Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama

Title: Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
Author: Barack Obama
Type: Audio Book (abridged)
Narrator: Barack Obama
Genre: Non-Fiction/Memoir

Series: No
Copyright: 2005
Publisher: Random House Audio
Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary: from Good Reads

Before Barack Obama became a politician he was, among other things, a writer. Dreams from My Father is his masterpiece: a refreshing, revealing portrait of a young man asking the big questions about identity and belonging.

The son of a black African father and a white American mother, Obama recounts an emotional odyssey. He retraces the migration of his mother's family from Kansas to Hawaii, then to his childhood home in Indonesia. Finally he travels to Kenya, where he confronts the bitter truth of his father's life and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.

Includes the 2004 Democratic National Convention speech given by Obama.

Feelings:
This is the story of Barack Obama before he becomes a politician. While the story is about an absent father and who this effects a young Barack. Race is another question that arises from having an African father and a white mother. Where does one fit in society and how can one proceed to have a black identity when living with whites?

Spending some of his childhood in Indonesia with his mother and step-father taught him about history of a people and how it effects who we are and what we become.

History of race and country is still with us and through this book we see one man's struggle and triumph as he learns to understand his past, his family ties, an unknown culture, and the importance of being true to oneself no matter what that might be.

I wish that this hadn't been abridged but there was not an unabridged version of this book. I think that even those who do not like Obama politically will find this an interesting to listen to. This book isn't about politics it is about family and the struggle of understanding what that means.