David de gea biography of barack obama

Senate and, of course, the White House. It ends with a brief Epilogue outlining some of the early challenges facing Obama in his new executive role and almost seems to foreshadow a follow-up volume. The story of his early days as a U. Senator is also engrossing. He is not a natural storyteller in the traditional biographical sense and this book lacks the drama and excitement which should accompany a story featuring such an extraordinary and rapid political ascent.

Finally, there is disappointingly little on the bond between Barack and Michelle. Although she appears in the narrative when necessary, the future First Lady never remains on-scene for long and the reader is left to wonder how this talented and seemingly strong-willed woman influenced his personal and political evolution. While it never fully radiates the energy or passion of the larger-than-life story it conveys, its messages and lessons are deep and revealing for the attentive reader.

I am enjoying taking my time in this book. I am about half-way through. Here is my favorite sentiment so far: "Narrative is the most powerful thing we have. From a spiritual point of view, much of what is important about us can't be seen. If we don't know people's stories, we don't know who they are. If you want to understand them or try to help them, you have to find out their story.

It was the nature of his work to ask questions, to listen. He called the narratives he was collecting "sacred stories. After reading this book, I am most impressed by a couple of things: 1 His life represents so much progress in terms of what it means to be an American. I loved this book because it is as much a Civil Rights narrative as it is Barak Obama's story.

I get chills when I imagine the emotional tenor of the march over the bridge in Selma. And I am proud to live in a country that elected a minority as president. I will also say that David Remnick is a great author The influence of key people in his life, including his parents, grandparents, and an overview of his life at all of the locales he lived in.

His path to the presidency, although shorter than many other holders of the office, was not without some failures and some key decision points. Being of mixed heritage and upbringing led to some obstacles of his being accepted by certain groups. The narrative is deep, but without going in excruciating detail. I listened to the audiobook version.

This school is mentioned about a hundred times throughout the book and each time the mispronunciation grated on my ears - I grew up in Hawaii. Alex Abboud. Remnick is an excellent writer and this book is well sourced and supported with interviews. I also appreciate the context setting for the key people and events that shaped Obama.

Hebah Dwidari. I enjoyed reading this book. It gave me an insight into the former presidents upbringing. Jim Leffert. For Obama, who grew up in Hawaii with a biracial Kansas and African background, identifying himself as African American was a conscious choice. Chicago was where Obama immersed himself—and married into--the urban African American community and solidified his developing identity.

A moderate liberal who was by nature a conciliator, Obama consistently, during his time at Harvard Law School and later as a professor, gained the respect of conservative legal scholars as a liberal who nonetheless respected them and listened to their viewpoints. He was elected editor of the Harvard Law Review with their support and ensured that their scholarly work was published.

Later, as a law school professor, he was careful to expose his students to conservative writings in his classes, so that they could david de gea biography of barack obama with a full range of legal philosophies and opinions. It must have come as a shock to Obama, despite his realism about politics, to be vilified, once in office, by Republicans as a radical socialist.

He feels totally at home with white people and appealed to the wider electorate. From the earliest days of his career, he had to contend with people in the African American community who disparaged him for not being black enough. Blog on Books. Remnick portrays the story of a rapid, albeit sometimes random, journey from student life in Hawaii, to his studies at Occidental and Harvard, through the famed community organizing era and ultimately to elected positions in the Illinois state legislature, the U.

Senate and on to the presidency. Of course, there will be many books to come on the first African-American president in U. Probably both. Rico Le. Looking for a fun read? Keep looking, this isn't it. The book does contain a lot of interesting information. But the interesting information contained within Barack Obama's life is packed into too many pages and is described with too many unnecessary page-filling details.

At times, it seems like the author is desperately trying to tie certain events or personalities to Obama's life and career path - even though their actual influence on Obama's life often seems trivial or insignificant. Overall, this book is probably more suitable for history and civil rights teachers. In it, he addresses not just the issues that he faced over the course of his life, but how in many respects they reflect the broader challenges that African Americans and whites faced in an era of dramatic change in the notions of race and equality within the nation as a whole.

The issue of race emerged early on for Obama.

David de gea biography of barack obama

It was in that unique environment that he first wrestled with the issues of his self-definition, a struggle that continued throughout his college career, first in Los Angeles, then in New York City. By the time he graduated, he was a man comfortable with his own identity and the role he wanted to play within the larger community. He maintains this approach through much of his post-collegiate career, through his time as a community organizer, law school student, and attorney and budding politician.

