reviewed by Suzanne Alyssa Andrew
Broken Pencil Issue 2

Elyse Friedman’s first collection of poems is like a simple glass of fine red wine: accessible and pleasant, it gains intoxicating momentum, every sip a snippet of real life. In "Now He Hosts a Show on CBC," a character named Jeff decides to quit writing real estate copy: "When the cubicle hours of ads/ had been torched/ he peeled off socks/ and burned those too." In "The Writer," Friedman spies a fellow through a Laundromat window and decides his words are "singeing the page/ as the Stanfield’s tumble/ and the towels twirl."

Besides a surfeit of unique observation, Know Your Monkey has occasional dark moods. In "Affection" she talks about how city people sometimes appall her, "Their scrabbling hunger/ Their love me love me/ Their I’m going to kill you," but it never registers as a plea for therapy. There’s no clumsy emotional spewing or excessive word-nerd bafflegab to deconstruct here - Friedman’s writing is clear and logical, resonating with my own experiences in a way that made me want to read poetry again. This is the most exhilarating word drunk I’ve had in years.