Customer Reviews

Believe It or Not

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I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of poetry. The rhythmic flow, and vivid metaphors compliment the poet's keen insights and observations on the idiosynchrosies of our inner and outer lives. "Believe it or Not" is an apt title for this intelligent, witty (yet serious), collection of poems. I highly recommend it.

I saw Jean read at a poetry conference recently, and immediately fell in love with her work. I bought this book, read it cover to cover, and enjoyed every single piece. The title poem was so good that I had to share it with both my kids and my wife. Usually they don't go for that sort of thing, but in my house everyone agreed this is the way poetry should be: Fun, layered, deep and interesting.

Until picking up Jean's book, I hadn't remembered liking poetry. Her whimsical, lyrical honesty captures refreshing new ideas. Like the very best short stories should, she is free to play with absurdities, and her poems do so with grace.

In her book, "Believe it or Not," Jean Monahan divides her poems into five groups, each with their own individual themes. The first collection, titled the same as the book, displays a pervasive feeling of uncertainty and searching. The hopelessness that Monahan evokes in this collection is given to the reader by way of scattered rhymes and half rhymes as well as consistent references to "home" and it's inaccessibility. In the poem "The Second Wind," Monahan closes with the powerful conclusion, "Home is everywhere the needle points." There is a doubt that leaks through Monahan's words however, a question as to whether we will ever engage in anything other than a quest. It is unclear what the word "home" represents to her. In "Lonely in Eden" an isolated Adam is putting out a personal ad for his undiscovered Eve. Other passages imply other meanings. Perhaps Monahan sees home as connected to belonging, and belonging as supported by the people around her. It is unsure.
The second section of the book, "The Gift," is true to its name. The general theme of these poems is one concerning gifts that people are given that are simultaneously beautiful and painful. "Memento Mori" could be described as the identifying poem in this collection. Its rhythm is uninterrupted as it flows in a single stanza, twenty-seven line reminder that we are only allowed to live our lives because of the inevitability of death. This reminder is the offering to the reader, presented as the final gift in a collection of Monahan's bittersweet blessings.
In "Gretel, Lost," the third collection in Monahan's book, the images the reader receives through the poems are ones of finality, growing older, death and rebirth. Questions regarding home resurface in these pieces. What separates them however, from "Believe it or Not" is the fact that Monahan promises a kind of conclusion, or answer to her loaded queries. She writes in the third line of "Wind in November," "Where is home?" and concludes, "Listen, I'll tell you how it ends."
Section number four, entitled "The Laughing Cow" is tied together by the common subject of animals. The strongest poem by far is entitled "When You Love Somebody." Short, four line stanzas and well placed breaks emphasize the careening, jolting journey of affection for the peculiar, which in turn creates peculiar affection. The last stanza of the poem shows this:
full her days. Some declared Lula's
pampering cruel. Nonsense.
When you love somebody
you know what's best for them.
It is in these lines that we find the answers to questions previously raised by Monahan's work. It is possible to know what home is and what is best for someone if a nurturing type of love is involved. This is a powerful and deserved statement.
The last section of Monahan's book is by far the least engaging. "Lessons of the Eye Teeth" is cohesive in that all titles are clichés and commonly used puns. This limits the content of the poems, perpetuating a commonality and detracting personal interest. Unlike poems in previous sections, rhymes and half rhymes in this collection further the impression of cliché. Perhaps "Lessons of the Eye Teeth" is disappointing because it offers no conclusions beyond those offered in the previous two collections. No new issues are raised, and therefore its place in Monahan's book is not assured.

The subjects for many of these poems range from funny to scary to bizarre. Jean's thoughts and interpretations of these events are great. I especially liked "Lonely in Eden". This book is as good if not better than 'HANDS' from the same author!