Dreams From My Father

As written by Ashden

"Dreams from my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance" is a memoir written by Barack Obama first published in 1995. It became a US bestseller and was reissued in 2004.   

This moving memoir is a picture of a young black American (Barack Obama) in search of his identity, a belonging, in a white American community. His journey is about himself as he painlessly takes his readers with him to find that identity.

Obama was born in 1961 to a white mid-western American woman and a black Kenyan student who came to the US to study. He was reared in Hawaii by his mother and her parents as his father left the family to pursue further studies back to Africa. 

As a youth, although not lonely, Obama experienced that voyage to racial awareness, school tensions, along with his lessons in black literature taught in a white community.                       

The recounting of this emotional yet unsentimental odyssey of Obama's search for identity begins in New York when Obama learns that his father, he never knew as a man but more of a myth, has been killed in a car accident in Kenya. This event motivated him to pursue an emotional journey - first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother's family to Hawaii, then to his childhood home in Indonesia, then finally to Kenya, where he meets the side of his father's family. In Kenya he finds out the harsh realities of his father's life, and ultimately, reconciles himself to his divided loyalties, heritage and culture.   

The title "Dreams from my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance" is clearly significant and compellingly apt in its telling: first, as a growing young black American, then having to confront the challenge of defining himself in white America; second, his work as a black American leader in Chicago community; and third, idealizing the father he never knew; and ultimately, reconciling with his own discovery of who his father and grandfather really are.   

It's a poignant, heartwarming and probing memoir - the search for identity, and more, what it means after finding it. Brilliantly written.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

I've always been fascinated by Benjamin Franklin since my school days. No matter which way you look at him, he was a great, smart American. I love the stories and folktales about him, his life and his wonderful words and sayings. This autobiography of his life was written by Ben Franklin when he was sixty-five. It was written in letter format to his son, and it he reminiscences about his eventful early life. Throughout we see Benjamin's powerful literary style and his great humour.

Written in a seemingly desultory manner, Franklin tells about his life from his beginnings in Boston to his contributions to science and the enlightenment. I found the first half of the book (Franklin's account of having come to the colonies as a young man, and his various trials in making his way in the world) quite fascinating. I was a little disappointed later because there was no writing about the American revolutionary war or the drafting and formation of the American Constitution or a detailed account of his discovery of Electricity -three things that Franklin is known for. However, this book does shed light on the American spirit.

If you enjoy history, this Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is still well worth a visit if only to get a first-hand look at a very colourful historical American. Franklin has a way with words, and I recommend a version that is not updated for the modern reader, as the differences in spelling and grammar lend quite a bit of charm.