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A review by cstefko
Capable Monsters by Marlin M. Jenkins
5.0
5 stars
Okay, this chapbook might be my favorite thing I've read this year so far (though in very close competition with [b:The Magic Fish|42394599|The Magic Fish|Trung Le Nguyen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1582608860l/42394599._SX50_.jpg|66072973]). And it clocks in at just 36 pages. 36 very powerful, daring pages of poetry.
You could call the concept of this chapbook audacious but that might still be underselling it, especially in regards to how successfully it is executed. Jenkins crafts 20 poems around the foundation of Pokémon. Yes, you heard me: Pokémon! When I first heard about this chapbook I was certainly intrigued, but also a little wary. There was so much potential for it to go wrong, to just be plain silly and too needlessly pop-culture-obsessed without the emotional heft to make it worthwhile. Well, Jenkins definitely pulls it off. I was in awe of the magic he creates by using Pokémon to question just who is monstrous, and who is deserving of empathy.
One of the recurring tools he uses is titling a poem with the name of a Pokémon and sharing a snippet of their Pokédex entry (the in-universe encyclopedia of Pokémon seen in both the show and game versions) as an epigraph to the poem. Jenkins uses the unique personalities (if I may call them that) and histories of the creatures to evoke his key themes of loneliness, societal violence, queer identity, childhood, and memory. In other poems, the Pokémon are sprinkled in as references but not the stars of the show. Amazingly, the Pokémon framing never feels like a constraint or starts to become tiresome. These poems are unbounded and brimming with vitality.
While I think that you could definitely appreciate these poems on a pure craft level if you didn't know the reference source material (I will assume you are not a child of the 90s/early 2000s), if you do have a working knowledge of Pokémon, the deep meaning that Jenkins is able to draw out of them is so fascinating to experience. I'm sitting here getting misty-eyed about Mimikyu and Lapras and reconsidering Mewtwo as a Winter Soldier-like figure, or the anime version of Frankenstein. The levels! And if you'll allow me another pun, this really evolved my appreciation of the immense detail put into the Pokémon franchise, which I took for granted as a kid.
I'm writing this review on the day that the guilty verdict was handed down in the case of Derek Chauvin, the policeman who killed George Floyd, and on the same day that a teenage girl was killed by police in Columbus, Ohio after calling for help. These lines from the end of the poem "Pokédex Entry #260: Swampert" felt significant as I read them late last night, but tonight they have even more significance:
I cannot recommend this chapbook enough. I'm glad I took a chance on ordering it with only the briefest idea of what I was about to read. What a pleasant discovery. Jenkins is such a talent and I look forward to reading his future work.
Okay, this chapbook might be my favorite thing I've read this year so far (though in very close competition with [b:The Magic Fish|42394599|The Magic Fish|Trung Le Nguyen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1582608860l/42394599._SX50_.jpg|66072973]). And it clocks in at just 36 pages. 36 very powerful, daring pages of poetry.
You could call the concept of this chapbook audacious but that might still be underselling it, especially in regards to how successfully it is executed. Jenkins crafts 20 poems around the foundation of Pokémon. Yes, you heard me: Pokémon! When I first heard about this chapbook I was certainly intrigued, but also a little wary. There was so much potential for it to go wrong, to just be plain silly and too needlessly pop-culture-obsessed without the emotional heft to make it worthwhile. Well, Jenkins definitely pulls it off. I was in awe of the magic he creates by using Pokémon to question just who is monstrous, and who is deserving of empathy.
One of the recurring tools he uses is titling a poem with the name of a Pokémon and sharing a snippet of their Pokédex entry (the in-universe encyclopedia of Pokémon seen in both the show and game versions) as an epigraph to the poem. Jenkins uses the unique personalities (if I may call them that) and histories of the creatures to evoke his key themes of loneliness, societal violence, queer identity, childhood, and memory. In other poems, the Pokémon are sprinkled in as references but not the stars of the show. Amazingly, the Pokémon framing never feels like a constraint or starts to become tiresome. These poems are unbounded and brimming with vitality.
While I think that you could definitely appreciate these poems on a pure craft level if you didn't know the reference source material (I will assume you are not a child of the 90s/early 2000s), if you do have a working knowledge of Pokémon, the deep meaning that Jenkins is able to draw out of them is so fascinating to experience. I'm sitting here getting misty-eyed about Mimikyu and Lapras and reconsidering Mewtwo as a Winter Soldier-like figure, or the anime version of Frankenstein. The levels! And if you'll allow me another pun, this really evolved my appreciation of the immense detail put into the Pokémon franchise, which I took for granted as a kid.
I'm writing this review on the day that the guilty verdict was handed down in the case of Derek Chauvin, the policeman who killed George Floyd, and on the same day that a teenage girl was killed by police in Columbus, Ohio after calling for help. These lines from the end of the poem "Pokédex Entry #260: Swampert" felt significant as I read them late last night, but tonight they have even more significance:
This country has failed
us. If we must, let us
feel our collective weight
against stone--for protection,
but if we must push
let it be a rolling roar
as loud as the storm itself.
The storm is both approaching
and here. Tonight.
Pile the boulders.
I cannot recommend this chapbook enough. I'm glad I took a chance on ordering it with only the briefest idea of what I was about to read. What a pleasant discovery. Jenkins is such a talent and I look forward to reading his future work.