Publisher's Synopsis
The novel I'm Just Like You is a veritable humanitarian scream against discrimination in all its forms, whether religious or racial, reaffirming our common humanity wherever and whenever we may be.The happenings of the novel take place in Manhattan and Brooklyn, in New York, in a refined and humane context coupled with a delicate handling of human emotions that steadfastly reject racial discrimination. The novel is, in effect, a real-world embodiment of the pains of human beings and their struggle to survive, no matter the cruelties of fate. There is Fran, who dies young because of cancer, leaving her two daughters, Jessica and Sarah, alone in this world. Jessica has to sacrifice, giving up her dreams of becoming a musician, leaving Brooklyn Academy and entering the unforgiving world to spend on her younger sister Sarah, who is in medical school. Then events take on a whole new direction as the ugly reality of racial discrimination is exposed, embodied in the figure of Mike, the black American that Jessica befriends then falls in love with and marries. And she does this despite the warnings of her sister, on account of her own fiancée, the very racist Kevin, also her colleague at medical school, someone who makes it clear that he does not want this relationship consummated. But Jessica has made her mind up and marries Mike and gives birth to Adam, who is born black himself, having to face the same pains as his father. That's when the real struggle begins, and continues even after Mike and Jessica are killed in a tragic car accident. Adam inherits the same pains of racism, especially at the hands of Kevin, his aunt's husband, and at the hands of Richard, the father of the white girl he falls in love with. She falls in love with him too.Nonetheless, Adam perseveres in the face of it all, the racism and the struggle, thanks to the support of his aunt, Sarah, raising him as her son after Jessica's death, encouraging him and his own musical talents and ambitions and against her husband Kevin' machinations. It almost drivers her and Kevin apart but she persists and enrols Adam in the American musical talent contest, following in the steps of his mother. When he sings he dazzles the audience into tears with the sincerity of his plight, the suffering and triumph they can hear in his voice. He wins the contest and a disc of his song is issued, setting him on the path to becoming a celebrity, and it is here that Kevin realises how wrong he was. He failed in raising his own son and becomes a cripple and surrenders to Adam's victory. Richard also succumbs to Adam's success as a singer and accepts that Adam and Nancy will marry. In this way I'm Just Like You narrates human values we are all sorely in need of, highlighting all too clearly the difference between what is right and what is wrong and the struggle between them, in the context human affairs. The novel also puts forth values that should predominate in our lives, not just in own native communities but in the world as a whole. Thus, this novel draws out tears and moans from within our breasts from the rollercoaster of human emotions and the tragic chain of events and pains. The narrative draws out of us all our own reminiscences and sorrows, infusing itself with the reality of American society, or any society for that matter, provided it suffers from discrimination. Not that the story is distant from the realities of America, cataloguing some aspects of social struggle centred round race or class that still exist in certain quarters of American society. It does this through a work of fiction, a romantic tale, zeroing in on the social dialectic, relations governed by conflict, whether the war of ideas or social conflict. The novel reveals the intellectual pedigree of both sides to the conflict, via narrative constructions and techniques, in addition to the dramatic elements in the story, such as the clear struggle that pervades every page of the story line.