Discussion of "Dreams from My Father"

I hope you bought it used. I would not pay one dime that might go into the pocket of the publisher or supposed author.

I borrowed it from the public library.

And another thing: how did this piece of dizzyingly poor prose receive such glowing praise from reviewers? Are there any FReepers out there who know of any reviews from 1994-95 that were less than favorable?

Below is a link to something he wrote in 1983. It’s difficult for me to follow but it has something to do with getting rid of nuclear weapons. Also, he writes, “Nevertheless, the Western World did not complain in 1933 because Hitler, though a fascist and totalitarian, was seen, like countless American puppet dictators today, as someone who leaves the established order in place.” Obviously, none of that is relevant today so it is no wonder that the media has ignored it. Also, it appears that he ripped off his hope/change logo from the Sundial Weekly News Magazine logo (which itself appears to have been ripped off from the Weather Underground logo).

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2174688/posts

The last 70 or so days tells me all I need to know about this man. Reading about his philosophy and past just piss me off more.

In sum, so far, his memoirs are the story of a Nobody. An autobiography (and I have read many dozens of them, from Josephus to Marcus Aurelius to Augustine to Eric Severeid), must necessarily involve choices of what to include and what to omit; and whether it is by choice or by accident, this book shows a person who is empty inside.

Well, normally, an autobiography chronicles the events of the author's life. Think of "Dreams" as creating, molding, and shaping a myth, loosely based on the author's life. It makes more sense that way.

I only skim it from time to time.
It’s almost torture to try and read it page to page because of the excruciatingly boring amount
of unimportant information Barry finds it necessary to include on every single page.
Definitely stream of unconsciousness.

There are gems to be found among the literary detritus.
Page 26 He discusses finding his birth certificate as a teenager..not his COLB.
Page 21 “ Bar “ ( yet another alias )
continues the pattern of running down Gramps as a typical lying , racist white person.
“ And yet I don’t entirely dismiss Gramp’s recollection of events as
a convenient bit of puffery,
another act of white revisionism.”

In 2004, Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun Times
wrote a column critiquing Bar’s memoir.
I can’t find the original column, but, this paragraph is still around.
After her column came out criticizing the book, Bar suddenly decided that his previous verbatim conversational recall was now just
an “ approximation. “

“Composite characters.
Changed names.
And reams of dialogue between Obama and other people that moves the narrative along but
is an ‘approximation’ of the actual conversation,” she wrote in the Sun-Times.
“Except for public figures and his family,
it is impossible to know who is real and who is not.”

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What I’d like to know is HOW this sob got away with the following racist, Muslim loving remarks in his books?
If a Republican had those out in print, he’d have been crucified!

From Dreams of My Father, “ I FOUND A SOLACE IN NURSING A PERVASIVE SENSE OF GRIEVANCE AND ANIMOSITY AGAINST MY MOTHER’S RACE”. Barack Hussein Obama

From ‘Dreams of my Father’, “The emotion between the races could never be pure, even love was tarnished by the desire to find in the other some element that was missing in ourselves. Whether we sought out our demons or salvation, the other race (WHITE) would always remain just that: menacing, alien, and apart.” Barack Hussein Obama

From Dreams Of My Father: “That hate hadn’t gone away,” he wrote, BLAMING “WHITE PEOPLE — some CRUEL, some IGNORANT, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives.” Barack Hussein Obama

He added: “To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists.”
“There was something about him that made me wary,” Obama wrote. “A little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.” ‘The Audacity of Hope’, Barack Hussein Obama

“that ghostly figure that haunted black dreams.”- Barack Hussein Obama, ‘ Audacity of Hope’

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From ‘Dreams Of My Father’, “There were enough of us on campus to constitute a tribe, and when it came to hanging out many of us chose to function like a tribe, staying close together, traveling in packs,” he wrote. “It remained necessary to prove which side you were on,to show your LOYALTY TO THE BLACK MASSES, TO STRIKE OUT and name names” Barack Hussein Obama

Quote from Barack Obama’s book, Dreams Of My Father:
“THE PERSON WHO MADE ME PROUDEST OF ALL, THOUGH, WAS MY [half brother], ROY..HE CONVERTED TO ISLAM”.

From ‘Dreams of my Father’, “IN INDONESIA, I SPEND TWO YEARS AT A MUSLIM SCHOOL” “..I STUDIED THE KORAN..”

From ‘Audacity of Hope: “LOLO (Obama’s step father) FOLLOWED ISLAM....”I LOOKED TO LOLO FOR GUIDANCE”.

From ‘The Audacity Of Hope, “I WILL STAND WITH THEM (MUSLIMS) SHOULD THE POLITICAL WINDS OF WAR SHIFT IN AN UGLY DIRECTION..”

From The Audacity Of Hope, “WE ARE NO LONGER JUST A CHRISTIAN NATION, we are also a Jewish nation, a MUSLIM NATION, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.”

http://www.examiner.com/a-536474~_Trapped_between_two_worlds_.html
http://www.examiner.com/a-534540~Can_a_past_of_Islam_change_the_path_to_president_for_Obama_.html?cid=dc-article-obama

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