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The Monkey's Mask
The Australian publishing a lesbian thriller in verse.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
26 people are currently reading
1725 people want to read
About the author
Dorothy Porter
41 books49 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Eminent Australian poet. A rare proponent of the verse novel. Winner of The Age Book of the Year for poetry, and the National Book Council Award, for her verse novel The Monkey's Mask. She was awarded the Christopher Brennan Award for lifetime achievement in poetry in 2001. Died of breast cancer, 2008.
Eminent Australian poet. A rare proponent of the verse novel. Winner of The Age Book of the Year for poetry, and the National Book Council Award, for her verse novel The Monkey's Mask. She was awarded the Christopher Brennan Award for lifetime achievement in poetry in 2001. Died of breast cancer, 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 173 reviews
April 28, 2018
This is an Australian lesbian erotic murder mystery written in verse.
Do I need to go on?
Yes, OK, the mystery is eminently guessable – and yes, all right, the poetry is a bit creaky in places – and yes, fine, the lesbian aesthetic is a bit 90s and worthy…but come on. It's an Australian lesbian erotic murder mystery written in verse.
Previous verse-novels I've read have been written in chapter-length running poetry. This one, by contrast, is made up of individual titled poems of a page or two each, so that reading it really does feel more like reading a poetry collection than a long poem. It's an interesting and surprisingly rewarding way of being told a story.
If you're not generally a big fan of poetry, you shouldn't worry – neither is our cynical PI Jill Fitzpatrick. Much of the plot of The Monkey's Mask revolves around the Sydney poetry scene, and Porter has enormous fun pastiching the style of student poets or the kind of minor celebrities that like to wow the middle classes at public readings.
As you can see, Porter makes good use of the Australian vernacular – there are references in here to koels, chooks, middies, and innumerable kinds of women from ‘ex-Mulawa koories / To Toorak lipstick dykes’.
I mean, there are all kind of reasons to like this, and most of the potential criticisms just feel ungenerous. For god's sake, it's an Australian lesbian erotic murder mystery written in verse.
Do I need to go on?
Yes, OK, the mystery is eminently guessable – and yes, all right, the poetry is a bit creaky in places – and yes, fine, the lesbian aesthetic is a bit 90s and worthy…but come on. It's an Australian lesbian erotic murder mystery written in verse.
Previous verse-novels I've read have been written in chapter-length running poetry. This one, by contrast, is made up of individual titled poems of a page or two each, so that reading it really does feel more like reading a poetry collection than a long poem. It's an interesting and surprisingly rewarding way of being told a story.
HER CLEVER HAND
My car cassettes clatter
at Diana's feet
“Don't you listen to boys?”
“I've spent my whole life
listening to boys.”
I answer on feminist autopilot
she crosses her legs
she's wearing a dress
I drive and perve
her calves do a silky stretch
her hand taut with blue veins
as she slots in k. d. lang
“Butch country 'n' western”
she murmurs in the raunchy riffs
“Don't you ever forget I'm a dyke?”
she slips her clever hand
between my thighs
to make me quiet.
If you're not generally a big fan of poetry, you shouldn't worry – neither is our cynical PI Jill Fitzpatrick. Much of the plot of The Monkey's Mask revolves around the Sydney poetry scene, and Porter has enormous fun pastiching the style of student poets or the kind of minor celebrities that like to wow the middle classes at public readings.
We shake hands
and I'm stuck
how do you talk to poets?
I'm not known for my love
of fluffy clouds
fields of daffodils
or brumbies on a moonlit night
give me a good bottle of wine
a woman with spit and spark
and the Trifecta at Randwick
As you can see, Porter makes good use of the Australian vernacular – there are references in here to koels, chooks, middies, and innumerable kinds of women from ‘ex-Mulawa koories / To Toorak lipstick dykes’.
I mean, there are all kind of reasons to like this, and most of the potential criticisms just feel ungenerous. For god's sake, it's an Australian lesbian erotic murder mystery written in verse.
December 30, 2012
I preferred to read the poetry in this as prose that had been chopped up funny – and that was fairly easy to do as the poetry was so light and insubstantial that it might as well have been prose most of the time. The story to this sounded a bit daft to me – but then, I know nothing about the Australian poetry scene, so perhaps it is a seething mass of bodies screwing one another followed by the occasional murder.
