Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I think the two (so far) totally negative reviews (one written by someone who hasn't even read the book) are politically motivated. As someone who at one time was an Obama supporter, as well as someone who loves language, I found this a fascinating book. Cashill's thesis is that Dreams From My Father was not written by Obama but by Bill Ayers, and not just as a ghost writer, but as author. What's more, the book is not really Obama's life story but a story concocted by Ayers based on his own experiences. Cashill offers extensive evidence to support this thesis, and it's not just the language and story-line similarities between Dreams and Ayers' own book. There are many inconsistencies in Obama's life story, some of which he's recounted himself at various times. What interested me almost as much as the exploration of the truth of Obama's life story is the way the media showed no interest in investigating any of it. They'd circled their wagons around Obama and not only didn't want to dig for the truth, they brushed off those who did by calling them kooks. As someone who works hard to get the fullest sense of the news, and both sides of issues, I am appalled (although not surprised) by the total lack of interest by the media. The reason I gave the book four stars instead of five is that Cashill presents so much detail in support of his thesis that at times I had trouble seeing the forest for the trees. I'd heard an interview by Cashill (which is why I bought the book), and if I hadn't heard him recite the bones of this story very clearly and concisely, I think I'd have had something of a struggle to keep my eye on the main thread of the argument. I should point out also, that he did not start out to prove that Ayers was the author, in fact Cashill hadn't even considered that. It came to him slowly as the evidence added up.