Becoming
Written and Narrated By: Michelle Obama
Length: 19 hrs and 3 mins
A long and heartfelt journey
It’s hard not to listen to a memoir of a political figure (and tho’ she’s definitely not a politician, Michelle Obama, once married to the President for cripes sake, is about as close to one as a non-politician can get) and hear a lot of spin. Everything is brushed over, turned on its side. Ya kinda wind up taking it all with a grain of salt.
Most times.
Becoming, however, is more a journal of womanhood than a: This is what we tried to do while we were in Office litany. It’s a moving and absorbing account of being a daughter, a mother, a wife, a trailblazer, and a role model. And though it’s not about race, it brings closer to home just how difficult it is to be Black in America.
It starts with Michelle’s childhood which was about as perfect as it gets. Her parents were perfect; she was very, very close to her brother; her education was made the most of. And while she was scrappy, ambitious, and questioned everyone and everything, she winds up as coming off as the perfect daughter. Her accounts of her relatives were touching. She was surrounded with intelligent and vibrant people who were almost destroyed by the Jim Crow laws of the South and who took part in the Great Migration, only to have their dreams crushed in the North too. Somehow she understood this as a child, but she still called those relatives out on their behavior: It was understandable to be devastated; it was not permissible, tho’, to be abusive because of it. She always believed that people should be treated with respect and kindness.
The book also chronicles Michelle’s search to find meaningful work. Once on the fast track, working 70-hour weeks, she met Obama and was swayed by his complete and utter lack of financial ambition: The man just wanted to do some good with his life. And though she okayed his small political ambitions, she really didn’t like them. And it took her some time to get over her resentment at being second in his life. Until she found her own voice and her own desires and means to do her own kind of good.
A testament to history and to being a strong Black woman in fraught times, Becoming is some interesting listening. Though I couldn’t help it, her time as FLOTUS is most interesting. After all, it was a pretty amazing time. Obama’s presidency was dashed by constant partisan wrangling and the Tea Party Movement; there was gun violence like crazy; there was the real desire to bring health care to all people; and there were the occasional faux pas that Michelle’s warm heart brought to a stiff office (do NOT squeeze the Queen’s Royal Arm!).
Most of all, Michelle comes off as a fierce and loving mother, a good friend, and a good buddy of a wife. And though she may’ve felt horribly constricted by all the safety concerns a FLOTUS/POTUS jaunt might bring (the motorcade has a hazmat vehicle), the book shows that she strove to just be an honest, open individual, one who tried to give her daughters a good and as normal a life as possible, one who loved children and brought them to White House functions and gardens, one who included military families in those functions also.
It’s a good book. My only problem comes with the narration speed, not Michelle’s narration itself (after all, she brings such warmth and sincerity to her own words). I’m not a x1 speed kinda person at the best of times, but even still, I was rather taken aback that I found x1.5 speed to make it all flow most smoothly.
This is a loooong work, but I never felt bored or that it was too long; the woman’s had a full and varied life. Give it a try if you’re looking for a good and solid memoir, one that chronicles the trying times of politics, the wonders of being in such an amazing position. And through it all, there’s Michelle herself. Quite the class act.
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