While not comprehensive, it is one of the best biographies of the 44th president that we are likely to have for some time, and one that subsequent studies will rely upon for the wealth of information it provides. Anyone wishing to learn about Barack Obama would do well to start with this clearly written and dispassionate look at Obama, both for the insights it offers into him and for its analysis of a critical dimension of his life and career.

Armin Samii. I read this as therapy post- 45 and it helped. This biography of Barack Obama, by the white editor of "The New Yorker", offers a little more detail about the lives of Obama's parents than hitherto discussed, more detail about his schooling, and much more information about his life as a community organizer and state senator in Illinois, and his subsequent political campaigns.

His mother achieved a PhD; she is not usually discussed in detail, but she was a courageous, warm and intelligent person. His father had expected a government role on his return to Kenya but the politics at the time were not favorable, and he was not flexible enough to seek another career. The author presents Obama's rise in the context of the black civil rights struggle.

In his campaigns to be a US senator and then president, fitting into the prejudices of the black community seemed to be far more difficult than gaining acceptance by the white community. He had to struggle for approval from the more militant blacks david de gea biography of barack obama identifying with that militancy. I lament the submergence of the half-white identity, it feels like a denial.

Recent events and opposition to President Obama indicate we perhaps haven't reached a post-racial era yet, but his election was a monumental step in that direction. As an unashamed Obama supporter, I loved it! Richard Etzel. I think if you are interested in the political process; if you long to understand our david de gea biography of barack obama president; if you wish to understand the Obama policies; if you want to know how it was possible to win the presidency when most people had never heard of him, then you should read David Remnick's book about the man.

David clearly lays out how Pres. Obama came to the notice of the American public: through strength of intellect, persistence, calmness under attack, determination to offer a new form of leadership for America. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects.

Wikidata item. David Garrow's biography of Barack Obama. Background [ edit ]. Reception [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Retrieved May 8, He spends whole paragraphs on Obama's drug use, not only the admitted beer and pot, but also speculating over whether he tried cocaine and heroin yes to the first, he decides, probably no to the latter, but let's spend a paragraph talking about it anyway.

Also, one of Obama's ex-girlfriends receives lengthy, deferential treatment from Garrow; she concludes that he was an arrogant, striving phony who was good in bed, and yet still loves her despite Michelle and all the intervening years where they haven't spoken. If this Kitty Kelley garbage weren't bad enough, Garrow continually winks at the most odious right wing theories about Obama, in the Mitt Romney "Nobody's ever asked to see my birth certificate" way that's plausibly deniable without fooling anyone.

Early on he invokes one of the dumbest, claiming that Obama thought about being gay in college, but decided not to because having relationships with women was more of a challenge!?! Then he spends multiple pages on Saul Alinksy's Rules for Radicals without connecting it, in any meaningful way, to Obama's own actions. He even hints at the Frank Marshall Davis was Obama's father theory at one point, which made me read and reread the passage in question in wonderment that a writer who once won a Pulitzer Prize could write something so infuriatingly stupid.

That's the low point, until the passage which made me quit the book entirely. Garrow recounts a date Obama had in the mid-'80s where he goes to see The Unbearable Lightness of Being. To Garrow's reckoning, Obama's enjoyment of this film about a Czech intellectual and his lovers caught in the '68 revolution constitutes a key insight into his character.

Okay, perhaps you could make that argument, though we're heading into specious psychobiography. He literally considers his white heritage through his mother an "unbearable lightness" he must escape. And this was written, not by a freshman English Lit major drunk on cheap wine and Derrida, but by a tenured law professor and Pulitzer Prize winning historian intoxicated by a six-figure book deal and visions of unearned acclaim.

Maybe it's unfair to judge a book that you've only half-finished, but what the hell could possibly make up for the trash I've outlined above? Certainly not a chapter on Obama's presidency entitled "The President did not attend, as he was out golfing. Andy Miller. While others have criticized this biography for being too critical of President Obama or too pedantic, too detailed and too long, I give it five stars.

And I am a huge Obama fan. You can admire Obama and also appreciate this book if you accept that Obama is human and like all of us have exaggerated things in your past, not always treated all friends well, and have made decisions that have been influenced by ambition and pragmatism. And that different people who knew Obama in the past had the same experiences and came away with different conclusions.

I also appreciated the detail and length of the book. David Garrow interviewed scores of people in researching the biography, from family friends of Obama's grandparents to people who knew Obama in high school and his two colleges and every stage in his life. Garrow's research went past oral interviews, he cites Obama's tax records, the written reviews of the law school classes he taught, the books and personal letters he wrote, the speeches he made.

