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Donnaville
DONNAVILLE is set in Donnaville, the author's mind reimagined as a psychofantastic hamlet in a mythological Hudson Valley. The city is outwardly verdant, pleasant, and attractive to visitors, but at its center lies a dark and malevolent prison that most residents prefer not to think about. Some of Donnaville's townsfolk run the prison, others are incarcerated there, and still others are trying to burn the whole place down and liberate Donnaville from the clutches of the morally ambiguous Magna Mater. It's a bit Wizard of Oz, a bit Mad Max, and a whole lotta fantastic fun!
"Not an allegory but a wild romp of a fantasy story that takes the reader on a journey to the most forbidden recesses of the psyche, and the most hopeful ones. A tour de force of wit and imagination, Donna Minkowitz's debut novel DONNAVILLE invents a whole new way of talking about the psyche and the internal struggles we all face. Devising a fantasy city in which all components of her mind and heart dwell (and variously flirt with, imprison, and rebel against one another), Minkowitz narrates a harrowing personal journey toward wholeness and a state in which no parts of her may be abandoned to self-torture and shame. A very queer, very sexy novel, where the author assumes all genders and many different sexualities, and where riotous sex scenes can be the occasion of important plot points. I've long loved Minkowitz's work. DONNAVILLE is one more reason to be grateful to this fearless author who sheds all skins."
-Steven Petrow, contributing columnist, The Washington Post
"Part anti-prison fable, part gory horror camp, part dyke Goddess gay porn, Donnaville shocks the senses to open the gates between myth and belonging. This is the abusive family narrative turned inside-out, vomiting up the possibility of survival. Tender and grotesque, Donnaville frees the self of its burdens."
-Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, author of Touching the Art
"Not an allegory but a wild romp of a fantasy story that takes the reader on a journey to the most forbidden recesses of the psyche, and the most hopeful ones. A tour de force of wit and imagination, Donna Minkowitz's debut novel DONNAVILLE invents a whole new way of talking about the psyche and the internal struggles we all face. Devising a fantasy city in which all components of her mind and heart dwell (and variously flirt with, imprison, and rebel against one another), Minkowitz narrates a harrowing personal journey toward wholeness and a state in which no parts of her may be abandoned to self-torture and shame. A very queer, very sexy novel, where the author assumes all genders and many different sexualities, and where riotous sex scenes can be the occasion of important plot points. I've long loved Minkowitz's work. DONNAVILLE is one more reason to be grateful to this fearless author who sheds all skins."
-Steven Petrow, contributing columnist, The Washington Post
"Part anti-prison fable, part gory horror camp, part dyke Goddess gay porn, Donnaville shocks the senses to open the gates between myth and belonging. This is the abusive family narrative turned inside-out, vomiting up the possibility of survival. Tender and grotesque, Donnaville frees the self of its burdens."
-Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, author of Touching the Art
194 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 31, 2024
About the author
Donna Minkowitz
4 books9 followersDonna Minkowitz is the author of two memoirs, Growing Up Golem and Ferocious Romance. Both of them were finalists for the Lambda Literary Award (and Ferocious Romance won it). Both have VERY long subtitles. Both are funny, intimate, and kind of dark.
Way back in the day, Donna Minkowitz was a feature writer and columnist on queer politics and culture for the Village Voice. Science-fiction writer Terry Bisson said of Golem, which has some magical realist elements, "Rich and wild, dark and funny, as fearless as her legendary journalism and as scary as a fairy tale. A serious writer at the top of her game."
Other places you can find her work are the New York Times Book Review, Salon, The Nation and New York magazine.
Way back in the day, Donna Minkowitz was a feature writer and columnist on queer politics and culture for the Village Voice. Science-fiction writer Terry Bisson said of Golem, which has some magical realist elements, "Rich and wild, dark and funny, as fearless as her legendary journalism and as scary as a fairy tale. A serious writer at the top of her game."
Other places you can find her work are the New York Times Book Review, Salon, The Nation and New York magazine.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 3, 2025
Donnaville is a fantasyland that represents the mind of its author, Donna Minkowitz. The town is peopled with fragments of her personality, including incarnations of her at various ages: an eight-year old (simply called The Child), a twentysomething (known here as Kleine) and her present-day self (age not disclosed and how dare you ask a lady anyway). Other characters are The Harlequin (an Adonis-like gay man with an enormous sexual appetite), The Jailer (who tortures people but really wants to bake pies), the Divine Mother (a gorgeous Amazon who watches over the city from a palace on an island in the river), her two flying llamas (just because), various Prisoners (including a specific homoquisling who used to write for Salon and now lives in Brazil, but also "rent-free in Donna's head”), and other Citizens (my favorite of which was Anna, a butch dyke who makes hand-held apple pies.
On the surface, it's a fantasy story about a citizen revolt against the town prison and all it represents, but deeper layers are all about the mind's capacity for healing itself. It's at once moving, silly, profound, horny, wise, childish, and all the other things. Minkowitz writes in tiny little scenes, but the resulting mosaic is something I won't soon forget. I've never read anything like it, and I almost hope I never will again. Imitators could probably copy the whimsy, but they'd miss the magic.
On the surface, it's a fantasy story about a citizen revolt against the town prison and all it represents, but deeper layers are all about the mind's capacity for healing itself. It's at once moving, silly, profound, horny, wise, childish, and all the other things. Minkowitz writes in tiny little scenes, but the resulting mosaic is something I won't soon forget. I've never read anything like it, and I almost hope I never will again. Imitators could probably copy the whimsy, but they'd miss the magic.
Displaying 1 of 1 review