RISING STAR: THE MAKING OF BARACK OBAMA

Massively thick book, not just a weekend read. If you like politics you will find it interesting.

I like long books especially on important people like American presidents but this book is detailed to the point of dullness and reads more like a dossier than a flowing narrative. I look forward to better books about the great man in years to come.

This book is quite big but make for good reading

Great book

This book is brilliant because it was written by an author, David Garrow, who's not only mastered the art of beautiful prose but also possesses unparalleled skills in researching his subjects (which is why he won the Pulitzer for 'Bearing the Cross', the bio of Martin Luther King, Jr.). Alas, this book is also sorrowful because it is clear Garrow began his biography of Barack Hussein Obama honestly believing in the hope and change his subject promised - only to be bitterly disappointed by the man his research ultimately uncovered. As 'Rising Star' describes it, Obama began his life in Chicago as an idealistic community organizer whose ambition was to change the world. Alas, this ambition was not realized when he failed to secure any funding (a failure that would sadly be repeated again and again). Undeterred, Obama simply shifted his focus to public office and prepared to run for the Illinois state legislature. That position, he felt sure, would give him the funds he needed to make his dreams come true. But there was a problem. The voters in Obama's district were black - and he wasn't. That is, he was not perceived by them as such and, to be honest, Barack had never thought of himself as black either. Up until the moment he first ran for public office, Barack had never defined himself along racial lines but instead along emotional ones - that of a lost child abandoned by his father and mother. By and large, Barack's life had been devoid of black associations. He had next to no black friends growing up in Hawaii; in college he'd persisted in avoiding black friendships, teachers and the black movement as a whole. The black persona was simply not how he defined himself - but it would have to be if he hoped to achieve public office in Chicago. What to do? Well, the solution which all of Barack's advisers gave was for him to marry a woman who WAS black. Thus, Barack abandoned the beautiful half-white, half-Japanese woman, Sheila Miyoshi Jager, whom he'd been living with for nearly two years in Chicago (and whom he'd originally intended to marry) and instead proposed marriage to Michelle Robinson. It was a political move which Barack would pay bitterly for.Michelle was not interested in politics, she hated it. What she loved was money. However, in the beginning of their marriage she grudgingly acquiesced to Barack's low-paying position with the Illinois State legislature because Michelle herself was earning a six-figure salary at Sidley Austin. But then suddenly, mysteriously, Michelle left the firm AND forfeited her law license (after barely 3 years of practice) to take a public job which paid barely one-third of her old income. She was not pleased about this and immediately demanded that her husband leave politics and get a job at a prestigious law firm that would bring in the salary she craved. Barack balked at that and instead began working three jobs at once (state legislature, law school professor and lawyer) to bring in the money. But it wasn't enough for her. He then tried to placate her by promising her they would get rich from his book 'Dreams Of My Father' (which Garrow takes great pains to insist was NOT written with the help of Bill Ayers). Alas, the book was a flop. Michelle's anger at her husband's failure to make money provoked countless arguments between the two of them; fights which she had no qualms displaying in public, humiliating Barack constantly in front of friends and strangers. At this point, Barack bargained desperately with Michelle to allow him to run for U.S. Representative; surely this would bring in the funds she craved. Alas, he not only badly lost the election but plunged into debt up to his ears. Barack had truly hit bottom. And then? Suddenly money began pouring in for him.Garrow gives no explanation as to why, he merely describes how Barack for the first time in his life was in charge of the allocation of millions of dollars in public funds which he began distributing as political patronage right and left. Shortly afterwards, Barack announced he would run for the United States Senate, a hugely expensive venture. But once again, he mysteriously came into possession of huge sums of money which would more than pay for that run. His fortunes had changed, he was no longer the penniless spouse Michelle had sneered at. Alas - and this is where the sorrow enters Garrow's writing - Barack himself had changed as well. He was no longer the idealistic community organizer of the past, no longer the fun-loving and outgoing person he'd once been. Instead, he was a cold, withdrawn individual who distanced himself from his old friends, abandoned his old alliances, displayed loyalty to no one but Michelle (and Valerie Jarrett). Garrow never puts it into words but it's clear nonetheless; Barack had sold out.Needless to say, the Leftist establishment does NOT view Garrow's book kindly. It's bad enough 'Rising Star' uncovers Obama's failures, it's worse that Garrow's astounding research is so precise, so accurate it's impossible to disprove his revelations of those failures. It's no comfort to Obama's disillusioned followers that Garrow is as upset as they. I'm certain in my heart he would have given anything to have come up with a different conclusion for his subject. Alas, however, Garrow is a prisoner of his phenomenal skills as a researcher and his own honesty. The result is a brilliant sorrowful book on a man who ultimately betrayed the hope he had promised to the world - and himself.