Review of Consolation

[Akshi Porwal]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Consolation" by Lee Jenkins.]

---

2 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Consolation: Poems is a collection of poems written by Lee Jenkins. Through these poems, he recounts his different experiences in life. Jenkins is a retired English professor from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He is also a practicing psychoanalyst in Manhattan. He tells of the relationships he has made, his desires, his work, etc. His poems reflect his struggles and his journey. He has the ability to maturely look at these experiences and analyze them through a reflective lens. He writes his poems with a psychoanalytic outlook. He even mentions the experiences he has had with his patients.

Lee Jenkins has a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. I had high hopes for this book but was left a little disappointed. The poems did not hold my attention. I could understand the meaning of writing certain poems, but they required attentive reading on my part to complete. A good piece of reading should glide and flow seamlessly. Some of the poems were too long. This only exasperated the problem of not holding the reader’s attention.

The author has still managed to write some genuinely captivating pieces. He uses a wide range of vocabulary and some mellifluous words. After reading certain poems several times, they came out as incredibly beautiful. One of my favorite poems is called “Clans”. It describes the author’s feelings about the racial divide among humans. It describes how we all are descendants of the same humans. Still, somewhere we split into skin colors and races. The author has beautifully captured these emotions. Another one of my favorites was called “We Must Love Our Friends”. It was about how important friends are in life. They know us as we truly are. This poem was so simple yet beautiful.

I would like to give Consolation: Poems by Lee Jenkins 2 out of 4 stars. Some of the poems were really deep and touching. The author laid himself bare in many poems. These showed the naked emotions of a human being. However, the expectations set by the author’s accolades were not fulfilled. The poems did not push me to read forward. The book has done exceptionally well in its editing, as I could not find any grammatical mistakes, typos, or inaccuracies.

I would suggest this book to lovers of poetry based on real life. People who have suffered racial discrimination will certainly resonate with certain poems in this collection. There are also many poems about human relationships and their beauty.

******
Consolation
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[Bri Denzel]

I love poetry a whole lot, and this will bring back memories of when I used to write a lot of poems.

[Shillah Andeso]

I believe the author has good messages to address judging from one of the poems you've described from the book. The book will therefore, be worth my reading time going through all his poems. I will surely read the book.