As a murder mystery this was painfully predictable – annoyingly so, in fact. There is a line in Sleuth where Olivier says that murder mysteries are something like the general recreation of noble minds. But to be that there does need to be some sort of challenge to them. To be honest, I prefer there to be less mystery and more character development – if there has to be a choice. If you can get both working, well, that’s great, but I often prefer characters over plot, if you can’t do both. This does neither. The characters are overly thin cut outs and I suspect only ‘work’ because of the gender twisting of the central character. Making Sam Spade a dyke wasn’t enough novelty to keep my interest. Much of the book seemed to be written for the lesbian sex scenes, which, like most other sex in print, is never really as sexy as you might hope. You know:
Her Breasts
Her breasts are not my breasts.
Under her dress
they push
towards my hands
Under my hands
they push
towards my breasts
they stop my heart.
they close my eyes.
she’s not my mother
she’s not my friend
Diana. Dracula.
Her breasts suck me.
Now, it could be that I am the only person in the world that isn’t seething with sexual passion after reading this gem of erotic poetry, maybe I’m really nothing but a cold fish – but, if that is the case, so be it.
I’ve had a quick look at other reviews and they are virtually without exception gushing about this book. I find that a little strange, but put it down to the fact that many of them even say they were so surprised they could read and understand poetry while also following the murder mystery that the whole experience left them feeling a little chuffed with themselves. I didn’t particularly like the poetry (although I admit I've probably been a bit unfair in my selection above - which is particularly crap) and found the storyline far too predictable. I’m not sure the sex was ever really going to be enough to make up for the other problems with this one, so while others have seen the sex as an added bonus, I’ve seen it as symptomatic of a more general problem.
If I was going to offer some very general advice to writers, and I concede immediately I have no right to offer such advice – it would be that if you don’t have enough story to be getting on with then adding sex probably isn’t going to make things any more interesting. And adding even more sex, as is done here, is probably going to draw attention to the problem, not make it any less obvious.
There’s a film to this one – I’ve never seen it and am unlikely to as I didn’t think there was enough of a story to really carry a film, although, obviously there would be lots of soft-porn lesbian sex scenes, so I guess that might have made it moderately successful. Like I said, the whole thing seemed a bit daft to me.
As a murder mystery this was painfully predictable – annoyingly so, in fact. There is a line in Sleuth where Olivier says that murder mysteries are something like the general recreation of noble minds. But to be that there does need to be some sort of challenge to them. To be honest, I prefer there to be less mystery and more character development – if there has to be a choice. If you can get both working, well, that’s great, but I often prefer characters over plot, if you can’t do both. This does neither. The characters are overly thin cut outs and I suspect only ‘work’ because of the gender twisting of the central character. Making Sam Spade a dyke wasn’t enough novelty to keep my interest. Much of the book seemed to be written for the lesbian sex scenes, which, like most other sex in print, is never really as sexy as you might hope. You know:
Her Breasts
Her breasts are not my breasts.
Under her dress
they push
towards my hands
Under my hands
they push
towards my breasts
they stop my heart.
they close my eyes.
she’s not my mother
she’s not my friend
Diana. Dracula.
Her breasts suck me.
Now, it could be that I am the only person in the world that isn’t seething with sexual passion after reading this gem of erotic poetry, maybe I’m really nothing but a cold fish – but, if that is the case, so be it.
I’ve had a quick look at other reviews and they are virtually without exception gushing about this book. I find that a little strange, but put it down to the fact that many of them even say they were so surprised they could read and understand poetry while also following the murder mystery that the whole experience left them feeling a little chuffed with themselves. I didn’t particularly like the poetry (although I admit I've probably been a bit unfair in my selection above - which is particularly crap) and found the storyline far too predictable. I’m not sure the sex was ever really going to be enough to make up for the other problems with this one, so while others have seen the sex as an added bonus, I’ve seen it as symptomatic of a more general problem.
If I was going to offer some very general advice to writers, and I concede immediately I have no right to offer such advice – it would be that if you don’t have enough story to be getting on with then adding sex probably isn’t going to make things any more interesting. And adding even more sex, as is done here, is probably going to draw attention to the problem, not make it any less obvious.
There’s a film to this one – I’ve never seen it and am unlikely to as I didn’t think there was enough of a story to really carry a film, although, obviously there would be lots of soft-porn lesbian sex scenes, so I guess that might have made it moderately successful. Like I said, the whole thing seemed a bit daft to me.
August 5, 2011
Most people that pick up this book would probably think, "A crime novel in the form of poetry? Don't see that every day."
