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Book Review By Susan D. Minkalis
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama

Barack Obama wrote this memoir over ten years ago before he became the junior U.S. Senator from Illinois. In candid detail Obama shares his story of being raised by a white mother and grandparents in Hawaii while his father lived in Kenya. At the time of Obama's birth in 1961, his parents were enrolled at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.   His father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a native of Kenya had left the states and return to Kenya when Obama was only two years old. Obama's mother, Shirley Ann Dunham, of Wichita, Kansas stayed in Hawaii for awhile until she married Obama's stepfather and then was moved to Indonesia until he was ten years old. His mother sent Obama back to Hawaii to live with her parents and it was there under the care of his grandparents his strong character started to form.

Education was emphasized in his family strongly and he went to college, moved to Chicago and took up community organizing in the Altgeld Gardens housing project on the city's South Side. While living in Chicago, Obama began to witness corruption, poverty, and racism and was compelled to make a change. He left Chicago for three years to study law at Harvard University and graduated magna cum laude. Obama returned to Chicago empowered with knowledge of law and pursued to make many changes.

After his father's death and not really knowing his father or his inheritance Obama goes to Kenya to met his African family and learn of his heritage and customs. At the end of the book Barack Obama shares his Keynote Address at the Democratic Convention on July 27, 2004.


Plot & Themes
Political/social rights fight Yes
Plotlet:
Ethnic/Relig. of subject (inside)
If this is a culture clash: - minority culture living in majority area
Ethnic/regional/gender Yes
Period of greatest activity? - 1950+

Subject of Biography
Gender - Male
Profession/status:
Nationality - American

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 5 ()
United States Yes
The US: - Midwest
Africa Yes
Kind of Africa: - Black Africa
Century: - 1980's-Present

Writing Style
Book makes you feel? - challenged
Pictures/Illustrations? - None
How much dialogue in bio? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
How much of bio focuses on most famous period of life? - 0-25% of book
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