The Resonant, Personal Story of Our Favorite First Lady
Like a child, I rushed into two or three stores on Christmas Eve, searching for a copy of Michelle Obama’s Becoming.
The memoir, which was released in November of 2018, was sold out in most stores. Finally, I found my copy at the Walmart store on South Post Oak. I walked briskly to the self-checkout and rushed home to wrap (yes, wrap) the Christmas present I’d bought for myself.
Later, on Christmas night, I sat down with a cup of red-wine hot chocolate and started reading.
I wasn’t pulled in immediately and worried that the book might not live up to my expectations. Was it all hype? The first few chapters mostly chronicled Michelle’s childhood in Chicago’s South Side, with a few bright moments like her transition to Whitney Young High School and her friendship with Santita Jackson. However, my worries soon subsided, and by the middle of the ninth chapter, I was hooked.
What made this novel a moving and exciting read for me was how deeply relatable Obama’s story is despite the extraordinary life she has led.
I felt a connection to her as I read about the way she managed her (temporarily) long-distance relationship with Barack Obama, as she wrote about feeling unfulfilled by her career in law, and as she dealt with loss.
There are illuminating stories within the novel as well, the type of information most people know, but may never have felt the full force of. In chapter 11, Obama writes of her first trip to Kenya, saying ”It’s a curious thing to realize, the in-betweenness one feels being African-American in Africa. It gave me a hard-to-explain feeling of sadness, a sense of being unrooted in both lands.” She also writes about her struggles with fertility, balancing work and motherhood, and finding her own voice.
Of course, she had to cover politics also, eloquently articulating what it felt like to volunteer for her husband’s first presidential campaign and to become a target of public commentary. These chapters are interesting from both a personal and historical view, with Obama providing her personal perspective on a historic and momentous time of American history.
“I didn’t want to be some sort of weel-dressed ornament who showed up to parties and ribbon cuttings. I wanted to do things that were purposeful and lasting. ”
The books third portion, Becoming More, is all about life after the election—the “vertigo” of transitioning into the White House, a decision to flee the inaugural after party in favor of sleep and self-care, and helping her girls to adjust to their new lives. More than anything, these chapters made me aware of some of the deeper unseens of the lives of the First Family—what was paid for by us, the taxpayer, and what is billed; the intricacies and intrusions of a 24-hour security detail; and all the things that a First Lady is expected to do and attend.
After 400 pages of reading, what stuck with me more than what I’d learned about politics is Obama’s message about creating her own identity. During her husband’s eight years as President, Michelle Obama managed to remain her own person, to build her own platform, champion her own issues and find her voice. If she could do this with the eyes of the nation watching, surely I can do it too.
P.S. When looking up the exact publishing date for the novel, I discovered that there is a free reading guide on the book's webpage! If you haven’t read the book, check out the reading guide and let me know your thoughts!