While there are no huge new revelations in this book, aside from an old girlfriend's claim that Obama was intimate with her a few times after he started dating Michelle, the detail of the book gives nuance to his life. I will briefly discuss a few As a young man Obama did express disappointment, almost bitterness, about his mother while she was still living.

Of course he was justified in that, she essentially abandoned him to her parents so she could pursue her studies and career and also exotic lifestyle in a country far away from him. This disappointment had to have been exacerbated by the few unsatisfactory contacts with his father. This book explains his father's complexities and demons better than anything else I have read.

Obama was not a star in high school or college. No one then could have predicted greatness, he did not start on his basketball team, was not a top student, not a student leader. Obama blossomed later His law school years were fascinating. Garrow interviewed those who liked and those who did not. But he was unquestionably brilliant. He made law review without marking the affirmative action box on his application.

He was acknowledged as one of the two smartest students in his class even by those who complained about his talking too much in class. The chapters on his Chicago years show that he was much closer to Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn than was admitted during his campaign; there was a time when the Obamas and them would have weekly dinners at their home with just them or a few other couples.

His career owed more to the crooked financier Tony Rezko than many of his may thought, but his involvement with Jeremiah Wright's church seems to be less than claimed by many. There are frank sections about challenges to the Obama marriage. Infidelity was not one. Even in Springfield, Obama avoided any temptations, his commitment to Michelle was strong and he also explained to friends that nothing could be worth Michelle finding out.

The challenges were economic, the book explains the financial struggles caused by Obama's political career instead of a career with real money as Michelle wanted and also the struggle of Michelle accepting a second fiddle status to Obama's political career. The political career is explored in depth. The description of his relationship with a mentor, Alice Palmer, is balanced, the reader can decide if Obama reneged on loyalty to her or if Palmer was selfish in wanting her state senate seat back.

Obama's relationships and record in the state senate are carefully examined and the chapters on the US Senate campaign make the reader feel as if he or she were there at the time My one disappointment with this book is the epilogue. The book ends as Obama starts his Presidential campaign and the epilogue skims through the campaign and Obama's Presidency.

It is when Garrow leaves the detailed narrative that lets the reader make the conclusions and turns to a skinny narrative where Garrow makes the shallow conclusions about the Presidency that the book sours. It would have been much better if Garrow had ended the book and considered writing a second volume on the Presidency. But all in all, this a great, informative biography.

I had to throw in the towel about a fifth of the way through. Much more dense than I would have liked. Kenyan affairs are interesting, but not what I was there for. Ken Ransom. Sometimes the book feels tedious and just too much of a good thing. Incidents and Statements are repeated often enough that a reader might feel they've lost their place and were rereading what they'd already read.

If there is an advantage to this it is that the reader can cherry pick those things that correspond to their already held beliefs, e. I think the author wanted us to share with the reader his belief that Obama was an efficient creator of himself, or at least giving that impression. Despite being really long the book manages to be interesting and readable for all of its pages and friend, foe, or just the curious will find something in it worth the time it took to read.

Before Michelle, Barack Obama asked another woman to marry him. Then politics got in the way. Very good book, but learned nothing new. Could have used another Editor, the opening chapters concerning the steel companies in Chicago were quite tedious. Very long book but as I said learned nothing new! But well worth the Read. Michael Wear.

Author 7 books 90 followers. Absolutely masterful. It provided an education in about 17 different subjects. Dan Alper. Should probably be 3. But whereas Caro, for one, is able to not only prove to you that he has done immeasurable research while weaving it within a succinct narrative, Garrow often seems to want to display the fact that he has done the work - and he clearly has - seemingly to no end.

There are multiple instances where he quotes random folks in an off side paragraph for no immediate indication as to why, leaving you to assume it will be called back to at a later date, but never is. Also - the last 50 pages where the author rushes through the Dem primary and then the entirety of the Presidency are egregious. Garrow also not so subtly toots his own horn about his previous books on the civil rights era as well earlier in the book.

There is much that I enjoyed about this hefty biography. I may have liked it more than the 3 star rating, but some of the tediousness pushes the rating down a bit. Slogging through the opening chapters recounting the history of the steel industry and its woes in Chicago for several decades before Obama came on the scene was more than a biography reader may have needed, for instance.

