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A review by kristianawithak
Becoming by Michelle Obama
4.0
Becoming is encouraging and beautiful.
Obama does an excellent job describing where she came from and the upbringing of her life. She is inspirational and the overall book is approachable to all.
The book, at times, reads as a response. Obama adds her point of view to the controversial and criticized moments of the campaign and presidency. She does not come across as combative, the tone of the book is gentle. She is aware of how her words will be interpreted and judged, and how they were scrutinized previously. Obama supports and defends the president’s actions, showing the weight Barack Obama shouldered for the country.
It’s a wonderful portrait of the Michelle Obama and is surprisingly relatable. Women can relate to the struggles of balance in work and home, choosing to step away from a career to support your family, setting a course to become more than your upbringing but wanting to find meaningful work and not just success.
The feelings Obama expresses about the oppressive weight of security details and how she shrunk herself to not disrupt the normalcy of others was the most striking part of the book. It weaves its way through much of the latter half of the book and comes up frequently. Choosing to skip out on college tours and her girls tennis games, because she did not want to disrupt other people’s normalcy is weighty. Choosing to stay indoors instead of going on a balcony because of how it would disrupt the tourists outside. Here is a woman who is aware of her place in history, who bears a different weight on her shoulders for the country, her race and her gender. The reader is given a small glimpse of that weight.
It is an excellent book.
Obama does an excellent job describing where she came from and the upbringing of her life. She is inspirational and the overall book is approachable to all.
The book, at times, reads as a response. Obama adds her point of view to the controversial and criticized moments of the campaign and presidency. She does not come across as combative, the tone of the book is gentle. She is aware of how her words will be interpreted and judged, and how they were scrutinized previously. Obama supports and defends the president’s actions, showing the weight Barack Obama shouldered for the country.
It’s a wonderful portrait of the Michelle Obama and is surprisingly relatable. Women can relate to the struggles of balance in work and home, choosing to step away from a career to support your family, setting a course to become more than your upbringing but wanting to find meaningful work and not just success.
The feelings Obama expresses about the oppressive weight of security details and how she shrunk herself to not disrupt the normalcy of others was the most striking part of the book. It weaves its way through much of the latter half of the book and comes up frequently. Choosing to skip out on college tours and her girls tennis games, because she did not want to disrupt other people’s normalcy is weighty. Choosing to stay indoors instead of going on a balcony because of how it would disrupt the tourists outside. Here is a woman who is aware of her place in history, who bears a different weight on her shoulders for the country, her race and her gender. The reader is given a small glimpse of that weight.
It is an excellent book.