Obama's book: What's real, what's not

When Barack Obama was only 33, he wrote a memoir, Dreams from MyFather: A Story of Race and Inheritance.

I remember Obama telling me about his book when he visited myoffice in Washington back in 1999, when the Democrat was making whatturned out to be a failed run for the House of Representatives.

Dan Shomon, Obama's aide, sent me a copy of the book. I tuckedShomon's letter, dated Aug. 13, 1999, inside the cover and stuck thebook on a shelf. There it sat until last June. I dug it out and readit because Obama is virtually certain to win election to the U.S.Senate and become a national political figure. Because of Obama'ssoaring popularity, the book is being reissued, and 50,000 copieswill be in bookstores on Tuesday.

I was dismayed, however, at what I found when I read Dreams fromMy Father. Composite characters. Changed names. And reams of dialoguebetween Obama and other people that moves the narrative along but isan approximation'' of the actual conversation.

Except for public figures and his family, it is impossible to knowwho is real and who is not.

Obama disclosed in his introduction that he uses these literarydevices to buttress his recollections. He also kept a journal. Forthe sake of compression,'' Obama writes, some of the characters thatappear are composites of people I've known and some events appear outof precise chronology. With the exception of my family and a handfulof public figures, the names of most characters have been changed forthe sake of their privacy.''

The devices well serve to eloquently take the reader along onObama's quest to understand his heritage as, as he writes, the son ofa black man and white woman, an African and an American.''

Most of the book centers on his namesake father, a Harvard-educated Kenyan economist who he met only once, with less emphasis onhis mother, who grew up in Kansas.

In the preface to the 2004 edition, Obama, 43, writes of hisregret for focusing on the absent parent'' rather than on the parentwho was the single constant in my life.''

Obama devotes several chapters in the middle of the book to hislife in Chicago, where he moved after graduating from ColumbiaUniversity in 1983 and where he returned after picking up a HarvardLaw School degree in 1991.

Colorful characters populate the Chicago chapters: Smitty thebarber, LaTisha, the part-time manicurist, Angela, Ruby, Mrs. Turnerand one Rafiq al Shabazz. Who they really are, or if they arecomposites, you would not know from reading the book.

I questioned Obama about his memoir in a phone interview justbefore the Democratic convention.

I don't remember what Smitty's real name was. I think it wasWally,'' Obama said.

I asked him about a man called Marty Kaufman in the book; he wasObama's boss at his first job in Chicago as a community organizer atthe Calumet Community Religious Conference.

Kaufman, Obama told me, is really Gerald Kellman. I tracked downKellman and asked him about his portrayal in the book.

I think Barack was very accurate not only about myself but otherpeople that I knew,'' Kellman told me.

That's reassuring, but most readers do not have the ability tocall around to try to sort out the fictional characters from realpeople.

I say in the book it is my remembrances of what happened,'' Obamatold me. I don't set it out as reportage . . . read the book forwhat it is worth.

"You reconstruct your memory for what happened. It is notreportage. It is not appearing in the New York Times or the Sun-Times. I say that explicitly in the book.''

I bounced my reservations about Obama's book off of Caryl Rivers,a journalism professor at Boston University and a media critic whowrites fiction, non-fiction and screenplays.

Rivers did not have a problem with changing names. Usingcomposite characters -- without telling the reader -- is troublesome,she said. When you start to bring in composite characters youimmediately bring up the question of what is true,'' Rivers said.

Obama's home-run keynote address before the Democratic NationalConvention month vaulted him into the political stratosphere, andthere is much interest in him. As in his book, his keynote dwelledmuch upon his life. I urge him to be meticulous from now on.

Several direct-mail pieces issued for Obama's primary campaignsaid he was a law professor at the University of Chicago. He is not.He is a senior lecturer (now on leave) at the school. In academia,there is a vast difference between the two titles. Details matter.