In this, his second novel, Obi has done it again with equal insight and equal finesse. It is the story of a young man's development from a man of inaction to a man of action, from a man with no direction to a man with a purpose. The story is set in the 1960s, but opens with the ending scene some years later. The protagonist is sitting under a cottonwood tree in Rainbow Park on Chicago's southeast side. He is writing. As he writes, he is approached by a midget whom he recognizes from years ago when he was in the military stationed in Germany. In fact, he has been waiting for the midget for years. The midget pulls a gun on him, and asks if he is 'the one.' He avoids the question. The midget asks again, "are you the one?" The story shifts to the beginning, to the protagonist as a young man enrolling in college. His name is Noel Bodie. Noel is despondent because his options in life are limited, and he seems to be at the mercy of the forces outside his sway. As the story progresses, Noel comes to realize that one can increase the options available in one's life, if one but has the nerve to do it. He transforms himself into Al Pearsons. In the end, Noel- now Al- is a new man, a bold man, a man capable of anything. More importantly, he is now a man of wisdom.
Obi is a native of Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from Hyde Park High School and served in the U.S. Air Force. He did his basic training at Lackland Air Force Base (AFB) in San Antonio, Texas, then went for further training at Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo, Texas. He was stationed in Darmstadt, Germany, for three years working in intelligence.
After a short return to the U.S. where he worked at several odd jobs including six months as an assembler for an electronics company near Mt. Vernon, New York, he spend 15 months traveling in Europe where he hitch-hiked from Lapland in Scandinavia to Morocco in North Africa working along the way at a variety of jobs from farm hand to factory worker to dishwasher to carpenter’s assistant, mainly in Sweden and Germany. His travels have taken him to Oslo, Norway; Stockholm, Sweden; Copenhagen, Denmark; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Paris, France; Cologne, Germany; Barcelona, Spain; and Tangier, Morocco.
Upon his return to the United States, he attended the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he majored in Philosophy and minored in English. He did further graduate work and later attended the John Marshall Law School, earning a Juris Doctor degree. He has also done graduate work in Computer Science and Telecommunications at De Paul University. He has worked in Chicago and throughout the United States as a computer consultant designing and implementing fault-tolerant applications in a wide range of industries from banking to transportation to manufacturing. He has worked as a criminal defense attorney representing high-profile death row inmates, several of whom were released pursuant to DNA testing. He has been active in third-party politics.
He has also found time for a full and rich family life, with seven children and one grandchild. His hobbies include physical training and martial arts, African and Conga drumming, and yoga and meditation.
He currently works and lives with his family in Chicago.
