Barack Obama
Luann, I’ll be putting out my “drop” of favorite books in the next couple days, but one that won’t be a surprise is Marilynne Robinson’s “Jack,” the latest in her Gilead series. One of the great things about being President is that you can strike up a friendship with people you find smart, and compelling, and interesting. Like most Americans, I first met Marilynne on the pages of “Gilead.” I picked it up while campaigning in Iowa. It was full of the folks I was meeting in real life, people who were decent, good-hearted, and full of their own complexities and struggles. And Marilynne and I eventually became pen pals. Like I said, it’s one of the perks of the job. How else do you get to become pen pals with one of your favorite authors? But I’ve always loved her books because she has a knack not just for creating textured characters and communities, but for wrapping us all together into something larger.
More Answered Questions
Jeffrey Keeten
asked
Barack Obama:
In the prologue of his book The World as It Is, which is also a chapter in your book, (Did Rhodes poach that title from you? :-) ), Ben Rhodes shares this scene where you both muse about the implications of the successful election of Donald Trump. ”’I don’t know,’ [you] said. ‘Sometimes I wonder whether I was ten or twenty years too early.’” Do you still believe that to be true?
Cindy Pham
asked
Barack Obama:
You talk about how technology and the internet helped secure your presidency, but that you could not anticipate “how one day many of the same tools that had put me in the White House would be deployed in opposition to everything I stood for.” With how often misinformation spreads on social media, do you believe, if you had run for president today, our tumultuous state of the internet would have helped or hindered you?
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