It was certainly what I thought, anyway. I came to reading this book because of my university course and, as always, my faith in Australian literature continues to build. Dorothy Porter's novel is stripped down to the bare bones of the crime novel, but it just happens to be done by a brilliant poet. The imagery in the verses stands out as some of the most appropriate to the situation I have ever seen. It's not all flowers and deep blue seas for the sake of poetry.
My favourite thing about this strange little book has to be its attitude. Not just of the gruff, lesbian private detective (who screams "Female Phillip Marlowe" in certain parts) but the entire style of the poetry. As a reader, you never feel lost or wondering where you are, even though Porter only chooses to describe scenes and characters in a word or two.
The plot itself is hard for me to review. It's a pretty standard whodunnit murder story, but the nuances of the story and writing hold it far above the rest. The inclusion of the victim's tortured poetry and being given the pleasure of trying to decipher who she is talking about is just one of the many things Porter offers to her readers.
I already mentioned my favourite thing about The Monkey's Mask, but here's the reason I think it is a masterpiece. After finishing, my whole conception of poetry has been changed. Yes, I admit I would always turn my nose up when poetry was shoved under it because, well, I can't really answer that. I was arrogant, I guess. This poetic verse novel shed my arrogant skin and showed what was really underneath that. Much like the stark writing style of Dorothy Porter's, The Monkey's Mask, I guess.
It was certainly what I thought, anyway. I came to reading this book because of my university course and, as always, my faith in Australian literature continues to build. Dorothy Porter's novel is stripped down to the bare bones of the crime novel, but it just happens to be done by a brilliant poet. The imagery in the verses stands out as some of the most appropriate to the situation I have ever seen. It's not all flowers and deep blue seas for the sake of poetry.
My favourite thing about this strange little book has to be its attitude. Not just of the gruff, lesbian private detective (who screams "Female Phillip Marlowe" in certain parts) but the entire style of the poetry. As a reader, you never feel lost or wondering where you are, even though Porter only chooses to describe scenes and characters in a word or two.
The plot itself is hard for me to review. It's a pretty standard whodunnit murder story, but the nuances of the story and writing hold it far above the rest. The inclusion of the victim's tortured poetry and being given the pleasure of trying to decipher who she is talking about is just one of the many things Porter offers to her readers.
I already mentioned my favourite thing about The Monkey's Mask, but here's the reason I think it is a masterpiece. After finishing, my whole conception of poetry has been changed. Yes, I admit I would always turn my nose up when poetry was shoved under it because, well, I can't really answer that. I was arrogant, I guess. This poetic verse novel shed my arrogant skin and showed what was really underneath that. Much like the stark writing style of Dorothy Porter's, The Monkey's Mask, I guess.
March 14, 2013
I’ve read a little poetry. I’m trying to learn more by reading more poetry. I lot of it alludes me still. So a lesbian thriller written entirely in prose? Well, I’m walking into strange territory…
Libraries are just as enjoyable as bookshops. I wander through the aisles seeing what catches my eye. There are a list of books I hope to get through this year as part of challenges but whim-reading is also good for the soul.
The Monkey’s Mask caught my eye. I read 50 pages while I was at the library and took it home to read the remainder of this incredible book. I’ve written about Dorothy Porter’s final collection The Bee Hut and loved her deceptively simple poetry. Mythology is still difficult for me to read but there is beauty in her poems that I think everyone can appreciate.
This story follows Jill Fitzpatrick, a private investigator who is looking for a missing girl named Mickey. P.I. Jill has a slippery relationship with the cops and the missing teenager’s parents don’t seem to trust the police to get the job done. As she delves into Mickey’s life, meeting and interviewing a number of people, Jill finds herself having an affair with Mickey’s teacher, Dr Diana Maitland.
Now, let’s be clear. It’s erotic. There are occasions where some woman is between some other woman’s legs. Correction – on many occasions.
But there is also incredible wit and humour. At one point, Jill goes to a poetry reading and she is almost writhing in her seat with pain. I see the irony – Porter, a poet, writes prose about a P.I. sitting through a poetry reading who is hating every moment of it:
"I’ve tried listening.
Bill calls light ‘dusky’
in every bloody poem
and he’s got a thing
about his grandfather’s hat
the lucky bastard
must be dead.
Come on, Bill,
that’s it, mate,
last fucking poem
I’ll be dead and burnt to ashes
before Bill’s dusky light
sets
on his grandad’s hat."
