Somebody Else's Blues — B. Jackson

Somebody Else's Blues is essentially an urban coming of faith story. Whether one grew up in church or came to the knowledge of Christ later in life, it is usually a trial by fire that causes our relationship with the Father to be truly desired. These dark places are actually what causes us to grow and our relationship with the Father to become solidified and uniquely our own. Through the lives of Brenda, her mother Queen, and her friend Rita, we get to experience faith in its various stages: faith that is being found. Faith that is being tested, and faith that â€" for strengths sake â€" is being remembered. For the protagonist Brenda Mason, those dark places are a repeating pattern of behavior with men and ill-placed negative regard towards herself. Brenda is a beautiful, intelligent, and talented young mother, but she can't see it. Russell, her child's father is the problem â€" or so she thinks. Her journey is about identifying the true source of what is really holding her back and becoming free from second-hand bondage. Queen Mason is in love with her husband, Ray Paul, but Ray Paul is in love with everybody else. She loves him to her own hurt, and to the neglect of her relationship with her daughter. Queen's pain is deep rooted, and its origins began in childhood â€" an experience that she only remembers as her dreams give her glimpses into a past life that happened in another country. Queen will find that being thrown away doesn't mean that she isn't valuable. She will need to remember the seeds of faith sown by the woman who raised her to help her to find her way back to the Father and find restoration in all of her broken places. Rita McGuire is both friend and counselor to Brenda, but she knows that the textbook talks will not help her. She decides to invest in Brenda beyond the responsibilities of her 9 to 5 job, and bring her closer into her nucleus. She wants to be a God-friend to Brenda and not just a good-friend. However, Brenda and Rita's worlds will collide in a way that puts them on opposite sides of their rolls: The teacher becomes a student of her own lessons and must decide whether to practice what she preaches or fail the test and lose everything that's important to her. With all of the things people are searching for, fighting about, and reaching to obtain, the Father simply wants to know will He find faith when He comes. Somebody Else's Blues is a literary multi-cultural soul food of sorts with relatable examples of three women on that journey who will help us to see that we are all more alike than different. You will laugh, you will cry, and you will thoroughly enjoy Somebody Else's Blues.