_Dreams From My Father_
Some time ago, my friend said that she was reading this book and that she thought I might like it. When the Presidential elections were happening, I found myself frustrated by President Obama’s ticket as representative of the African-Americans. Of course, I admit that I didn’t really know much about anything related to the candidates except that I wanted to see a woman make it and was more of a Senator Clinton (now Secretary of State Clinton) fan than an Obama one.
Time passed and I became more interested in knowing who this man is whom Oprah Winfrey actively chose to support and whom the country of my nationality was putting so much hope and faith into.
So, what better time to read than whilst traveling?
It took me a bit of time to make it through the book, but I found it overall very interesting and eye-opening. I feel as if I know President Obama a little bit better and yet even less at the same time.
Still, I related to his struggle to find himself having grown up in a white community, but not really belonging. Then, finding himself not really belonging to the African-American community either until he went back to his roots and learned his heritage and culture. While I envied his long years of history that as an African-American, I also found that I was felt inspired to start bringing out the adopted Asian-American history so that others can also find a way to relate and connect as I was with this memoir.
Of course, our struggles and realm of understanding greatly differ. I will never be the President of the United States, but there is also a struggle that unites us whether or not I ever meet the man of the book.
So, overall I enjoyed this book and would recommend it as a good read. Not because he’s the President of my country and not because he’s an African-American man. But, because it speaks to those who have mixed identities and struggle to find themselves in this crazy world.
More books to come…
-T