The missing girl is a budding poet and after reading some of her amateur poems, Jill reflects on how a poem starts. This is powerful prose from Porter:
"Is this how poems start?
when every riff on the radio
hooks in your throat
is this how poems start?
when the vein under her skin
hooks in your throat
is this how poems start?
when insomnia pounds
like spooked black horses
when the day breaks
like car crash glass
tell me, Mickey,
you knew
tell me
does a poem start
with a hook in the throat?"
As a lesbian thriller, it’s only fitting to write of the relationships of LGBT and societal pressures which is so simply and beautifully put when Jill talks with her mother:
"Mum sniffs
‘Jill, you can look really nice
when you want to
it won’t kill you
to wear a dress
now and then.’
Mum touches my hair
‘It used to be so pretty.’
and after three gin and tonics
‘You don’t have to be
so conspicuous
we all know what you are.’
do you, Mum?
I’m curious. Fill me in.
What am I?"
I enjoyed this book so much. I don’t really know if I have a certain ‘taste’ anymore. I’ve tried so many kinds of books and have been surprised many times. Sometimes I disliked a book I was ‘supposed to’ like and enjoyed others that were as far from my typical reading habits as this one. You just never know.
Libraries are just as enjoyable as bookshops. I wander through the aisles seeing what catches my eye. There are a list of books I hope to get through this year as part of challenges but whim-reading is also good for the soul.
The Monkey’s Mask caught my eye. I read 50 pages while I was at the library and took it home to read the remainder of this incredible book. I’ve written about Dorothy Porter’s final collection The Bee Hut and loved her deceptively simple poetry. Mythology is still difficult for me to read but there is beauty in her poems that I think everyone can appreciate.
This story follows Jill Fitzpatrick, a private investigator who is looking for a missing girl named Mickey. P.I. Jill has a slippery relationship with the cops and the missing teenager’s parents don’t seem to trust the police to get the job done. As she delves into Mickey’s life, meeting and interviewing a number of people, Jill finds herself having an affair with Mickey’s teacher, Dr Diana Maitland.
Now, let’s be clear. It’s erotic. There are occasions where some woman is between some other woman’s legs. Correction – on many occasions.
But there is also incredible wit and humour. At one point, Jill goes to a poetry reading and she is almost writhing in her seat with pain. I see the irony – Porter, a poet, writes prose about a P.I. sitting through a poetry reading who is hating every moment of it:
"I’ve tried listening.
Bill calls light ‘dusky’
in every bloody poem
and he’s got a thing
about his grandfather’s hat
the lucky bastard
must be dead.
Come on, Bill,
that’s it, mate,
last fucking poem
I’ll be dead and burnt to ashes
before Bill’s dusky light
sets
on his grandad’s hat."
The missing girl is a budding poet and after reading some of her amateur poems, Jill reflects on how a poem starts. This is powerful prose from Porter:
"Is this how poems start?
when every riff on the radio
hooks in your throat
is this how poems start?
when the vein under her skin
hooks in your throat
is this how poems start?
when insomnia pounds
like spooked black horses
when the day breaks
like car crash glass
tell me, Mickey,
you knew
tell me
does a poem start
with a hook in the throat?"
As a lesbian thriller, it’s only fitting to write of the relationships of LGBT and societal pressures which is so simply and beautifully put when Jill talks with her mother:
"Mum sniffs
‘Jill, you can look really nice
when you want to
it won’t kill you
to wear a dress
now and then.’
Mum touches my hair
‘It used to be so pretty.’
and after three gin and tonics
‘You don’t have to be
so conspicuous
we all know what you are.’
do you, Mum?
I’m curious. Fill me in.
What am I?"
I enjoyed this book so much. I don’t really know if I have a certain ‘taste’ anymore. I’ve tried so many kinds of books and have been surprised many times. Sometimes I disliked a book I was ‘supposed to’ like and enjoyed others that were as far from my typical reading habits as this one. You just never know.
August 1, 2020
An Australian noir written in blank verse. It shouldn't work...but it does. In spades.
July 14, 2018
Really great. The first time I’ve read an adult novel written in verse, I think, and it’s an Australian lesbian erotic murder mystery! The mystery may be easy to guess, but it’s a great ride.