But, still there were many things to gain from this reading. Getting through this massive work, I learned the following things that were previously completely unknown to me: 1. Obama's high school and college experiences - friends, basketball, drugs, girlfriends, beaches, etc. The rest of the story wasn't so new. My sense of it is that the author was fairly balanced.

He acknowledged and described character flaws as well as strengths. The recounting of the presidency which wasn't really the emphasis in a story about the "making of Barack Obama" was at least as focused on failures and shortcomings as it was on any achievements. All in david de gea biography of barack obama, I am glad I read it. One's political views and leanings really have nothing to do with choosing which biographies of which historical figures to read.

Such an undertaking is about understanding how rather normal and mundane people manage to do extraordinary things. Garrow certainly provides that insight. Jill McNish. In reading this book I wanted to understand how a bi-racial child, conceived by a teen aged white mother and an already married, alcoholic, womanizing Kenyan, both of whose parents functionally abandoned him to be raised by his grandparents in Hawaii, grew up to be the self-confident, poised, moral and ethical, superstar that Obama was and is.

Well, in this bloated book I learned about almost every person he ever had a conversation with, I learned about all his school courses, I learned about every project he worked on as a community organizer, as a state legislator, on the Harvard Law Review. I learned a few juicy details from always white ex-girlfriends in N. I learned that he lived with another woman in Chicago for a couple years, with whom he had a very tempestuous and passionate relationship that seem to have continued well after he was with Michelle.

In fact Obama twice asked her to marry him. It was his project while working in Chicago to learn to be black. He had concluded he needed to be married to a black woman to secure his black bonafides and rise to power. I learned that Michelle hated politics, did not support his chosen path, was deeply and quite publicly resentful that they struggled for money, that he was never home.

Not that one could really blame her. The man was never home. A POOR single parent. The author makes no bones about his conclusion that Obama is an empty vessel, just another politician, slicker and more charismatic than most, full of fine promises, never delivering anything, turning his back on old friends who helped him along the way, that his Presidency was a big bag of nothing.

I still believe he was a very good if not a great President. But in answer to the question I started with, I think that 5 factors led to his phenomenal success, despite his inauspicious beginnings: 1. He was and is the most highly intelligent person most of us have ever seen much less met. He was born with a phenomenally fine and even temperament.

Growing up, he received just enough love and affirmation from his grandparents and his mother. They constantly told him he was destined for a very important life. Last but not least, he truly saw things from the perspectives of both black and white America, and was accepted by both Americas. In short, he thought he was better than others, he acted like he was better than others, because as a matter of objective reality he WAS better than others and he simply was destined to stand above others.

The book was a trial. Bloated, needed a good editor, at least an hour at the beginning of the book talking about labor problems in Milwaukee that had nothing to do with Obama. Author was determined to include every scintilla of his research. I give this maybe actually a 3. There is a lot to unpack here and David Garrow does a lot of research attempting to do so.

The notes run pages and quite frankly I was not up to that task, but I am a huge note reader and have six sheets of my own notes to research further. I know Barack Obama is a polarizing figure, so I'm just going to state this one thing. To me, Jimmy Carter is the epitome of a President who wanted to make change, and perhaps did so more post-Presidency.

You can argue the appropriateness and efficacy of that change, but I really do believe he made the world a better place. Barack Obama came into political life as someone who wanted to make change. The reviews of his ability to do so are both all over the place and too early to gauge. Yet, I would note his often spoken value of making change in Chicago.

Kenyan culture, during this era, was modernizing but still largely tribal. The same male-centric patterns can be seen on the Dunham side. The blurred lines of Punahou did not please the writer in Obama as much as the stark racial realities of Chicago. Instead of david de gea biography of barack obama liberalism, Obama establishes and develops a rigorous sense of intellectual inquiry at Occidental College in the earlys.

But this is also his first extended time on the mainland away from Hawaii and Indonesia. The complexities of race become acute for him here, especially when he confronts the fact of blackness in mainstream America, where being African-American does not necessarily make you multicultural. It is the angry closed-mindedness of the African-Americans who call Obama out for being multicultural and not black that sends him on his way to figure these things out for himself.

In his self-referential poetic letters, his jazz hangouts and international friends, his summer trip to Pakistan, Obama shows his worldliness, but he tries to skirt this with a revision of his heritage and the discovery of a culture he never knew. He becomes, as all college students become, an insufferable bore. He wants to find a truer love, a more real community, to capture the essence of his city in poetry.

