really enjoyed this-interesting that he kept correcting Obama's own version of his life from dreams of my father-though I do believe everyone has a story of their life as they see it which might differ in small ways from reality
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My most important take away from this book is learning how much President Obama consciously shaped his own identity through a series of myths. Most of the myths are based on events that took place. But, Maraniss discovered that his reconstructions of the events differed in some ways from those told by Obama in Dreams of My Father. Some stories are told out of sequence with altered effects. Characters in the Dreams of My Father are composites of real individuals. Finally, some meanings are given greater weight in the memoir than they might have actually had at the time. This was no shock to me. As a biographer, I see conscious mythmaking to some extent or another in every biography. Moreover, we are not all St. Paul on the Damascus road. Revelation can come slower, and events of the past can be revaluated later in life granting it greater influence.

I really liked how Maraniss traced the genealogy of Obama’s maternal and paternal lines from Kansas and Kenya to their intersection in Hawaii, itself a multicultural melting pot. Maraniss visited the scenes of Obama’s life in Africa, Indonesia, and North America and talked to those who knew the president, his parents, and other key figures in the book. These travels resulted in lots of primary material and some good photographs that appear in the gallery. I found the most interesting parts of the book to be about the senior Barack (pronounced Bar-rick, not BUH-rock) Obama who, as a member of the founding generation of post-colonial Africans, participated in a unique historical moment, the formation of a nation. He might have played a more significant role had not alcohol driven him to ruination. One of the major thesis of the books is that the son was so much better off without the physical presence (he appears to have always been a mental presence) of the ill tempered, demanding, self-absorbed, arrogant, and abusive alcoholic father in his life. Despite the mixed race genealogy and the lack of parents, there was a lot of ordinariness to the future president’s life. He was not terribly interested in school work, hung out with friends, was absorbed in sports (especially basketball) and girls. And being a child of the 70s he and his friends in the “Choom Gang” smoked a lot of pot. I am not sure how many of us would want our teenage years given such scrutiny.

From my blog: http://gregshistoryblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/recent-reads-inauguration-edition.h... ( )

This is an exhaustive study of the family background and early life of Barack Obama. That statement tells you both the strengths and weaknesses of this book. On the plus side, a tremendous amount of research was done to harpoon many of the myths about the President's background used by his political enemies. The author convincingly shows how many features of the President's personality were developed including his coolness under fire and caution in making decision. On the downside, the author never seemed to find a shred of information that he didn't think he should include in the books. Long lists like the names of all his high school basketball teams and all the states where interracial marriage was illegal when his parents got married. I used books on tape for about half the book and the author read the book taking joy it seemed showing his grasp of pronouncing difficult African, Indonesian and other foreign locations and names - many of which were trivial. It is still a great book if you are curious about the President's roots. ( )

If you are looking for a book on Reptilians, Islamofascism, massive yet somehow plausible conspiracies, Stalino-Fascism, and 'reverse racism', this is not for you.

There is always a caveat on writing biographies about the living: they could always do something big to surprise you and change the whole 'narrative' of the life, so to speak. Maraniss has taken the long view, spending a large portion of the book on Obama's ancestors, and concluding this volume before he was to enter Harvard Law School.

The threads of Obama's ancestry are divergent, from rural Kansas to Kenya. It's also interesting to see how their personalities and goals shaped each other - Obama's paternal side was intense and fiery, whereas the man himself was famously cool and understated - the most anxious his friends saw him was when he smoked two cigarettes almost at once.

His childhood is also an interesting story. Well-traveled, bilingual, surrounded by different people - Hawaii, California, Indonesia. Unfocused, but ambitious. Quiet and observational, but still friendly and gifted in conversation. Played state championship basketball in High School, smoked weed on occasion. Struggling with identity and role.

An interesting biography. Helps understand the formation of the man, if not the whole of his life. ( )

4982. Barack Obama The Story, by David Maraniss (read 11 Dec 2012) The first seven chapters of this book detail the lives of the grandparents and parents of the future president before he was born in 1961 in Honolulu. These chapters are of overwhelming interest, setting out an ancestry certainly unique to an American president. And the story of his time when in Indonesia and in Hawaii and at Occidental College in California I also found of high interest. And the account of his rather secluded time at Columbia also is compelling, when one thinks of all the people who went to Columbia or were there when he was who did not know him. His life was such a contrast to Clinton's. As the author points out, everybody who went to Georgetown when Bill Clinton did knew of him. A very different type of person but of high interest. I did not find the account of Obama's time in Chicago of as much interest. The book ends with Obama deciding to go to Harvard Law School and of his first trip to Kenya. Most of this book is of huge interest, telling of a most unusual path to the presidency One cannot fail to admire one who had such obstacles and who attained such triumphs. ( )