August 13, 2022
*uni read
this book was pretty mid for a crime novel but as a lesbian erotica it was above average.
maybe i'm just not the right target audience or i thought it was going to be more within the crime genre (since we were studying it for our crime module) but it came off more about the protagonists complex relationships and the connection it had to the murder she was hired to investigate.
it was really page-turning and engaging at some points but overall i would only recommend this books if you're into erotic poetry with a hint of murder sprinkled in.
this book was pretty mid for a crime novel but as a lesbian erotica it was above average.
maybe i'm just not the right target audience or i thought it was going to be more within the crime genre (since we were studying it for our crime module) but it came off more about the protagonists complex relationships and the connection it had to the murder she was hired to investigate.
it was really page-turning and engaging at some points but overall i would only recommend this books if you're into erotic poetry with a hint of murder sprinkled in.
December 6, 2024
didn't mean to spend my whole day reading but here we are! this was phenomenal - in the real sense of the word, as in a phenomenon. how did this even come to be?? i guess i just thank god it did. satisfied all my neo-noir cravings, and hankerings for lgbt aus lit that i didn't even know i had, all in an utterly original and addictive package.
June 18, 2025
Aussie dyke erotic murder mystery written entirely in verse. Aussie dyke erotic murder mystery written entirely in verse!!!!!!!!!
August 16, 2019
I thought this was a brilliant book and I was really surprised to see it was rated a bit lower on here than I thought it’d be! It’s an insanely clever blending of genres, and I am usually not one for poetry or verse at all.
Porter writes so convincingly, telling us only what we really need to see, that it feels all crime novels should naturally flow this way. She creates little vignettes of characters making up a greater picture and showing The Monkey’s Mask we all wear, if you will. It’s something different, I’ll give her that and I think before people read it they need to do a little homework on the book to get a more full appreciation of it.
The book is a 90s book, yes. And I’ve seen it being trashed here because of that. However, for the Australian scene of lesbian books in that era, I’d say it’d have to be right up there. I recommend reading her interviews on the book and her reasoning behind writing it because it really helps bring it all together. Like most books not written in the current era, it really needs to be looked at within the scope of the time when it was written.
My only gripe was that the ending/discovery came on too quickly and too close to the end of the book for poor Jill. The last page was amazing. Porter is a genius in my opinion, to weave such a tale in such an outstanding and unique format. I loved it.
Porter writes so convincingly, telling us only what we really need to see, that it feels all crime novels should naturally flow this way. She creates little vignettes of characters making up a greater picture and showing The Monkey’s Mask we all wear, if you will. It’s something different, I’ll give her that and I think before people read it they need to do a little homework on the book to get a more full appreciation of it.
The book is a 90s book, yes. And I’ve seen it being trashed here because of that. However, for the Australian scene of lesbian books in that era, I’d say it’d have to be right up there. I recommend reading her interviews on the book and her reasoning behind writing it because it really helps bring it all together. Like most books not written in the current era, it really needs to be looked at within the scope of the time when it was written.
My only gripe was that the ending/discovery came on too quickly and too close to the end of the book for poor Jill. The last page was amazing. Porter is a genius in my opinion, to weave such a tale in such an outstanding and unique format. I loved it.
April 7, 2011
surprisingly fantastic. this book isn't so much about what it says as what it does: the plot isn't revolutionary, and the sexually deviant "twist" is a bit of a 90s cop-out imo, but that doesn't really matter. what's interesting here is how the genres and modes tussle with one another, creating a "novel in verse" that is at once pacey and pulpy while retaining a poetic sense of linguistic pacing and weighted white space. witty, atmospheric, and genuinely erotic, with a brilliantly complex and authentically rendered protagonist. not perfect, and not for everyone, but a quick, compelling read, with lots of interesting gender-play and concurrent themes of identity and masquerade. title comes from a Basho haiku: year after year—- / on the monkey's face / a monkey's mask
August 6, 2024
Would like to rate 3.5 rather than 3, but Goodreads is weird.
It was a good book, well written. The poetry format isn't just a cool artistic choice, it also connects to the story which is neat. But I feel like it kinda just ends - unsatisfyingly. But that's par for the course with this genre; it's all just another random miserable chapter of our investigator's life and solving the mystery isn't always a happy ending and life is bleak. And it's not that I don't like those stories (hell I have a very similar idea of my own) it's just that sometimes they don't land for me. Though maybe I'll like it more after sitting on it for a while and after studying it in class.
It was a good book, well written. The poetry format isn't just a cool artistic choice, it also connects to the story which is neat. But I feel like it kinda just ends - unsatisfyingly. But that's par for the course with this genre; it's all just another random miserable chapter of our investigator's life and solving the mystery isn't always a happy ending and life is bleak. And it's not that I don't like those stories (hell I have a very similar idea of my own) it's just that sometimes they don't land for me. Though maybe I'll like it more after sitting on it for a while and after studying it in class.
