Former President Barack Obama's early memoir is titled Dreams for My Father. In this book he recounts his early childhood experiences all the way up to his enrollment in Harvard Law School. He traces the series of events which propelled him toward politics, beginning with the divorce of his parents while he was still a toddler.
Obama grows up among multiple different households in his family, always seeking a place to belong. This loneliness comes to a cap in his college years when he transfers from Occidental College to Columbia in order to distance himself from a destructive lifestyle pattern. After college he dips his toes in both business and philanthropy, attempting to make his family proud. Only after a visit to Kenya to reconcile with his paternal grandparents does Obama find the closure necessary to take charge of his life.
As the title suggests, Obama's father plays a defining role in the course of his life. Interestingly, the man's absence in his son's life proves as significant as his activities elsewhere. Forced to piece together an image of his father from tidbits and stories told by his mom and grandparents, Obama Jr. struggles to make sense of why the older man left. He deals with feelings of abandonment all through his youth, especially after his mom sends him back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents during his school career. Struggling to reconcile the two pieces of his heritage, the two absent parents, Obama becomes invested in the local black community in Hawaii. He finds meaning and intimacy with other children of mixed ancestry. Meeting his dad in person when he was 10, Obama remembers how disconnected and disoriented he felt afterward. He spent the next decade or so attempting to distance himself from his Kenyan heritage.
Tired of running, however, he eventually visits his grandparents in Kenya after his father's death. The final third of the book recounts the powerful emotional healing and self-recognition and pride that Obama experiences while in Kenya. He leaves eager to carve his own path in life, bringing change for traditionally underrepresented people groups in government.
