Books 2010: Barack Obama – Dreams from my father

As I was finishing this book I had lots of mixed feelings and haven’t really been sure what I think of it. First things first – it is written as eloquently as you would expect and does indeed give you a real insight into the 44^th president of the USA. And it is definitely worth reading, easy to read, well written, interesting and enjoyable.

But the thing that irked me was the focus on his father who was not there, and his ‘black’ heritage as opposed to his mother and grandparents, and ‘white’ heritage which he doesn’t (in this book) explore in more detail. Yes I get it – that’s the point, that because of his father that he is a black man and he knows nothing about him, but arguably a big (bigger?) part of him was the way he was actually raised, and the people he was raised by. Obama also recognises this, and in the introduction to the 2004 edition (following his mothers death) he considers whether if he had known she wouldn’t survive her illness he might have written a different book -

“…less a meditation on the absent parent, more a celebration of the one who was a single constant in my life……”

Do read it if you haven't, it's very good.

Go Obama

Wow what an amazing, historic, inspirational, exciting, joyful etc (too many adjectives!) night! I am still on a high and I am still watching CNN, nearly 24 hours later!

This is our election night '08: we arrived home after work and we switched on the TV and the internet immediately. We talked to Dhara for a bit via skype. We really got into BBC America. We popped round to Emily and Miles home for a short while. We finally arrived at Michelle and Scot's election party! CNN called Ohio! The excitement was huge! Dhara said she was off to bed; I was chatting to her on FB whilst at Michelle's.

We finally made our way to the Bishops Arts district, where there was a democratic street party. We congratulated the Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, she is a Democrat and was re-elected. (Wooley met the person whom he was robo-called about!) We also saw the local Democratic Congresswoman, Eddie Bernice Johnson. Amongst the happy, excited crowds we found our friends, Lauren and Aaron and we went to a bar. Virginia was called and then the race was called shortly afterwards. It went crazy, so much fun, so glad we went out. The night was so emotional, and I honestly mean that despite all my British cynicism, it was awesome in the traditional sense of the word. I am so excited to have been a part of this monumental moment.

On our walk back to our car at the end of the night, we saw an African American weaving his way up the street on his not so hot looking bicycle, shouting at he top of his lungs "In my lifetime!"

This "audacity of hope", this joy, this belief in people, this is the "real" America. Jigna and Walraj

PS: Dallas went Democratic by 57% so its not just Austin that is the little spot of blue in red Texas!