August 26, 2025
loooooveeed this one soooooooooo muchhhhhhhh
June 23, 2023
3.5 very cool idea
July 30, 2025
Perfect disguise.
This was just awesome. Safe to say I've never read anything like it and I enjoyed every too-short second.
Incredibly evocative of the hot Sydney nights and the cold mountain mornings, I was transported any time I cracked the cover.
Don't be daunted by the format this is really easy to read, it's as if Porter has stripped away all the unnecessary detail fo the story and left us only the sensations and atmosphere but you pick everything up in the way it makes you feel.
A real achievement and not a book I'll soon forget.
This was just awesome. Safe to say I've never read anything like it and I enjoyed every too-short second.
Incredibly evocative of the hot Sydney nights and the cold mountain mornings, I was transported any time I cracked the cover.
Don't be daunted by the format this is really easy to read, it's as if Porter has stripped away all the unnecessary detail fo the story and left us only the sensations and atmosphere but you pick everything up in the way it makes you feel.
A real achievement and not a book I'll soon forget.
May 12, 2022
In realtà meriterebbe due stelline perché tanto lo sviluppo delle indagini quanto, in generale, tutto l'aspetto crime risultano fin troppo prevedibili, tuttavia la terza se l'è guadagnata per l'originalità dell'intelaiatura stilistica ossia l'aver trasposto una detective story in poesia. Questa scelta potrebbe rivelarsi insidiosa per diversi motivi, uno fra tutti: che si è innegabilmente limitati nell'esposizione dei fatti, nel descrivere l'ambientazione e ultimo, ma non per importanza nel tratteggiare la psicologia dei vari personaggi che si avvicendano sulla scena.
Porter devo ammettere che è riuscita a destreggiarsi bene, dosando i pochi elementi a sua disposizione e creando il giusto mix tra indagine e torbido dell'anima. Se devo essere sincera, le poesie migliori sono quelle che Jill - l'investigatrice - rivolge alla sua melliflua amante.
Porter devo ammettere che è riuscita a destreggiarsi bene, dosando i pochi elementi a sua disposizione e creando il giusto mix tra indagine e torbido dell'anima. Se devo essere sincera, le poesie migliori sono quelle che Jill - l'investigatrice - rivolge alla sua melliflua amante.
TEMETEMI
sotto la scorza
sono violenta
giù nel profondo
sono violenta
in cima alle dita
sono violenta
nelle ghiandole del seno
sono violenta
nel guscio della cervice
sono violenta
nel mio utero ferino
sono violenta
temetemi temetemi
sono femmina.
September 26, 2025
4 stars. Australian crime novel told in verse. I had to read it. I’ve never read a book like this. I liked this a lot but I will say that the mystery part ended up being a let down. It turned more into the main character, Jillian, getting into a situationship with the possible murderer’s wife. I liked it though because it was messy as hell and I love mess but I wanted more of a conclusion on the case. Other than that this was a wild ride, I liked the writing and how gritty this felt. Now I need to check out the film adaptation.
September 20, 2020
I'm far, far from the first person to suggest that there's nothing like this book, but the thing is that isn't even true. There's a lot like this book. I mean, it's a detective novel at the end of the day, or an urban crime thriller at the very least -- and I might not be a huge congnoscenti of poetry but I have plowed through enough Ross Macdonald to know the structure, tone, themes, and resolve of detective fiction when I read it, no matter what form of prose the story happens to take. Yes, The Monkey's Mask is a series of brilliantly constructed poetry, but it's also an absolutely amazing collision of our thoughts behind high and low culture. You can practically taste on every page Porter's delight in delivering a tawdry but engaging murder mystery in its very barest essentials; it's like cubist noir, taking the vital elements of crime fiction and paring them down to their most stripped planes of perspective. An amazing work.
October 19, 2020
Lesbian PI! This was pretty fun. I enjoyed the Australian lingo. Pretty racy. Pretty good mystery. This is my...third verse novel this year, I think? It's fun exploring the different writers'/poets' styles. Porter's style is a bit less lyrical than the others I've read, but effective, blunt—worked for me!
August 5, 2024
Wow I actually LOVED this book. I was so scared I wasn’t going to get into it/understand it due to its poetic structure but my god was it beautiful. For a novel that has more than half the normal text missing I felt all the emotions and ups and downs reading this. Her love for Diana was so heartbreaking, you could feel the disconnect every time they were together. Would definitely recommend to someone who loves poetry, so so good.
