Barack Obama, a black man raised by his white mother and grandparents,
decided to journey to Kenya to learn more about his African father
after receiving news of his death. This memoir is not about his
father's life, but about Obama's, and he brings that home with an
intimate tone rather than that of his public speeches. (His 2004
Democratic Convention keynote address is included at the end.)
Throughout the book, the U.S. Senator looks at race from the point of
view of someone who has seen and been part of a variety of cultures,
and he explains how his perspective shaped his views. The book, written
in 1995, before his election to the Illinois Senate, gives listeners a
chance to learn more about a young senator who has recently made news
by speaking out on the Patriot Act and President Bush's next Supreme
Court nomination.