Decomposing Recomposing a Pop Cultural Icon:
At first blush, Dietrich's collection of poems looks like a work of fan fiction. This book is very far from that. Yes, Dietrich uses the Frankenstein monster as the dominant image for his collection. However, he does much more than demonstrate his affection and reverence for this important pop culture icon. This collection throws some flickering torchlight on the cycles of birth, life, love and death. It's part philosophical meditation, part a campy romp through allusions both classy and trashy, and ever the gallery of excellent poetic form on the word, image, and storytelling level.
These observations are made through a variety of voices from the Frankenstein myth: the monster, his gypsy lover, a priest, and the scientist. But these characters are transmogrified by Dietrich's creative genius. They exceed the boundaries of Shelley's novel and Whale's classic film adaptation. Dietrich uses these works surrounding this icon to decompose and recompose ideas related to creation / creativity, love, sexuality, identity, desire, death, and more.
Yes, this is a very smart book, but it's paradoxically accessible. In fact, I am mesmerized by Dietrich's ability to create a fantastical world, more strange than I could ever forge myself.
For example, this excerpt from the poem "The Monster, The Master and The Windmill": "Here trapped between fire, fall, and windmill blade, unaware, perhaps, of the Quixotic irony fate has found them in, they struggle. One machine, one man. One maker, one unmade."
– Karen D. Austin