WELCOME TO BRAGGSVILLE is the story of a southern boy, D'aron Davenport, who finally gets out of his hometown of Braggsville by applying and getting accepted to UC Berkeley. He grew up in a town that is not found on most maps and has a population of 712. When he arrives in California, he goes into "future shock." He certainly doesn't fit in with the hip kids who are his classmates and wonders if he'll ever find anyone who will talk to him.

In his second semester at "Berzerkeley" (author T. Geronimo Johnson teaches there, thus adding truth to this nickname), D’aron goes to a "dot party" (put a dot on the only part of your body you want someone to touch). His choice is deemed wrong, and he’s quickly shown the door. As luck will have it, he meets three other misfits who come to call themselves the "4 Little Indians."Candice claims Native roots from Iowa and is a do-gooder; Louis is a “kung fu comedian” from California; and Charlie is an inner-city black teen from Chicago.

"A coming-of-age tale filled to the brim with amazing ideas and finely honed characters, this novel is both funny and sad and reads like a work of modern art."

One day in their alternative history class, D’aron tells the group that Braggsville is home to a Civil War reenactment, now called "Patriot Days." This announcement is met with righteous indignation. Candice suggests that the 4 Little Indians journey to the backwoods, churches, politics, Waffle Houses and drunken family barbecues. Their plan is to dress up as slaves to perform an "intervention" that will display their outrage over the town's reenactment. At first the reader is amused by the amount of energy the four of them put into their plan --- performing a mock lynching for their class project --- but, as in life, everything goes wrong.

On the day of the festivities, Candice and Louis are adorned in slave costumes --- he is the slave, she is the slave master holding a whip --- while D’aron and Charlie are not on the scene. Somehow Candice and Louis manage to create a harness that Candice can manipulate in order to get Louis hanging from a tree limb far off the ground. They are spotted by the "reenactors" who then rush them. The consequences are devastating.

WELCOME TO BRAGGSVILLE is a political satire filled with truths that not everyone will agree with. T. Geronimo Johnson has created a picaresque story with a worthy picaro at the center. A coming-of-age tale filled to the brim with amazing ideas and finely honed characters, this novel is both funny and sad and reads like a work of modern art.