July 9, 2018
What a beautiful, sparsely written novel. Ms Porter proves that you do not need many words to paint a rich narrative - just perfectly chosen words arranged in a perfect way. A real masterpiece.
August 15, 2021
i need to own this so bad why the hecc does it have to be out of print!
September 6, 2024
Perfect - form and content working together for an investigation into desire, a wild ride where the scope of the poems strengthens the narrative while hitting truths as stand alone pieces, enjoyed reading aloud!
December 22, 2017
A poetry collection written as a lesbian detective story. Quite different, and it hangs together very well. The language is also good, even with the rather heavy focus on sex and sex talk. A good twist of the story in the end, and all in all a great read.
May 31, 2022
A whodunit
written in
verse
but our detective
doesn't like poetry
Erotic moments
in short snippets
between the gory and
gruesome
Novelty
describes
this novel to a tee
Weirdly engaging
to engage
with the
weird
written in
verse
but our detective
doesn't like poetry
Erotic moments
in short snippets
between the gory and
gruesome
Novelty
describes
this novel to a tee
Weirdly engaging
to engage
with the
weird
Read
July 27, 2024Love to read in verse.
Amazing what someone can achieve in forming depth of character and scene with limited words, and how the reader can fill the blanks.
This is a thrilling and enjoyable ride. Thanks Pierce x
Amazing what someone can achieve in forming depth of character and scene with limited words, and how the reader can fill the blanks.
This is a thrilling and enjoyable ride. Thanks Pierce x
August 24, 2020
Holy moly what a rollercoaster! And such an interesting structure, unlike anything else I’ve read before. It’s stunning and inspiring in its creativity, distilling a murder mystery into its purist form, making all other murder mysteries seem meandering and overwritten. I read this in less than a day, when really I should have been working, but couldn’t put it down.
For me the only downside was that the brevity limited the number of characters and possible outcomes, so I guessed parts of the ending before they occurred, but there were still enough twists to keep me enthralled.
This is not light reading. It’s dark, shocking and full of violence and explicit sex, but I’ll definitely be tracking down Porter’s other work.
For me the only downside was that the brevity limited the number of characters and possible outcomes, so I guessed parts of the ending before they occurred, but there were still enough twists to keep me enthralled.
This is not light reading. It’s dark, shocking and full of violence and explicit sex, but I’ll definitely be tracking down Porter’s other work.
June 19, 2020
The idea of a novel in verse is not a new one. Take The Iliad, for instance, or Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin. The Brownings both wrote novels in verse. More recently, Vikram Seth had a surprise bestseller in his The Golden Gate. Most, if not all of these take the form of a long poem, while The Monkey’s Mask is comprised of a series of many shorter poems—most only a page long—each a “chapter” of the novel.
What this does is cut down on almost everything—descriptions, backstory, conversation, and relationships. But Porter does this with such a deft hand that what we see is the essence of the necessary; what she leaves out is the superfluous—things we tend to skip over in other books. Here are a few lines that characterize Diana Maitland, Jill’s love interest, perfectly and without taking several pages.
What this does is cut down on almost everything—descriptions, backstory, conversation, and relationships. But Porter does this with such a deft hand that what we see is the essence of the necessary; what she leaves out is the superfluous—things we tend to skip over in other books. Here are a few lines that characterize Diana Maitland, Jill’s love interest, perfectly and without taking several pages.
She’s thirty something
maybe forty
her hair honey-blond
streaks
falls in her eyes
she pushes it back
with a fidgety
nail-bitten hand
she got eyes
that flirt or fight
she’s gritty,
she’s bright
oh christ help me
she’s a bit of alright!
Porter is able to give us Jill’s impressions of someone in an instant.
Tony’s company
is hard cold work
like defrosting a refrigerator
Yet even in poetic form, the mystery is a true one. A family hires private investigator Jill Fitzgerald to find their missing daughter, Michelle Norris. When the daughter turns up dead, they continue to pay her to find the killer. There are the usual suspects—in this case several poets and teachers at her college that Michelle was obviously obsessed with. In fact, we see them through Michelle’s own eyes when Jill discovers a cache of the girl’s own poems, many of which are sexy, almost obscene. Jill has almost no interaction with the police, which saves even more time and space. Instead, she tells us
Michelle's mother has just rung
she's jack of the cops
I'm back on the job.
