Becoming

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Synopsis

The daughter of a water plant worker and a stay-at-home mom, Michelle Robinson grew up in a small upstairs apartment on the South Side of Chicago. Her family didn't have a great deal materially speaking, but their home was full of love and laughter. Michelle's parents always encouraged her and her brother, Craig, to be the best they could be, both academically and personally, helping them to pursue their dreams while finagling finances in order to afford their schooling. After graduating high school, Michelle got her bachelor's degree at Princeton, then moved on to Harvard Law School for her graduate degree. From there, she landed a position as an associate attorney at a prestigious law firm in Chicago, which is where she met her husband, Barack.

In this deep, self-reflective memoir, Michelle discusses their early long-distance relationship and then the struggles they faced after marrying. Upon realizing she wasn't fulfilled at her job as an attorney, she moved on to other work as an executive in different community outreach type positions in both government and the private sector. Following the birth of their daughters, Malia and Sasha, Michelle highlights her efforts to balance their work and home lives with her career and her husband's rapidly rising political star. She takes readers inside their family decision about whether Barack should run for president and the challenges that campaigning brought to their family. Then she was faced with the responsibility of becoming the first African American First Lady, a position she approached with humility and dignity. Throughout the eight years of Barack's presidency, Michelle managed to become a tireless advocate for several causes and weather the ups and downs of a political life in the White House, all while raising their daughters to become strong, independent women like herself and maintaining a healthy marriage. For the first time, she reveals all the different facets of herself in this engaging book.

Review

Becoming is Michelle Obama's memoir that covers her life from childhood through her tenure as First Lady of the United States. The book is separated into three sections. The first is titled "Becoming Me," which begins with her time growing up on the South Side of Chicago with a stay-at-home mom and a dad who worked at the water plant, as well as her protective older brother. She discusses her education and friendships from elementary through high school, in addition to her family ties and challenges they faced. It continues with her college days, first as an undergrad at Princeton and later as a student at Harvard Law School. After college, she took a position as an associate at a prestigious Chicago law firm where she met her husband, Barack, when he came there as a summer intern. At first, she wasn't interested in a relationship, but the more she got to know him, the more his charm, personality, and intelligence won her over until they started dating. This section ends with their first real date and first kiss.

The second section is titled "Becoming Us" and it continues with their whirlwind summer romance that resulted in them spending two years in a long-distance relationship while he completed his education at Harvard and she stayed in Chicago. Once he finished school, Barack moved back to Chicago so they could finally be together, and took up multiple jobs, both practicing and teaching law, as well as continuing with his work in the community. Eventually he proposed and they got married, but before that, Michelle weathered through the devastating death of one of her best friends and later her father. By this time, she was feeling unfulfilled in her job as an attorney and started seeking out other opportunities that would make her feel more like she was doing something that truly mattered, and landed with an organization that was doing community-focused work. Michelle knew she also wanted to be a mother and Barack was equally eager to be a father, but they struggled with infertility, ending up doing IVF, which resulted in their first daughter, Malia. After this, Michelle worked hard to find a balance between her career and her family, while Barack became increasingly interested in politics, eventually running for and winning a state senate seat. He later ran for and lost a seat for U. S. Representative. Then their second daughter, Sasha was born. Not long after that, Barack staged a political come-back, giving a knockout speech at the Democratic Nation Convention and winning a U. S. Senate seat, leaving many speculating about him one day running for president. Four years later, he did just that. Michelle details their time on the campaign trail along with all the joys and challenges it brought. Then this section ends with Barack's historic achievement of being elected the first black president and his victory speech.

Part three, "Becoming More," explores the eight years that Barack and Michelle were in the White House. She discusses what it was like to become First Lady, acclimating to life in Washington D. C. for both herself and her family, and what life was like in their new home. There's also the challenge of suddenly being the President and First Lady and all the security and pomp surrounding them now being world leaders. Michelle talks about the initiatives she took on as First Lady that were inspired both by her own experiences and by people she met on the campaign trail, and how she managed to implement them, as well as many of her husband's achievements as president. However, there were many difficult things they had to face while comforting the nation, such as in the wake of natural disasters or mass shootings. She also gives insights into the stresses of Barack's reelection campaign, on through their next four years in office, right up until their final moments of leaving the White House in 2017, and some of her hopes and dreams as they move beyond the presidency.

I very much admired Michelle Obama as First Lady and how she was always elegant, poised, intelligent, and well-spoken. Because of this I'd been looking forward to reading this book for some time, but despite how much she'd impressed me in the past, I was not prepared for how incredibly engaging and well-written this book is. I never felt like I knew as much about Michelle as I did her husband, perhaps because I'd previously read two of his books, so I gained a lot of new insights, not only into her as a person, but also into their marriage and family life. I think that these are the aspects of most famous people's lives that I enjoy the most. I was inspired by the strength of Michelle and Barack's relationship. They certainly had disagreements, just as all married couples do, and there were plenty of challenges and stresses, but they were totally committed to each other and found ways to make it work. The same went for their family after Malia and Sasha came into their lives. They found ways to maintain a healthy balance to be there for their kids. Another thing that struck me is how honest, straightforward, and self-reflective Michelle is in her evaluation of herself. It was like sitting down to tea with a good friend who just lays it all out there. I will forever believe that Barack and Michelle were two of the most down-to-earth people who've ever inhabited the White House, and in spite of all the pomp and circumstance, neither of them ever forgot their humble roots. Michelle is a fantastic story-teller who made me feel like she'd invited me into her life for a little while. I cried at the many moving moments she experienced, I laughed at her wit and sense of humor through it all, and overall, I just had a wonderful time reading her life story. I can't recommend Becoming highly enough to anyone who would like to learn more about our former First Lady.

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Michelle Obama