236 pages
English language
Published 1998 by Scribner.
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Set against the racial turbulence of the Civil Rights era, Dreamer is the first work of fiction to explore King's life. Yet the story, told by Matthew Bishop, one of King's devoted followers, is also a tale of doubles, warring brothers, envy, and inequality.
The novel introduces us to Chaym Smith, a man whose startling physical resemblance to King wins him the job of official stand-in. In the course of training Chaym to shield King from danger, Matthew comes to realize the philosophical magnitude of our greatest civil rights leader and the ambiguities within the Movement itself, and he - and we - are irreversibly changed. What makes one man great and the other just a mirror for greatness? What does it mean to be of African descent in America?
What does it take to change the face of a country forever?
Subjects
- King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968 -- Fiction.
- Impostors and imposture -- Fiction.
- Civil rights workers -- Fiction.
- African Americans -- Fiction.
- Race relations -- Fiction.
- Chicago (Ill.) -- Fiction.