A Promised Land

You read memoirs for two things: (1) a play-by-play re-telling of history, and (2) some higher truth to it all; some “gestalt” that makes you look at things differently.

This book has #1, for sure. Not so much of #2.

The book starts with Obama’s childhood (but doesn’t spend a lot of time on it), and it ends with the killing of Osama Bin Laden in 2011. There is going to be a second book that covers 2011 to 2016, I understand. Perhaps the higher truth will come in that book?

The book is a recounting of all the major events of the time it covers. The campaign, the financial crisis, the passing of Obamacare, etc. Honestly, a lot of it gets tedious.

Of note, Obama’s administration was pretty profane. When recounting conversations, there are quite a few F-bombs dropped, some by Obama himself.

Obama is pretty fair to everyone, I think. He portrays his adversaries like Mitch McConnell and John McCain in fairly complimentary terms. The only person he getting a little savage with is Sarah Palin – he says that she never had a single clue what she was talking about.

It’s a long book – some 700 pages. Honestly, unless you really like Obama or are a student of the American presidency, there’s probably not a lot here for you.