According toThe New York Times, Obama modeledDreams from My Father onRalph Ellison's novelInvisible Man.[3] The book, frequently praised for its literary qualities, has also been criticized for inaccuracies and over-use ofartistic license. Obama acknowledges using composite characterizations and adjusted timelines in the book's introduction, writing that the "hazards" of autobiography could not be fully avoided.
Barack Obama recounts how his parents met and his own life until his enrollment atHarvard Law School in 1988. His parents wereBarack Obama Sr. ofKenya, andAnn Dunham ofWichita, Kansas, who had met while they were students at theUniversity of Hawaii. In the first chapter, speaking of his father and namesake, Obama states "[h]e had left Hawaii back in 1963, when I was only two years old."[4] Obama's parents separated in 1963 and divorced in 1964, when he was two years old. The elder Obama later went to Harvard to pursue hisPhD in economics. After that, he returned to Kenya to fulfill the promise to his nation. Obama himself formed an image of his absent father from stories told by his mother and maternal grandparents. He saw his father one more time, in 1971, when Obama Sr. came to Hawaii for a month's visit.[5] The elder Obama, who had remarried, died in a car accident in Kenya in 1982.[5]
After her divorce, Ann Dunham marriedLolo Soetoro, aJavanesesurveyor fromIndonesia who was also a graduate student in Hawaii. The family moved toJakarta when Obama was six years old. At age ten, Obama returned to Hawaii under the care of his maternal grandparents for the better educational opportunities available there. He was enrolled in the fifth grade atPunahou School, a privatecollege-preparatory school, where he was one of six black students.[6] Obama attended Punahou from the fifth grade until his graduation in 1979. Obama writes in his book: "For my grandparents, my admission into Punahou Academy heralded the start of something grand, an elevation in the family status that they took great pains to let everyone know." There, he met Ray (Keith Kakugawa), who was two years older and alsomulti-racial. He introduced Obama to theAfrican-American community.[7]
Upon graduating from high school, Obama moved to thecontiguous United States for studies atOccidental College. He describes having lived a "party" lifestyle ofdrug andalcohol use.[8][9][10] After two years at Occidental, Obama transferred toColumbia College atColumbia University, where he majored inPolitical Science.[10] After graduation, Obama worked for a year in business. He moved toChicago, where he worked for anon-profit as acommunity organizer in theAltgeld Gardenshousing project on the city's mostly blackSouth Side. Obama recounts the difficulty of the experience, as his program faced resistance from entrenched community leaders and apathy on the part of the established bureaucracy. During this period, Obama first visited Chicago'sTrinity United Church of Christ, which became the center of his religious life.[10] Before attending Harvard, Obama decided to visit relatives in Kenya for the first time in his life. He recounts part of this experience in the final and emotional part of the book. Obama acknowledged his entire memoir to reflect on his personal experiences withrace relations in the United States.
A contemporary review in theNew York Times was mostly complimentary. The reviewer, novelistPaul Watkins, wrote that Obama "persuasively describes the phenomenon of belonging to two different worlds, and thus belonging to neither." However, Watkins questioned whether Obama's narrative suggested that people of mixed backgrounds must choose only one culture, which seemed at odds with America's diverse nature, writing "[i]f this is indeed true, as Mr. Obama tells it, then the idea of America taking pride in itself as a nation derived of many different races seems strangely mocked."[11]
After Obama achieved greater national prominence in 2007,Dreams found renewed critical attention. Speaking in 2008,Toni Morrison, aNobel Laureate novelist, has called Obama "a writer in my high esteem" and the book "quite extraordinary". She praised
his ability to reflect on this extraordinary mesh of experiences that he has had, some familiar and some not, and to really meditate on that the way he does, and to set up scenes in narrative structure, dialogue, conversation—all of these things that you don't often see, obviously, in the routine political memoir biography. ... It's unique. It's his. There are no other ones like that.[12]