Instead of roughing it in grad school on stock profits inherited from his father, a young Obama picks up and moves to Chicago to start a career as a community organizer, something right wing commentators would pick on him for to no end in his presidential campaign. His role as a community organizer, though, reveals his interest in social justice, which was inherited, from his mother.

But his moderation and calm head despite a few Two Cigarette Moments discount the myth of him being an entrenched leftist activist. Maraniss ends his story here, and if we thought everything that came before was complicated, just think of everything left unexplored — Michelle, Jeremiah Wright, law school, a professorship, the Senate, fatherhood, the nomination, the birthers, and all the sticky stuff of the Presidency.

This book was chosen as part of my book challenge to read a biography. Plus, the book is based on a wealth of stories - there are those about his father and mother and those about him all of which as in the case of Obama are coming from people who either grew up or went to school with, and are filled with impressions these people had of Obama when they knew or saw him, requiring Maraniss to give background information on a lot of these people and their families - it was overwhelming at times.

First, he grew up fatherless and pretty much motherless being raised by his maternal grandparents his grandmother was pretty much the bulwark of that family. And the Kenyan story also has a lot of background history having to do with Kenyan independence- again another layer of complexity when reading. But the central theme coalesces when Obama goes to New York to finish college at Columbia.

At that point he is seriously looking to understand his blackness and seeking to discover who he is. I think overall this book has great importance in understanding who Barack Obama is and how important family roots are. Interesting but tough read. This is a biography of a president that is nearly devoid of politics, which was actually quite refreshing.

This is partly on purpose because this book ends as he is on his way to attend Harvard Law. Of course, Obama is a political man so there are many references and hints of his political future, but this book is more concerned with his family history and his childhood, teenage, and young adult years. So if you are looking for a biography on Obama that discusses his time in office this will not scratch that itch for you, but if you want to know more about the man, or at least Maraniss' interpretation of him, then this is probably more valuable.

Maraniss does a great job in researching and really establishing these figures from Obama's paternal and maternal lineage. The end of the book has plenty of comments and footnotes, and I didn't go through them with a fine toothed comb, but Maraniss' familiarity with these subjects leads me to believe he did proper research into these things.

I know enough about Obama's political career that I didn't need to hear it recounted. Especially when it still recent in memory and hard to determine the positives and negatives nearly always breaking down across party lines. Some reviews complain that we actually don't get to Obama himself until a third of the way through the book, with Maraniss spending more time on recounting family history, but I found all that stuff interesting.

I learned things that I had never even heard of. I had no idea that Obama spent a significant part of his childhood in Indonesia. That's really interesting and something I don't remember hearing about. Apparently this book was mainly written as a commentary, or response, to Obama's book Dreams from My Father, which I have heard of but never read.

Since I haven't read it, I cannot compare and contrast them, but I would probably say that this is the more rigorous of the two given Maraniss' depth of research. I think with Obama's presidency being so recent that a non-political biography would actually be of more use to understanding the man and some of the things that drive him. This is a phenomenally well-reported book that explores the lineage and early life of Barack Obama.

President Obama himself doesn't appear until Chapter 7 - it begins by alternating between one side of his family then the other, which I found really fascinating, if slower to get through. Sometimes it does feel like Maraniss is stretching in his analysis of Obama and the family members in his life, but I think he does a good job building how Obama became Obama.

It was a personal accomplishment to read this book, as it's quite long as far as my non-fiction reads go, and I'd been intending to read it since I'm glad I finally got around to it, and recommend the book if you're looking to learn more about our former President and get into the Biography genre. I enjoyed the construct of the book, which runs from birth to the beginning of law school.

Our politics conflict but I can see that President Obama was good for for this country, and I appreciate the opportunity to learn more about him. Byron Edgington. Author 16 books 9 followers. Cool head; Main thing. This simple aphorism, almost too short to contain any wisdom, goes a long way in explaining the 44th President of the United States.

Barack Obama has said so before himself: he is the least likely man in politics to have won high office. Obama may have been most comfortable in Hawaii as a hapa, Hawaiian lingo for half white half black. The brilliant but erratic, hopelessly alcoholic Barack Obama senior was more than a biological father; he was a mythic presence, and in that capacity similar to many of the ephemeral demons Barack the younger had to contend with to sort out who he was.

Indeed, one criticism of the book is that, in delineating who the man in the White House is, Maraniss fails to mention the role that being the adult child of an alcoholic parent plays in his behaviors. This is perhaps the best researched book written about a powerful, world-famous, iconic figure who appears to have purposely left few clues.

