MONKEY'S MASK, Dorothy Porter 1994
In Dorothy Porter's MONKEY'S MASK, Jill Fitzpatrick is a
tough Australian private investigator hired by distraught
parents to look for their missing daughter Mickey. Mickey is
a "nice" girl, a student at a local college. She keeps her
room clean, with stuffed animals on her bed and her books
neatly alphabetized on a shelf. She has long attractive legs,
a big white smile, and shiny hair. Jill is short, with
scruffy hair, gorilla hands, and a tired face. Marvelling at
the differences between them, Jill begins an investigation
that uncovers secrets revealing a darker side of Mickey's
personality, a pattern of sordid sexual relations, a search
for love in all the wrong places. As truth and irony unfold,
Jill must face the reflection of her own desires and
weaknesses in Mickey's erotic poetry.
I don't like poetry. A novel's long narration of human
experience speaks to me, but poetry's vague and obscure
references are too great a challenge for my plebeian
intellect to absorb, the images too brief and fleeting. Or at
least that's what I thought. Billed as an erotic murder
mystery, Porter's book is written in verse, and she lays it
down lean, mean, and clean. Her style, like Frank Lloyd
Wright's architecture, is both elegant and simple at once.
Using few and spartan words she juggles plot, characters, and
scenes. She can develop empathy for a character in a few deft
strokes. The poet Louie, the cop Steve, and femme fatale
Diana are all well-drawn with a perceptive eye. Even minor
characters like Mickey's father are vivid and real. She can
evoke a scene in a few lines.
Tony's house is high and airy
the breeze carries frangipani from the garden
from his long veranda he can watch the Brisbane River
The fast paced plot is suspenseful and entertaining, but the
true essence of Porter's story is baring the heart and soul
of Jill. Jill flaunts her toughness in the beginning of the
story but as she falls in love, her insecurity and
vulnerability surfaces. The sex scenes are explicit but not
gratuitous. Loneliness, love, passion, and betrayal are
central themes in the book. The heat rolls off her verse like
the lyrics of Melissa Etheridge.
Dorothy Porter was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1954. She
graduated from Sydney University in 1975 with a double major
in History and English. Aside from her professional writing,
she has been a teacher and lecturer. Since graduating from
college, she has published eight books of poetry, three verse
novels, and two young adult novels. It is THE MONKEY'S MASK
that gained her a solid international reputation. Following
this, her 1996 work CRETE was well-received. She has traveled
in Australia and North America performing her work. In her
interviews she comes across as modest in one response,
outspoken in the next, and articulate throughout.
Porter notes that she avoids labelling herself as either an
erotic or a lesbian poet because of the demeaning connotation
that some people attach to those terms. I would not apply
those terms to her either, but not because of any disparaging
meaning, but rather because they are unduly restrictive to a
poet who speaks to a much wider spectrum of human
experience.
miker
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