The stories you won't read in the newspapers or see on television: the traumas, the tragedies, the problems and challenges immigrants face in the countries they emigrate to: the increasing numbers of suicides in Third World immigrant communities worldwide, the unexplained premature deaths, the disappearances of people who are never found, the horror stories of immigrants exploited by unscrupulous employers.
What happens when a hardcore American thug and hustler meets a young African wannabe gangsta in New York? Culture shock for the African when he finds out the real deal in the thug life, in the hood, in the mean streets of America, that wearing the wrong colors can get you killed, that being at the wrong place at the wrong time can be a fatal mistake. Culture shock for the American gangsta when the African pulls his girl, because she finds him real and grounded among other things. Together, the unlikely pair go up against the big boys and end up with more problems than they bargained for.
SUPERSTAR, is the story of Mystique, an African-American super model whose star qualities are based not so much on her beauty than the fact that she represents the unusual and exotic. Her persona captivates the public with its aura of exotic elegance, making her a huge international sensation and a superstar. Mystique is on the top of her game; she is the superstar supermodel in demand for endorsements and movie roles; she has her own label, line of jewelry and perfumes. Her face and name had become iconic. But to stay on top of her game, she has to survive. Her star power and celebrity status bring her into contact with scheming managers, sex hungry account executives, manipulative agency operators, and ruthless bosses who interact with her as business associates, advisers, managers, friends, admirers, and lovers. Some have good intentions. Others have dubious motives, yet all of them are necessary components of the money making machine in she has become in the highly competitive world of fashion modeling with Mystique as the central figure. The underlying themes explored in this novel include people and change, virtue and vice, avarice and greed, crime and punishment, all in the context of the pursuit of the American Dream with the immigrant experience' as a backdrop.
It doesn't take much to become a dead boy walking' in America or elsewhere and on a collision course with early death or some other form of youth related violence. For a young African-American named Trayvon Martin, all it took was to run into a young white wanna be police packing a gun and willing to use it. He was shot to death in Sanford, Florida in a tragic case which exploded into the headlines in March 2012. For others, it is driving a nice car in a white neighborhood in a major American city, the way it happened to Syracuse native, Johnnie Gamage in Pittsburgh. He was shot and killed by Pittsburgh police. He was driving a Jaguar owned by his uncle, Ray Seals, formerly of Pittsburgh Steelers football team For Stanley Tookie' Williams, popular for all the wrong reasons yet nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, it is for crimes he was charged with and executed as the leader of the CRIPS gang in Los Angeles. For many others too many list to list here, it is being at the wrong place at the wrong time when a drive by-shooting occurs. For many more around the globe, you are a dead boy walking' when you are born in a war torn country and are forced into an army as a child soldier'.