Because the descriptions of poets and poetry in general come through Jill’s eyes, it gives an impression of pedantry, of boredom, almost of silliness—spending one’s life doing, well, not much. Yet what we are reading is poetry, and it is anything but silly. Porter’s poems are down to earth, almost minimalistic, and very readable. The only problem I had with it is that I’m not sure what Jill does with the information she gathers once she has solved the mystery. It is a book to be read more than once—especially by writers who tend to be a bit too flowery and detailed in their descriptions—and that’s not something that can be said about most books. Although the round-off will show 4 stars, my actual rating is more like a 4.4.
Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.
December 4, 2015
A crime novel where the "detective" is an Australian lesbian private investigator. OK, that's not too big a deal. But a whole "who-dunnit" written in verse? That definitely a first — for me, at least.
And I should point out that we are talking about modern free verse and not old-style "Man from Snowy River" ballad stuff here ...
This verse novel is pure gold about a lot of very rough diamonds. It worked brilliantly for me as a detective story (mind you, I'm not really familiar with that genre) but the poetry itself ranged from excellent to astonishing. Porter had me hooked by the end of the first poem in the book, where our "heroine", Jill Fitzpatrick, is looking in the mirror, having decided she's ready for some new action in her life instead of doing the same old "insurance job" work. We know we are in for some action when we read the concluding words of this first poem (which is actually called "Trouble") when Jill concludes:
"I want you, trouble,
on the rocks."
Porter's poems are lean, mean and smart but not without heart (not unlike her protagonist, Jill). There are many amusing "meta-poetic" digs at poets and poetry as an academic pursuit and the whole poetry scene. And lots of wonderful allusions to the music of the era.
This book is now more than 20 years old and I can see why people are still talking about it and why it's still on bookshop shelves (and in my local library).
I loved this book so much I'm going to buy my own copy now, so I can dip into it again at my leisure. And I will definitely be adding more Dorothy Porter to my reading list!
And I should point out that we are talking about modern free verse and not old-style "Man from Snowy River" ballad stuff here ...
This verse novel is pure gold about a lot of very rough diamonds. It worked brilliantly for me as a detective story (mind you, I'm not really familiar with that genre) but the poetry itself ranged from excellent to astonishing. Porter had me hooked by the end of the first poem in the book, where our "heroine", Jill Fitzpatrick, is looking in the mirror, having decided she's ready for some new action in her life instead of doing the same old "insurance job" work. We know we are in for some action when we read the concluding words of this first poem (which is actually called "Trouble") when Jill concludes:
"I want you, trouble,
on the rocks."
Porter's poems are lean, mean and smart but not without heart (not unlike her protagonist, Jill). There are many amusing "meta-poetic" digs at poets and poetry as an academic pursuit and the whole poetry scene. And lots of wonderful allusions to the music of the era.
This book is now more than 20 years old and I can see why people are still talking about it and why it's still on bookshop shelves (and in my local library).
I loved this book so much I'm going to buy my own copy now, so I can dip into it again at my leisure. And I will definitely be adding more Dorothy Porter to my reading list!
December 4, 2013
This book, a personal favorite, is not just the best murder mystery I have ever read but is also the best book of poetry I have ever read. The minimalist style of Dorothy Porter is well suited to the genre and the book rockets along taking you for the ride.
If you like books about hardboiled detectives, who happen to be lesbians, unsolved and seemingly unsolvable mysteries this book is for you. If you want to read a famous poets impression of the darker side of the poetry scene this book is for you.
If you have any like of poetry at all read it.
The day I bought this book I started reading it on the train but couldn't stop, even as my stop approached. When I got off the train I sat down on a bench on the station platform and read the book until it was finished. That was about ten years ago. It has been one of my favorite novels ever since. It is also one of the main reasons I have returned to writing and began trying to make a career out of it.
Read it.
Oh, and see the movie, not many modern poets have had their book turned into a movie.
If you like books about hardboiled detectives, who happen to be lesbians, unsolved and seemingly unsolvable mysteries this book is for you. If you want to read a famous poets impression of the darker side of the poetry scene this book is for you.
If you have any like of poetry at all read it.
The day I bought this book I started reading it on the train but couldn't stop, even as my stop approached. When I got off the train I sat down on a bench on the station platform and read the book until it was finished. That was about ten years ago. It has been one of my favorite novels ever since. It is also one of the main reasons I have returned to writing and began trying to make a career out of it.
Read it.
Oh, and see the movie, not many modern poets have had their book turned into a movie.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 173 reviews