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3.32 AVERAGE
3.32 AVERAGE
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Beautiful writing. I appreciated this coming of age tale connected to a major political event and the journey it took him on. He felt uninspired, untethered until he started working on the campaign which caused him to have many discoveries about himself.
The choice to not name Obama felt weird when names were used elsewhere. There were definitely sections I skimmed over.
The choice to not name Obama felt weird when names were used elsewhere. There were definitely sections I skimmed over.
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
At the outset, I had such reservations about reading a book with an inside take on the Senator/candidate for president's campaign. With the political climate we are mired in now, I didn't want anyone spoiling my appreciation of Obama. As luck would have it, there were no new revelations aside from complaints that must be inevitable in a long and rigorous campaign. So the book was really more about episodes in the narrator's/author's? journey which didn't consistently capture my interest and occasionally felt like filler.
The Pentecostal stories were charming and I particularly enjoyed this admission:
"Let's face it in all its strangeness: I was raised in an atmosphere of magic, christened into unrealism, made to feel most at home amid excruciating cognitive dissonance, the kind that never resolved. I believed and didn't believe and felt the strain."
Another favorite moment was the comparison of his childhood introduction to DuSable to the candidate:
"On elementary school quizzes in history I'd had to identify him as the founder of Chicago. Whatever your circumstances, our teachers had said, you could be proud of a black man like this, from whose foreign hands your whole world, the whole heaving city around your, flowed.I imagined du Sable now as a twin of the candidate: come from parts unknown to the Midwest. mimicking then mastering the rhythms of its deeper currents, making his name, staking out ground. The campaign was like a fur he'd won in a trade."
I wouldn't think this is a particularly strong contender in the Tournament of Books.
The Pentecostal stories were charming and I particularly enjoyed this admission:
"Let's face it in all its strangeness: I was raised in an atmosphere of magic, christened into unrealism, made to feel most at home amid excruciating cognitive dissonance, the kind that never resolved. I believed and didn't believe and felt the strain."
Another favorite moment was the comparison of his childhood introduction to DuSable to the candidate:
"On elementary school quizzes in history I'd had to identify him as the founder of Chicago. Whatever your circumstances, our teachers had said, you could be proud of a black man like this, from whose foreign hands your whole world, the whole heaving city around your, flowed.I imagined du Sable now as a twin of the candidate: come from parts unknown to the Midwest. mimicking then mastering the rhythms of its deeper currents, making his name, staking out ground. The campaign was like a fur he'd won in a trade."
I wouldn't think this is a particularly strong contender in the Tournament of Books.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
While I do think with some added personality the protagonist would shine a bit more, the introspection and subtle wit carry this book up, up, and up.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes