Before I start my first book review, let me preface this by saying I am not an American, and I have never spent more than a week there, so I have a limited view into what life is like in America. With that said, one book I believe that every American should read is ‘To Obama: With Love, Joy, Anger, and Hope’ by Jeanne Marie Laskas.
This book is about the letters that Barack Obama received throughout his presidency, the replies he sent, and the people behind the letters. This is not just about the nice letters he received telling him what a great job he was doing, in fact, not many of the letters were like that at all. Instead it was letters telling him that he was letting his people down, that a lot of his constituents have no faith in him, that their worlds were crumbling and they wanted Obama to fix it.
The foundation of the book is about how during Obama’s presidency, he committed to reading ten letters a day that were received by his office. Quite often he replied to those letters, by hand, responding to the American peoples’ worries, concerns and even once, to their homework. The concept of this book is so deeply intriguing, and gives you an insight into how Americans interact with their politicians and also the heavy burden that is carried by any President.
As someone from outside of America, it also gave me a lot of insight into how their political system interacts with the people, and also how different Presidents throughout time carried out this responsibility. Having long been a big Obama supporter, this book only made me love him more.
In terms of the actual writing though, it was a little disjointed and hard to follow at times. In between blocks of letters there are little narrations of people who wrote letters, or people that worked in the President’s office. There is no flow between these segments, and whilst they do tell individual stories and add colour to some individuals, they could have been better woven into a complete story and the stories didn’t always clearly link to the letters themselves.
Overall, this book was an outstanding read, and I would recommend it to all (not just Americans). It was moving, it was informative, and it made me gain even more respect for Obama. Perhaps the best part though, was the letters and stories that came after Trump was voted in and the continuation of the letters’ importance to Obama’s life post-presidency.
I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
A Turtle Stranger 