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Did he do (and think) things I find extreme. Whether you agree with his politics or not, his story is uniquely American and I believe, great.
I must admit to having a preference for authors reading their own works (even if they aren't as good as professional readers, I find it more genuine). If I ever got the "you can invite X-number of fameous persons to dinner" fantasy, Barack Obama would make my short list.I listened to this one from [.]., read by the President himself.
With apologies to my conservative friends, I enjoyed this book and have true respect for the author. Having long since left my own 20-something years (thankfully) undocumented and in my wake, I certainly have no stones to cast.
I'd strongly recommend that format to anyone considering this book. Not only was it very well written, but I found myself drawn into the story of Barack's early life, particularly his journey to discover and define the person he would become.
Of course he did.
However, the book reveals much of why Obama is such a liberal and pro entitlement programs. Boring, amatuerish.
As the father is leaving, he decides to play a recording of music from the families tribe, the Luo:"`Come Barry,' my father said, `You will learn from the master.' And suddenly his slender body was swaying back and forth, the lush sound was rising, his arms were swinging as they cast an invisible net, his feet wove over the floor in off-beats, his bad leg stiff but his rump high, his head back, his hips moving in a tight circle. A kind of Tiger Woods to the progressive political world, Obama is African-American, without the tragedy of slavery separating him from old country forebears.He knows his lineage, his father, his grandfather. The set up is that Obama Sr. Or is it half empty because a guy starts jumping ranks thanks to his world beat name and a decent speech two years ago.The highwayscribery creed encourages the acceptance of given books as a kind of natural instruction from the world itself, from forces beyond our own (book) consuming impulses.And the book is quite good as it goes about detailing Obama's unique, yet quintessentially American pedigree and journey.
It's not known who came before. It's a young man's story and takes the reader through Obama's developing sense of the black reality in America, his clumsy first steps as an organizer on Chicago's South Side, a rare portrait of the legendary Mayor Harold Robinson, and over to Africa in discovery of family lore and luggage.Obama's rise to prominence represents something of a bellwether in less than obvious ways. Sure, he's one of only a handful of blacks ever to serve in the U.S. Senate, but in this story he weaves the consumption of marijuana, alcohol and even cocaine into the fabric without using overly bright colors and without trying to sugar-coat it either.He plays basketball, he "adopts" in his own parlance an identity from those being offered-up by the pop culture of the 1980s - the years of his flaming youth. (written before the 2008 presidential elections)The book was a Christmas gift from the scribe's sister Rosemary and was received with the usual mild surprise that accompanies the reception of a book you don't really want to read.highwayscribery enjoyed Obama's colorful and deftly delivered speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention (included in the book put out by Three Rivers Press). But in ensuing months it seemed the newly elected senator's name popped up too often in association with positions a little beyond his experience, like vice president or president.There's a Democratic Party discussion in there somewhere: Is the glass half full because Obama's rise among what former Sen. Miwiru sired Sigoma, Sigoma sired Owiny, Owiny sired Kisodhi, Kisodhi sired Ogelo, Ogelo sired Otondi, Otonidi sired Obongo, Obongo sired Okoth, and Okoth sired Opiyo. One thing is to have led an interesting life, it is another to successfully convey why.The highpoint of the book may be the following passage.
We're not talking the heights of prosodic beauty, but a facile ability to render crucial insights his unique path and intelligence have provided, into the written word. The rhythm quickened, the horns sounded, and his eyes closed to follow his pleasure, and then one eye opened to peek down at me and his solemn face spread into a silly grin, and my mother smiled, and my grandparents walked in to see what all the commotion was about. And now he's a senator and all of that without having had to live like a Mormon.And that's good, as there is much else good about Obama, a writer to rank with those who make a permanent vocation of writing, an intelligent fellow with the honesty to talk about black-on-black gripes, to wrestle with the loss of blackness success in the white world represents, to convey the suffocating sense that the white world is the only game in town. And I hear him still: As I follow my father into the sound, he lets out a quick shout, bright and high, a shout that leaves much behind and reaches out for more, a shout that cries for laughter."So you get an idea that it's not some kind of policy book or rhetorical disquisition. The women who bore them, their names are forgotten, for that was the way of our people."His father, a scholarship student from Kenya to the University of Hawaii, met his mother in that distant American outpost. I took my first tentative steps with my eyes closed, down, up, my arms swinging, the voices lifting.
Sam Nunn (D-Georgia) used to call "the great mentioners" reflects his amazing talent. has come to meet his son, who is ten years old, and it really doesn't go too well. Obama was, at one time, editor of the "Harvard Law Review." highwayscribery has never had occasion to read that particular publication, but must admit to a sense that brand name conjures up ponderous articles short on good and engaging narrative content.But it may be a place where good writing is encouraged because he possesses a comfortable mastery of the written word. He returns to his native Kenya where a grandmother explains how, "First there was Miwiri. She came from Kansas stock, her father a soldier of fortune and westward drifter on the trail of the big break.His place in time as a man educated in the west at the height of the African liberation from its European colonizers forces the senior Barack Obama home, abandoning the young boy in Hawaii for good.That is the DNA, much explained and dissected for it is the point of the book, and somewhat the point of the politician - race and its subtleties.The greatest surprise was the book's prose.
A very well written book in Obama's own hand telling his life's story and how he arrived at some of his visions for America.
As bi-racial children become more prominet, we may truly understand their lot in life. I have seen many young men who are in Barack's predicament veer off on the wrong path. The conflict in a world that chooses you to pick sides is almost unbearable. Hopefully that means not having to pick sides. It is a shame that black fathers tend to not stick with their children in bi-racial relationships. Plain Talk Vol.
The struggles of bi-racial children are often left untold. Thank goodness that he did not. 1 (Everything you ever and never wanted to know about racism and stereotypes)Plain Talk - Volume 1I envy those who read this book before Obama became president. I understand the strain that can cause these conditions, but the abandoned child is often the one bearing the most weight. Check out my book--Plain Talk on Racism and Stereotypes. I also can admit that if he never rose up the ranks, then I would have never heard of this book.
Barack tells his story with flair and charm and a sense of aloofness.
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