Obama is a remarkable man. I remember when we flew to Denmark just a souple of days after the election, everyone riding a bit high on emotion. Here, in the United States, we elected a black man with a Muslim sounding name. The Danes were impressed--they said a Swede couldn't get elected in Denmark, much less someone who looked so different from them. We came to find out that roughly half of us were elated whereas about a third of us harbor white supremacy traits and hated him deeply and without cause.
Is this presidential memoir too long? Definitely. And I have to disagree with some other reviewers. It is also ponderous, but in the way that the author himself is. It was his downfall in terms of trying to persuade people, that he couldn't just get straight to the point, he had to give you every piece off background information that he himself used to arrive at his decision, so that you could see it all yourself. In my mind, not necessary, but it is the hallmark of this man, this president.
You should read it because it will remind you of him--he reads the audio version, so you can really remind yourself--he really is a slow speaker, you will also remember that and maybe increase the speed a bit. He walks the reader through every major decision of his first term, what the plan was, what went wrong, and what he would do differently, if anything. It is definitely worth the walk down memory lane, but as someone else noted, could Michelle write the sequel? Or at least take a stab at editing it.
No comments:
Post a Comment