“Geniusbrilliant, polished and of considerabledepth.”Ishmael Reed An experimental first novel of poem-like compression, Annotations has a great deal to say about growing up Black in St. Louis. Reminiscent of Jean Toomers Cane, the book is in part a meditation on African-American autobiography. Keene explores questions of identity from many anglesfrom 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.