Reviews


For "I" - 2006


"It is obvious to any close reader of [" I "] that both invisibility and visibility compete for space: At times the distanced spectator, at other times the graceful gladiator. There is tremendous tension in the text and the hyper text. What Braxton does through these, erasures/marking out/marking-in's, is declare a sudden existential stance that is both representative and representing. [...]"

"Still, [at other times], the book seems designed to be more ludic than lucid. Those ellipsises are both marks and strategies; the scratching out and over is as old as Jean Michel Basquiat. And the symbolism all throughout the text... wow. [...]"

"There is an intense relationship between actual experimentation on multiple levels and 'experentiality,' on the other hand. Donari's day to day experiences are catalogued in a very serious, but oh-so-subtle, manner. Donari as witness/participant, principal narrator and griot, all in one. One of the things that creates so much tension in the book, but by tension I now mean dramaturgical tension that one sees in the best plays and improvisations, is related to the often complex multiple identities of the characters. There's a lot going on, and it's going to take really sharp readers to get this one.[...]"

— National Book Award Winner James Spadey, Philadelphia New Observer



"A masterpiece of literate quirkiness [...]."

3 AM Magazine



"A beautiful, dramatic reshuffling of the poetic into the narrative road, almost incomparable. Proof of a fresh, powerful, and potentially unrivalled voice in the world of contemporary fiction."

Ilanka (FR)



"Unlike many other modern fictions, ‘I’ is an amazing collection of original stories that magnetize the reader [...].
I recommend this book for the person who appreciates true art, poetry and an introspective view of life and the universe."

The Compulsive Reader