a promised land: review of obama's memoir

I didn’t know what to expect when first picking up Obama’s memoir. I thought that this was his first memoir, a ground-breaking piece of work that would shed light on who he is and where he came from, but learned that he had already done so in a past memoir, Dreams From my Father. Frankly, I simply wanted something to read to clear my head before exams, a distraction, rather than something to digest and explore for an extended period of time. However, I would be drawn in by Obama’s captivating storytelling and motivational lessons that I would read this novel over the Winter Break. Here’s my review of Obama’s, A Promised Land.

When you see a political campaign in your neighborhood or on television, it can sometimes be deceiving how simple these operations appear to be. After all, how hard can it be to follow through with a bid to run for state office or even the presidency. What most struck me after reading the first 100 pages was how many people there were behind the scenes who ensured Obama’s campaign would run smoothly. 

Throughout this part of the novel, I realized that any large endeavor is a team effort, and you are only as strong as those around you. His inner circle lifted him up and made Obama’s presidential dream a reality.

The political element was mostly the boring part of the first 100, as I found myself more interested in the behind the scenes elements and the personal story of Obama and his family. I recently came across, claiming Michelle Obama “disliked" her husband for the first few years of their marriage, a shocking claim that I would normally think to be fake news. After reading the first part of the novel, I can see why. It wasn’t that Michelle hated her husband, but couldn’t understand why he would always take the difficult road in life. Obama had successfully graduated from Harvard Law School and had a career as a professor and community organizer (building social organizations, leading fundraising) locked up, but chose to run for congress and later the senate instead. These were two decisions that required Michelle’s approval and that took a lot of convincing. After all, managing family time with their newborn children, Malia and Sasha running a large state-wide campaign, and writing his first memoir on the side, would be a difficult task. Nonetheless, after a failed first campaign for congress failed, Obama’s second attempt at the senate was a resounding success that provided much needed financial and emotional relief for the family.