Dreamer

Charles Johnson, a novelist who received the National Book Award, turns his attention to the last years of Martin Luther King Jr. Although King is a real person, the book is a novel, and it is the first work of fiction to focus on his life. The narrator, Matthew Bishop, is a loyal member of King's circle during a period of sharp racial conflict in the American South.

Matthew's story centers on Chaym Smith, a man who looks so much like King that he is chosen to serve as the official stand-in, a double meant to protect the leader from harm. As Matthew trains Chaym for the role, he begins to see the scale of King's ideas and the uncertainties that run through the civil rights struggle. The novel also treats the book's concerns with doubles, rivalry between brothers, jealousy, and inequality as central threads.

The novel asks what separates a great man from someone who only reflects his greatness, what it means to be a Black American in this country, and what it takes to alter a nation's character. It presents King not only as a political leader but also as a father, husband, and friend.

Readers drawn to historical fiction about the civil rights movement, or to character studies that examine fame, identity, and imitation, will find the book's blend of personal and political material especially engaging.