I did not set out to write a book about race when I wrote Family Tree, but that is the issue many readers have grasped, and no wonder. Race has always been a hot-button issue. But have we finally turned a corner?

There was a wonderful article in last weekend’s Wall Street Journal. It points to a new poll showing that 63% of registered voters believe that a qualified African-American can be elected president. This is up from 29% in 1986.

The discussion, of course, is sparked by the candidacy of Senator Barak Obama. The Journal quotes Shelby Steele, a black research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. “The very essence of Obama's appeal is the idea that … race is something that America can transcend. … A lot of Americans would truly love to find a black candidate they could comfortably vote for for President of the United States."

Coincidentally, on November 10, the same day that the WSJ article appeared, a review of Family Tree appeared in The Times, the oldest national daily in England. It is a fabulous review that concludes by saying that Family Tree is “a page-turner that also asks some serious questions about America’s relationship with its past.”

I can’t delude myself into thinking that all of those questions will be answered in my lifetime. Massachusetts did elect its first African-American governor last year. But, as the Journal piece points out, race has a way of sneaking up at the last minute, when the voter is all alone with his biases in the privacy of the polling booth.

I haven’t yet decided which of the candidates I’d most like to see elected in November ’08. But I do look forward to the day when we are color-blind enough to make our choices based on issues and qualifications, rather than skin color.