A review by carpentoid
A Promised Land by Barack Obama

3.0

As many have said, this autobiography is very long (especially considering it is only part 1 of 2), but it is thankfully very engaging and lacks much of the filler language that many other (mostly ghostwritten) political autobiographies use. It seems like most of its extreme length is due to the fact that Obama explains the basic details of each conflict in enough detail for even recently awoken coma patients to understand. While this works well to jog the memory of readers about things that happened over a decade ago, it also means that half of the book feels like copy-pasted summaries from Wikipedia. Another problem is that, while Obama goes into unnecessary detail about many well-known events, he also overlooks many of the more problematic aspects of his first term. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Obama isn't very critical of himself in his own autobiography, but it is still a pity that we don't get insight or explanations about more controversial issues, and ultimately this is what prevents me from seeing A Promised Land as a truly comprehensive look at his presidency despite all his best efforts.

On to the positive side, I will say that Obama is still a shockingly excellent writer, and there are many memorable pieces of this book where the language is outright poetic. Being immersed into the perspective of someone like Obama can be very eye opening, especially the parts describing his sudden rise to fame, the pressures felt while campaigning, and slowly becoming accustomed to being the most powerful man on Earth. The juicy personal gossip sprinkled throughout is sure to satisfy any Obama fan, and that is ultimately the group I would most recommend this book to.