Dreams Long Unrealized
The One Who’s Gonna See You Through follows a Black gay man who grows up in the Washington DC area with a nontraditional upbringing. Gregory’s story is so well written that it is like reading a memoir, not a work of fiction. Was there anything from your own life that you put into the characters in your novel?
Certainly, some aspects of my life inform characters and settings in the novel. For example, my father did stand trial for murder when I was a youngster and my parental situation in childhood was similar to GJ’s. However, many other aspects of the novel have been fictionalized.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
A Coming-of-Age story that explores early awareness of one’s sexuality.
An African-American father figure of a gay son who was not homophobic.
Dreams long unrealized can still be achieved if they are kept alive in one’s soul.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
My next novel is still in the ideas phase of conception so best to leave it there till it is realized as a manuscript.
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GJ’s young life progresses, and he is thrust forth into circumstances both familiar and violently surreal, from typical bullying to standing as the principal witness in a murder trial to defend his father. Colorful characters like wild Uncle NapPo, the seemingly unflappable Miss Carrie, and his father’s employer, the curious Mr. Blu, inform him of life’s complexity.
The wide-eyed boy grows into his teens and twenties and is altogether victimized, loved, and enlightened, leading him to experience the full range of gay life. GJ learns the culture and codes of Washington’s insular Black gay bar scene as the teen partner of a man in his thirties. As GJ starts to relish his gay existence, becoming more confident with his gay identity and his family’s unconventionality, he continues to question himself, fighting self-doubt and consternation about fitting into Black respectability norms or the mainstream world. GJ’s adult existence and early professional life extend into the integrated world of Dupont Circle gay bars and Georgetown professional offices, where he finds the love of his life and soulmate.
The One Who’s Gonna See You Through is a work that bridges the commercial/literary divide. The gay interracial theme here is seldom explored, and the absent mother/loving father configuration brings a different lens to this work. The approach to the story in The One Who’s Gonna See You Through sets the more familiar trope of the angry, Black, homophobic father aside and abandons the more well-trodden storyline of steadfast single Black motherhood. By story’s end, GJ recognizes that his father’s early and invaluable acceptance of difference laid the foundations for the happiness and realization he has experienced as a gay man throughout life. He resolves within himself that he must finally accept his legitimacy as both a Black man and an upper-middle-class one.
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2024/06/02/dreams-long-unrealized/
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