Why Michelle Obama’s biography Becoming was a missed opportunity

By Yiyun Li

Two years ago, I drove my son and a friend of his to an event. They were 15, and discussing her decision not to participate in a poetry contest at her school.

She had read the previous winners’ poems, she said. They were composed of words such as injustice, inequality, empowerment, action and descriptions of police brutality, of which, the girl pointed out, none of the poets would have direct knowledge. (She was right: she goes to one of the most preppy high schools in the San Francisco Bay Area.)

“What I don’t understand is why can’t we write about flowers any more,” she said.

“Of course we can,” my son said. “But …”