I was surprised at the excellent writing style, full of descriptions and dialogue which made it engaging, and reflections on his experiences which helped us see how they affected him. "There was always a community there if you dug deeply enough...There was poetry as well--a luminous world always present beneath the surface."(p.190-1)
Even though he has traveled and lived in many places, a good summary might be that "on this earth one place is not so different from another...one moment carries within it all that's gone on before." (p.437)
Covering Obama's early life, we can see the ways in which his experiences were not typical for most Black Americans (life in Indonesia and Hawaii) and the ways in which his inner doubts and questions might be typical for black men in America (his attempts to find his roots and to define himself). Even as he learns and begins to gain a sense of himself, "life was neither tidy nor static, and that ...hard choices would always remain." (p.377)
His writing gives us insight into what motivated him to run for office. One prescient phrase, quoting a poet mentor "you'll start believing what they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way...Until you want to actually start running things, and then they'll yank on your chain and let you know that you may be a well-trained, well-paid n..., but you're a n... just the same." (p.97).
And even in Kenya, meeting his father's family, there are still questions: "As if the map that might have once measured the direction and force of our love, the code that would unlock our blessings, had been lost long ago, buried with the ancestors beneath a silent earth." (p.331) Or this advice from his aunt: "You have to draw the line somewhere. If everyone is family, no one is family." (p.337) He shares a conversation with a Kenyan historian, about the changes due to European influence and trying to maintain an African identity, who admits to the personal bottom line of "I'm less interested in a daughter who's authentically African than one who is authentically herself." (p.435).
This would be a good book for any American to read even if Obama had never run for president. ( )

Perhaps a belated read, but wow, totally exceeded expectations: a lovely, thoughtful, well-told autobiographical book about identity, culture, and justice written by a man grappling with (in this book, perhaps a little obsessed with) the tensions inherent to these subjects. His sense of fairness, his careful thinking, and his empathy are all traits I very much admire. ( )

I may come back to this book. I truly enjoyed reading the first part, about his childhood, and I'm impressed with the writing. But I just can't drum up the enthusiasm to read about his Chigago years. Putting this on the Lost Interest shelf for now. ( )

I get intimidated by long reviews, so I will keep this one short:

Obama, as a writer, is incredibly articulate and meticulous. As politicians go, he's honest with his mishaps and up front with his "reckless" behavior in his past, which was really quite tame for the average well-intending American.

Through reading this book, I came to see that Obama is very human like the rest of us, yet has the insight, dedication, and cultural experience that few of us have the chance to absorb out of life. His struggle with multi-racial identity, his frustration with uncooperative people, his stubbornness to succeed in his ambitions, and his open-minded attitude towards people of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds are apparent in his stories of his childhood, then young adulthood, and visit to Africa to explore his (1/2-)roots.

I would not say this is an intense read. There is a humbleness and mildness to his writing that made this book a very leisurely and mind-opening experience. ( )

A straightforwardly readable memoir of a young man's finding a way to define who he is and what direction he will take against a background of disparate voices shouting all sorts of truth and myth. It almost completely avoids the necessary coyness imposed when a young man tells his story to a culture requiring the myth of righteousness and purity of faith and at least gets over that lightly. Obama's time with his grandparents in Hawaii and the summer in Kenya came across most clearly, perhaps because the first was processed through affections and the second through an intense requirement to make it comprehensible. ( )