Barack Obama’s second book is quite wonderful – not quite as fabulous as his first, but quite wonderful, nonetheless. ‘Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream’ is the subtitle.
His political career, his political and personal beliefs, his skepticism and his faith, his family – and the kind of world he wants to help create – are all in this book. He has been a professor of constitutional law, and it shows. He is clearly a historian and a sociologist as well. And, definitely, one of the best political writers around.
I still love the stories best, and this book has fewer of them. The story of his first meeting with Sen. Richard Byrd, the octagenarian who was a Klansman in his youth, is a beautiful tale of absolution and forgiveness, an amazing generosity of spirit exhibited.
The stories of his political campaigns, and of what he has learned from traveling among us so often, are there, as are stories about his wife, their partnership, their children, their amazing extended United Nations family.
I’d let you borrow my copy, but I’m reading it again!