In an interview forThe Daily Beast, authorPhilip Roth said he had readDreams from My Father "with great interests", and commented that he had found it "well done and very persuasive and memorable."[13] The book "may be the best-written memoir ever produced by an American politician", wroteTime columnistJoe Klein.[14] In 2008,The Guardian'sRob Woodard wrote thatDreams from My Father "is easily the most honest, daring, and ambitious volume put out by a major US politician in the last 50 years."[15]Michiko Kakutani, thePulitzer Prize-winning critic forThe New York Times, described it as "the most evocative, lyrical and candid autobiography written by a future president."[16] Writing for theGuardian, literary criticRobert McCrum wrote that Obama had "executed an affecting personal memoir with grace and style, narrating an enthralling story with honesty, elegance and wit, as well as an instinctive gift for storytelling." McCrum had included the book in his list of the 100 best non-fiction books of all time.[17]
Obama acknowledges using composite characterizations and adjusted chronology in the book's introduction, writing that the "hazards" of autobiography could not be fully avoided. As early as 2004, this drew criticism fromChicago Sun-Times columnistLynn Sweet, who wrote that "it is impossible to tell who [in the book] is real and who is not."[21] Noting the book's considerable number of alterations from reality, invented composite characters, and restructured timelines, scholarDavid Garrow describedDreams as "a work of historical fiction" in his 2017 biography of Obama,Rising Star.[22][23]Sheila Miyoshi Jager, a former girlfriend of Obama's, has objected being combined with another woman into a white character, as she is half-Asian and considers herself mixed-race, like Obama.[22][23]
David Remnick, another Obama biographer (The Bridge, 2010), describedDreams as "a mixture of verifiable fact, recollection, recreation, invention, and artful shaping."[24] A number of factual inaccuracies or exaggerations inDreams were also discussed byDavid Maraniss in his 2012 workBarack Obama: The Story; Maraniss describes the book as more akin to fictional literature than true autobiography.[25][26]
With the exception of family members and a handful of public figures, Barack Obama says in the 2004 preface that he had changed names of others to protect their privacy. He also createdcomposite characters to expedite the narrative flow.[27] Some of his acquaintances have recognized themselves and acknowledged their names. Various researchers have suggested the names of other figures in the book:
New York: Times Books; 1st edition (July 18, 1995); Hardcover: 403 pages;ISBN0-8129-2343-X
New York: Kodansha International (August 1996); Paperback: 403 pages;ISBN1-56836-162-9
New York: Three Rivers Press; Reprint edition (August 10, 2004); Paperback: 480 pages;ISBN1-4000-8277-3
New York: Random House Audio; Abridged edition (May 3, 2005); Audio CD;ISBN0-7393-2100-5; Includes the senator's speech from the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
New York: Random House Audio; Abridged edition onPlayaway digital audio player[46]
New York: Random House Large Print; 1st Large print edition (April 4, 2006); Hardcover: 720 pages;ISBN0-7393-2576-0
New York: Crown Publishers (January 9, 2007); Hardcover: 464 pages;ISBN0-307-38341-5
Czech:Cesta za sny mého otce : jedna z nejpůsobivějších autobiografických knih o sebepoznání a hledání vlastní identity, translated by Marie Čermáková, Praha : Štrob, Širc & Slovák, (2009),ISBN978-80-903947-6-6
Spanish:Los sueños de mi padre : una historia de raza y herencia, translated by Fernando Miranda; Evaristo Páez Rasmussen, Granada : Almed, (2008),ISBN978-84-936685-0-1
^Knapp, Kevin (July 5, 1995). "Alice Palmer to run for Reynolds' seat".Hyde Park Herald. p. 1.Talk of who might replace Palmer, assuming she wins the race, has already begun. One front-runner might be Palmer-supporter Barack Obama, an attorney with a background in community organization and voter registration efforts. Obama, who has lived 'in and out' of Hyde Park for 10 years, is currently serving as chairman of the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Obama said that even though the election would be years away, 'I am seriously exploring that campaign.' Hevrdejs, Judy; Conklin, Mike (July 7, 1995)."Hevrdejs & Conklin INC".Chicago Tribune. p. 20. RetrievedFebruary 10, 2010.Polpourri: ... Barack Obama will announce he's running for the state Senate seat occupied by Alice Palmer, who's running for Reynolds' U.S. congressional seat. Obama, who has worked with Palmer, is an attorney at Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland and newly published author ofDreams from My Father. Mitchell, Monica (August 23, 1995). "Son finds inspiration in the dreams of his father".Hyde Park Herald. p. 10.
^Essoyan, Susan (July 27, 2008)."A teacher's Hefty influence".Honolulu Star-Bulletin.Archived from the original on November 29, 2009. RetrievedJune 6, 2009.
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