Much of the African narrative, for instance, came from oral recollection, and fact checking had to have been exhausting because of it. Observing the man in the White House now, and reading The Story, we begin to understand why Obama avoids the rough and tumble of politics: he finally knows who he is, even if the rest of us do not. For those still, at this late date, determined to discredit our 44th president there is little to like here.

Obama is a Christian, American, qualified and competent to be president. He might know a lot more about the world as it is and about himself than his predecessor, and that is a very good thing. Even if his journey had not led to the Presidency this is still an intriguing story but the fact that he did, makes it a truly engrossing read.

In what appears to be an amazingly short period of time, Barack Obama became the embodiment of random circumstance and possibly even the archetype for those that might believe in the importance of destiny. When looking back at America's recent history, the fact that a biracial young man from a broken home with little potential, other than his intelligence and ceaseless drive to find his place in the world, could overcome all odds to become the leader of the free world is astonishing.

But this is more than Obama's story; it's also the story of American culture and the consanguinity of two merging lines of the families that came before him. The probability that the descendants of a conservative Kansas farm family and the descendants of the Luo tribe in western Kenya would ever cross paths is miraculous in itself but the impact on the modern world is truly something to ponder.

Maraniss has created a document that explores Obama's origins with extremely detailed and well-substantiated research and appears to cut no slack for those that might take a more casual or sycophantic approach. It will undoubtedly prove a basis for future thoughts and commentary about his presidency. The detail of his early relationships and those that preceded him is sometimes arduous and yet necessary to provide insight into the man that proved epochal to America's ongoing story.

It's a long read but well worth the time to watch history that's still in the making. David Maraniss is a journalist who thoroughly researches every word he prints. He in past has written about Clinton and it is not stretch to assume his loyalties lie with the Democrats. But Maraniss is fair and I've never found a lie in anything Maraniss has ever written.

This book sheds light on the formative years of Obama. This book also sheds light on many "misrepresentations" that Obama has written about himself in his "Dreams from my Father" book. Maraniss gives details to make clear what are the facts. The first about 7 discs dwells his family history in Kenya and in US. A few myths are dispelled here: Someone did remember a mention about "Stanley" giving birth in Hawaii.

Stanley was Obama's mothers middle name. Apparently this is not the story that has been told before. Barack senior was a violent man with another wife and 2 kids back in Kenya, so there was no reason he would have taken Stanley Ann back to Kenya to give birth. Obama grew up in Indonesia where his mother worked and did research. His grandfather sought out a Black man for Obama to associate with since there were few Blacks in Obama's childhood experience.

There are many things people would be surprised to read. So many things Obama did that seem calculated towards a Political goal, such as joining Jeremiah Wright's church. Obama doesn't come across as having strong religious beliefs in anything. He seemed to have joined to find the African-American experience that he was not raised in at all to give him credibility in that community.

There are no instances of unpaid altruism on his part, he was paid for his community organizing and the works associated with it. Also his distain for Business come thru in his comments when he worked briefly for Business International Corp, that he was "working for the enemy" Maraniss explained that Obama's job at Business International was as a low-level researcher, not as Obama had described.

Obama also criticized his mother for working from a grant funded by the Ford Foundation. This is summary, and albeit not a thorough or very good one. The biggest disappointment of the book is that he doesn't go into Obama's actual political career but the lead up to it. This audio Books is 20 CDs long and Maraniss narrates and is easy to listen too although his voice can put one to sleep.

I finished all pages of this dull book. But at least I cannot say I haven't been warned. On page 19 of the introduction the author mentions that Barack Obama himself will not appear until the 7th of the 18 chapters of the book. Although family history might give clues about a persons character, I doubt that the psychoanalysis of the great-grandparents will get the reader that far in getting to know the one person he is actually interested in.

Talking about psychoanalysis: The author never stops to give unwarranted interpretations of Obama's inner feelings. It starts with the authoritative announcement in the introduction that Obama's story is a continuous quest to "avoid traps", and continues with statements like "What he did, he did not because of the reasons he thought, but actually because There is definitely not a lack of hard facts for the reader to draw conclusions from, if that is what the author had worried about.

And eventually, worst of all: The bickering about facts and fiction in Obama's autobiography. Even if characters are "compressed", events mentioned out of chronological order or even entirely constructed - so what! I understand that as a historian with a different approach, facts are what matters, but the author could have spared the reader the "aha!

I discovered a discrepancy! So why two stars nevertheless?