A review by chan_fry
Becoming - Chất Michelle by Michelle Obama

5.0

I typically enjoy histories, biographies, etc., but it's fatiguing to always read about history's worst people — slave-owners, colonizers, warmongers, war profiteers, monarchists, religionists. I wanted a book about someone fundamentally decent — a person who didn’t find ways to make the world obviously worse. And I wanted that book to inspire me, to encourage me, to warm my heart. This book was exactly what I was looking for.

For most of the first half, it felt intimate, as if Mrs. Obama was sitting in a comfortable chair near me, sipping her favorite warm beverage, and telling me the story of her life. It felt like her voice, lost in thought, forgetting for the moment that I'm sitting nearby listening. That tone shifted a little later on as the book gets to the White House years, but it still felt like it came from an ordinary person telling me about her actual experiences — as opposed to a Washington insider trying to make a buck by selling a book.

Unfortunately, the book ends on a mostly frustrating note, though this is due to actual events rather than to any fault of Michelle Obama. She forces herself to be optimistic at the end: "I continue, too, to keep myself connected to a force that’s larger and more potent than any one election, or leader, or news story — and that’s optimism. For me, this is a form of faith, an antidote to fear..."

(I have written a longer review on my website.)