A Promised Land Book Review
A Promised Land is a presidential memoir written by Barack Obama. And it is volume one of two, which he lets us know in the book’s introductory part. It is the first of two novels; the novel starts in his childhood memories, moves up through his college career, his congressional races, and moves up into his presidency as well the majority of the novel focuses on his time during the presidency, and it ended in 2011. The next novel, I assume, will start at that point and move on to the rest of his presidential career. In this review, I will present a list of the findings of this book. I’ll start with things I like about the book and move through the list to things I didn’t enjoy as much, and I will try and avoid any political or ideological comments. I’ll try to strictly make this about the book itself and not so much about policies or what I feel about Barack Obama.
The book starts with Obama telling us a little about his mother and grandparents. And childhood, the time he spent in Indonesia and every other place he has lived and his experiences, how he was back in high school, and the major changes in his life. One of the significant changes in his life came from books the moment he started reading books. That was a massive milestone in his life. When you read the book, you will know that reading books changed him to a certain extent, and it opened his horizon and his vision of the world; he could understand many different things.
He was a lot into literature, so the beginning of the book is somewhat like that you get to know a little bit about him when he was in his school and college days and his experience with his mother and his grandparents. He talks about his mother a lot. It shows that his mother was one of his most outstanding role models. Out of all the lessons his mother taught him, one of the most important lessons that stayed with him was kindness. She taught him compassion and what kind of person he should be, and there’s an entire passage about what she exactly said, which was endearing. So I also got to know his mother. And I learned a lot about people from childhood and how they were raised. Since his mother was such a strong woman and she was so opinionated, she was kind, she was also into protests, and she was quite an Activist.
Then he also talks about his love story with Michelle, but he does not go entirely into the details. If you have read the book Becoming by Michelle Obama, you would know the exact story, the chronology of all the events and how he proposed, and everything regarding their relationship. Still, this book is not given in that much detail; he just talks about her and how things went, but he does not go into the details of their dating time and wedding. This book will be more about his political life than his personal life.
In general, about the book, one of our favorite things about this book is that it’s well written. I feel like president Obama is a fantastic writer; he does just a spectacular job of getting thoughts onto a page. In a way that his voice comes out in a way that he is professional and classy and kind of all those things that I think about Obama in maybe his speeches, but it also comes out in his writing. His sentence structure is varied and exciting, keeping the reader engaged in the writing.
Another thing I enjoyed about the text is that it is still so relatable. President Obama’s humor is evident in the book; I saw different aspects of that sly humor characteristic of Barack Obama written there in the text. And it’s also written in a way that it does, for the most part, keep you moving. It keeps you engaged and interested. It’s not long run-on sentences. And It is very relatable and easy to read.
Another thing I enjoyed throughout the memoir as he’s talking about from a very young age and moving on through his presidential campaign and into his presidency, he loves America. It’s something that makes anyone want to love America as well. Whatever anyone feels about America in its current state, there’s something about how Obama talks about the ideas of what America stands for. What it is that makes you want to love it as well, and not just the nebulous notion of the country but how Obama talks about people is incredible. He does a fantastic job of making you want to love people you may otherwise wouldn’t want to love. He talks about people he meets in rural America whom he falls in love with and wants you to also fall in love with them. He also talks about people in urban America. He talks about them in a way that makes anyone want to fall in love with them. Obama has an excellent way of writing about people and Americans, making you want to fall in love with America. And all the Americans that are in it.
I also appreciated the thoughtful stances that president Barack Obama brings to this book. At no point was he necessarily trying to force ideologies down anyone’s throat in this book. Still, the thoughtfulness of how he approaches things makes you want to think about those things, not just the political ideas that he may have or bring to the table, but simple things about how an absentee father may shape your life. It was interesting to have a new perspective brought into that situation. Although that was not necessarily what Barack Obama was trying with the novel, it was still helpful for anyone.
I also enjoyed getting to know Barack Obama on a more personal level.
In this memoir, he brings forward all of the things that he did but not just in a kind of beautiful heroic light. He also brings forward some of his flaws and helps us get to know who he is as a person, not just as a president. There’s something about the pedestal of a president that makes you think of someone either vilifying them or heroic them the way he’s written this memoir. It makes us aware of the good things he did and some of the harmful faults that he has as well.
A few things I didn’t enjoy about this novel as much: it is very detailed. This is a fault that’s addressed in the intro. He says, “hey, this is a book. It was meant to be 500 pages. It was meant to take me three years; instead, here we are four years later. This is 700 pages, and it’s part one of two. There’s a second book coming”. At some level, all the detail is appreciated. It’s nice to be able to look in on the decisions made and see all the context in the history surrounding them. On another level, this is a very long book; sometimes, it drags a little because the details are so available to you. I think the book could have done with fewer details. This book is a very polished novel. It is very little in the way of emotional connectivity in the novel. It’s all very detail-oriented, and I think those two things go together. It’s analytical and detailed; therefore, it doesn’t have as many emotional aspects. You could conclude a lot of emotional elements about it, and I think this also plays into who Obama is as a person, but it was tough for us to emotionally connect with this memoir.
Who is this book for,
Honestly, I think it’s a fascinating book for many different people. If anyone is interested in who Barack Obama is or learning about the recent history in, a little bit more details in it. This is an excellent book for anyone thinking about a political career. It’s hard not to recommend this book because there are many lessons to be learned in how Obama has talked about his career and what happened to him moving up through. I think the book was written tactfully enough that this isn’t an echo chamber. It’s not just written for democrats or liberals or black people or anything like that. The book is definitely written in a way accessible to anyone interested. There isn’t much like lampooning, or it’s very bipartisan. I think Barack has done a very tactful job of writing. That way is an accessible book for anyone with the tenacity or the perseverance to slog through the whole 700-page novel.
