again.

Now, as good as the book is, in some ways it was a little like watching “Titanic”. I know how it ends. If I had read his book back in 1996, I wouldn’t have guessed that he would become president in the fairly near future. In some ways, I think that his becoming president will might take away from the future value of the book. I guess a lot of it will depend on how his presidency plays out.

I was talking with a friend about how I was trying to read “Dune”, and he said it was a really good book, once he got through it. He had the problem of reading a few pages of “Dune”, then picking up something else until he eventually forgot about reading “Dune”. I’m running into the same problem, so I think the next book will be “The Fresco” by Sherri S. Tepper.