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A review by catmeghum
To Obama: With Love, Joy, Hate and Despair by Jeanne Marie Laskas
5.0
You know that saying about the right book finding you at the right time? This was the right book for me today. I've had it waiting in my review list for ages (like, a year, which is embarrassing), but today I sat down and read the whole thing cover to cover. I couldn't put it down.
This is an intimate, empathetic, humble look at the Obama administration through the eyes of the people it served. As a Brit, I'm sort of detached from American politics despite the impact they have on my life (I could do with being a bit more detached these days, to be honest). This is the sort of glimpse into America that I really treasure. It's a country that I admire in some ways but despair of in many more. There are mindsets that seem common in the US which baffle the majority of Brits, but because of our shared history we expect to always understand one another.
I think for me, this book was a paean to true democracy. When the US was first founded, there was a lot of debate between the Founding Fathers about how their democracy would work. True democracy was like the Brexit referendum - people voted individually and each individual vote was counted and the person (or issue, or opinion) that had the highest number of votes was taken forward. The Founding Fathers thought this would be too chaotic and impossible to enforce, and came up with a representative system instead. But even then much of the debate was carried out in the papers and pamphlets, and on the streets, by ordinary American citizens. Obama's decision to read 10 letters every day of his presidency is the modern version of that ongoing dialogue between people and state.
There are letters here that made me cry, letters that made me angry, letters that made me feel proud. Families dealing with loss - from drugs, from suicide, from 9/11. Gay couples writing to say thanks for the marriage. Kids who wanted homework help. It's a book that gives a very good impression of Obama, but the overwhelming impression I came away with wasn't an image of him, but of America, in all its messy glory. There are very few books which capture the modern country as well as this one does, and even fewer that do it with such grace and dignity. Three years on, it was a much needed dose of hope and positivity.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my copy of this book.
This is an intimate, empathetic, humble look at the Obama administration through the eyes of the people it served. As a Brit, I'm sort of detached from American politics despite the impact they have on my life (I could do with being a bit more detached these days, to be honest). This is the sort of glimpse into America that I really treasure. It's a country that I admire in some ways but despair of in many more. There are mindsets that seem common in the US which baffle the majority of Brits, but because of our shared history we expect to always understand one another.
I think for me, this book was a paean to true democracy. When the US was first founded, there was a lot of debate between the Founding Fathers about how their democracy would work. True democracy was like the Brexit referendum - people voted individually and each individual vote was counted and the person (or issue, or opinion) that had the highest number of votes was taken forward. The Founding Fathers thought this would be too chaotic and impossible to enforce, and came up with a representative system instead. But even then much of the debate was carried out in the papers and pamphlets, and on the streets, by ordinary American citizens. Obama's decision to read 10 letters every day of his presidency is the modern version of that ongoing dialogue between people and state.
There are letters here that made me cry, letters that made me angry, letters that made me feel proud. Families dealing with loss - from drugs, from suicide, from 9/11. Gay couples writing to say thanks for the marriage. Kids who wanted homework help. It's a book that gives a very good impression of Obama, but the overwhelming impression I came away with wasn't an image of him, but of America, in all its messy glory. There are very few books which capture the modern country as well as this one does, and even fewer that do it with such grace and dignity. Three years on, it was a much needed dose of hope and positivity.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my copy of this book.