The Masque of Marilyn
$12.00
Paperback: 60 pages
Publisher: GOSS 183, 2017
Language: English
Cover Art: Matthew Hittinger
ISBN-13: 978-1546552826
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 8.5 Perfect-Bound
Through poems, dream logs, and dramatic monologues, Matthew Hittinger conjures a kaleidoscopic pageant of voices—from Marlene Dietrich to Mae West, Montgomery Clift to Maila Nurmi to Norma Jean herself—to reimagine the Marilyn Monroe icon.
“The New York poet Matthew Hittinger is now in that realm of `important poets of our time’. The publications of his poems increases every year and his works appear in important poetry collections of the highest order. One reason for Hittinger’s ever growing popularity is the fact that he experiments with new visual presentations of his words as well as exploring new avenues of thought – fantasies admixed with reality, humanistic themes married to mythological tradition, re-visiting dead poets and artists and finding new pathways to make them come alive in the present time. THE MASQUE OF MARILYN, the title of this newest collection published by GOSS183 Publishing House, graced with cover art by Matthew and Didi Menendez, is a collage of poems that addresses Marilyn Monroe, but not biographically – rather the influence the goddess of Hollywood created. Or as the poet’s description states, ‘through poems, dream logs, and dramatic monologues, these works conjure a kaleidoscopic pageant of voices—from Marlene Dietrich to Mae West, Montgomery Clift to Maila Nurmi to Norma Jean herself—to reimagine the Marilyn Monroe icon.’ And as Hittinger continues to grow and enjoy wide publication in many journals and anthologies his sophistication of the manner in which he honors words as thoughts grows. His other books include THE EROTIC POSTULATE, SKIN SHIFT, PEAR SLIP, and NARCISSUS RESISTS. …Attempting to share the magic of Matthew’s superlative book with a single work is like plucking off one pearl from a strand – without the whole strand the spheres are just beads. Read him cover to cover and re-discover Marilyn Monroe.”
-Grady Harp, for the San Francisco Review of Books
“Who doesn’t care about Marilyn Monroe; and how many Marilyn’s are there? The answer is as many as there are writers invoking her. Hittinger is known for his ability to combine myth, pop culture and philosophy — and these come nicely together in this latest book. He uses a wide-angle lens. His Marilyn is once presented as an 80-year-old taking a sitz bath; and there’s a fabulous experimental poem, “Marilyn Monroe and Marianne Moore Monitor the Periodic Table of Monikers.” Elsewhere she cooks — preparing a “stuffing recipe.” “Em Dash” is a poem where the epigraph reads Marilyn rehearses a scene from Eugene O’Neill’s Anna Christie to the rodents of Central Park, 1955. You say whaat? I say read it. This poet does not need narrative to tell story. He comes at situation by way of tone, pointillism, and emotion. His individual strength is that he can make each poem a showstopper like the icon herself. Hittinger raises questions instead of making pronouncements — and as idiosyncratic as fame is, he gets that; and uses it as his template, always shape-shifting what Marilyn appears to be, seen through a poet’s Kaleidoscope. She becomes spontaneously a result of perception. This is done by using inventive measures on the page; then at times approaching Monroe from others’ eyes (Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, etc.), Marilyn Monroe is the subject here, but the book’s author is the star because of his epitomized poetics.”
-Grace Cavalieri, for the Washington Independent Review of Books
