One week later

[selenak]

One week of a new American president, and he keeps doing stuff like this. It's strange, feeling like cheering for the US goverment every day I read the news. One keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it might or it might not, but in the meantime, there is this bewildering sensation. A politician. Keeps his campaign promises. Said politician is at the head of the most powerful nation on earth. What?

Incidentally, my mother got Dreams of my Father for Christmas by a friend of hers which meant I've read it, too, and was blown away by the sheer readability, if that's the right word. What I mean: the memoirs of Helmut Kohl are virtually impossible to get through, though they contain the occasional funny highlight which thankfully our papers printed as excerpts. (To wit: Helmut K. and Mrs. Thatcher. They were both conservatives, but he was not a fan, and she apparantly was convinced Germany was just waiting to start WWIII. This led to awkwardness of the retrospectively entertaining kind.) Helmut Schmidt is somewhat more readable - all those years editing Die Zeit paid off - but still not exactly captivating, even when he tells interesting things. (shezan, you'll probably enjoy hearing that he vastly preferred Nixon to Carter, despite being a social democrat. On the other hand, he found Carter and Reagan both equally bewildering as far as religion was concerned. Call it the reaction of a thoroughly secular European leader.) Moving on to American politicians, I found Clinton's memoirs screamed "needed editing", and on the other side of the spectrum, well I tried reading Kissinger. Emphasis on "tried". I gave up and read biographies about him by other people instead.

Now Dreams of my Father isn't exactly a "Portrait of the politician as a young man" type of book (it ends with Obama's first visit to Kenya, years before he became a Senator), more a family history coupled with a finding-one's-identity narrative. But it's well written, it's never less than interesting, and he has the ability to bring the people he writes about to life, whether they are his maternal grandparents, Indonesian step father or his half brother and sister in Kenya. If he ever writes his memoirs about the campaigns and his presidency, I look forward to reading his portraits of everyone from Rahm to Hillary to John McCain to Joe Biden.

And in conclusion: one week, and I still feel like cheering when I open the papers to articles like this one. The rational part in me knows it's bound to end soon, but I'm optimist enough to hope that "soon" is still a bit away.

Comments

[elisi]

and was blown away by the sheer readability, if that's the right word.
It certainly fits. I got it for my birthday last autumn, and couldn't put it down - not only does he have a way with words (impressively so for a first-time author), but what struck me was his introspection, coupled with how he tried to make sense of the world - figuring how society (people) functioned. I found it especially interesting following the election after that, esp Palin's platform, knowing that he'd considered and analysed all these subconscious fears years before. Which I think is one reason why he's so calm.

Anyway, I also enjoyed it quite simply for the story it told. And thank you for the link - it's very impressive seeing it all laid out like that.

but in the meantime, there is this bewildering sensation. A politician. Keeps his campaign promises. Said politician is at the head of the most powerful nation on earth. What?
Hee! You can follow his progress here, if you want: The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises.

[crossoverman.livejournal.com]

Have you read "The Audacity of Hope"? I certainly understand what you mean by readability if they are similar - because Audacity was a pleasure to read.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I remember 1997, and punching the air as the Labour initiatives we'd been waiting for so long came through.

May the "soon" be some way off!

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Man, my father, who I'm pretty sure did not vote for Obama but who respects him (I think he respected him a lot more than McCain by the end of the campaign, and that's hard for him to say because he's a longtime McCain supporter) -- anyway, my father has been reading this book and was talking to me about it, and I was mildly shamed because I haven't read it (and it hadn't occurred to me) and really know very little about the new president's life. I had a prejudice against campaign biographies, but I now realize this isn't your run of the mill book of the kind and I'm planning to pick it up.

[artaxastra.livejournal.com]

I'm finding it very odd myself....

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Do you think Obama could be my long-lost twin? He keeps doing exactly what I would have done...

Hurrah for the grey wolves.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Maggie never thought Germany was about to start WWIII (that was Nicholas Ridley), but she felt Germany and France were ganging up in Europe to shunt Britain to the sidelines. Which, you know, we were...

Schmidt loved Giscard. Nuff said...

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Out of curiousity have you ever read Audacity of Hope? It includes descriptions of his first weeks in the Senate, his Senate campaign, his first impression of President Bush, and a rather lengthy bit about what Indonesia was like - when he was a child and now.

And he writes his reflections on the Presidencies from Nixon through Bush, Jr.

I haven't read Dreams of My Father - so thank you for the review.