Dreamer (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Charles Johnson
- First Published: 1998
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: 1966-1968
- Setting: Chicago and southern Illinois
- Principal Characters: Martin Luther King, Jr., Matthew Bishop, Amy Griffith, Chaym Smith
- Genres: Long fiction, Historical fiction
- Subjects: African Americans, Civil rights, Discrimination, History, 1960’s, Self-discovery, Ethnic relations, Dissent or dissenters
- Locales: Chicago, IL
Charles Johnson was one of the late John Gardner’s most successful writing students—Raymond Carver was the other—and in Johnson’s fiction the influence shows. It shows most in Johnson’s passion for ideas and in the way that, throughout his career, he has practiced what Gardner termed “moral fiction” and Johnson prefers to call “responsible fiction.” Nowhere is Johnson’s sense of responsibility to reader and society alike more evident or important than in Dreamer, his latest, as well as riskiest, novel.
Much of Johnson’s story takes place in Chicago...
[The entire page is 2301 words long]
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