Visible Man enacts a straightforward deconstruction of the life and time of the poet and writer. Leak shines a piercing light on the mystery of the artist who possessed 'moments of brilliance'; the names and cities, the spiritual and intellectual quests, the poems and short stories, the facts, it all adds up, page by page. The reader, who journeys all the crooked paths side by side with Dumas, isn't surprised by his violent death. But still we are left saddened and disheartened by the man's downfall and anguish, his inability to master promise, his demise on that subway platform in New York City, mainly because Leak's blunt clarity has transported us to a place of reckoning where we are also left gazing into the collective mirror.–Yusef Komunyakaa "author of Testimony, A Tribute to Charlie Parker"