Becoming

Review

What makes this biography wonderful is how unique it is. This isn’t the biography of some titan of industry with ungodly work ethics boldly overcoming adversity after extraordinary adversity on a path to fame and fortune. Instead, this is more like those young adult superhero movies. A relatable, candid story of a woman with pretty conventional concerns and ambitions that is suddenly thrust into a role of great fame and power. Just instead of discovering she's the chosen one, she married Barrack Obama. Michelle's writing is articulate and candid. This is almost barely a book about politics surprisingly. Michelle nostalgically walks through her entire life from childhood in Chicago's southside to law school to becoming the first lady. It does all feel a little too polished, PG, politically correct. Stories seem to be chosen for being fun, endearing times, so this is a more feel-good type of biography. But with the repetition of a not completely trite set of values, by the end of the book, I believed that Michelle probably actually believes and cares about what she talks about. Staying grounded with good values and striving for impact and meaning was really inspiring. By the end, she had even made being the wife of the leader of the free world seem almost relatable.