Annotations

An experimental first novel of poem-like compression,Annotationshas a great deal to say about growing up Black in St. Louis. Reminiscent of Jean Toomer'sCane, the book is in part a meditation on African-American autobiography. Keene explores questions of identity from many angles-from race to social class to sexuality (gay and straight). Employing all manner of textual play and rhythmic and rhetorical maneuvers, he (re)creates his life story as a jazz fugue-in-words.