by Joseph Nzioki

Created on: November 28, 2011

Dreams from my father; a story of Race and Inheritance is a book written by Barack Obama the 44th president of the United States and the author of the Audacity of Hope; Thoughts on reclaiming the American Dream. It is a lyrical and compelling memoir written in the context of a biracial son of an African man from a small village in Kenya and an American woman from a small town in Kansas who is trying to make some meaning out of his life. The book is a reflection of the Author’s personal experiences, hopes, and fears and the search for meaning of his life as an African American living in Black America. The book starts in New York where the author attended college, goes back to memories of the stories his grandfather told him while growing up in Hawaii concerning his African father a man he knew more as a myth. It goes to Indonesia where he spent his early

childhood to Hawaii where he was born, Chicago and eventually to Kenya where
the Author comes full cycle with his life after meeting the other side of his family. In the Epilogue and Preface it goes to Harvard in Boston where the author attended Harvard law school and became the first African American President of the Harvard law review. According to the author, he wrote the book with the hope that it may speak in some way to the fissures of race that have characterized the  American experience, as well as the fluid state of identity and the collision of cultures that mark our modern day life (Obama, 2004, p vii).  

The book starts with a preface written in 2004 shortly after the author became the junior United States senator from Chicago. In the preface the Author seems to have found his identity and made peace with himself and he seems determined to live out his purpose through serving others. In the preface the Author writes in a reflective tone recounting his hopes, fears, failures and achievements. In chapter one the author talks about his family experience growing up under the care of a single mother and his grandparents.

The author recounts his experiences of growing up in Hawaii where he attended
Panahou School where he and his high school friend Ray made the Majority of the
schools black minorities. The author holds his grandparents in high regard keenly
detailing their relationship with him. He talks about his grandma’s hard work, love and care that she had for him and gives us a clear picture of the people who perhaps had the most significant influence on him earlier in life. The

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