101 TOPPLING PEDASTALS: A REVIEW OF LANNIE STABULE’S GOOD MORNING TO EVERYONE BUT MEN THAT NAME THEIR DOGS ZEUS
Cephalo Press, 2021. 101 Pages. €9.99 Reviewed by Alex Gurtis
In Lannie Stabile’s latest poetry collection Good Morning to Everyone Except Men Who Name Their Dog Zeus, lovers of Greek mythology will recognize the recurring character of Zeus but maybe not the perspective in which he appears. Stabile’s latest poetry collection sets out to question how society perpetuates toxic behaviors while refusing to hold men accountable for their actions. This isn’t good dad Zeus of Disney's Hercules who is happily married to Hera (the audacity) that all 90’s kids fondly remember. Zeus of mythology is a sexual predator.
“Zeus Was Called Daddy” reminds readers that this Zeus raped 18 other gods and “those were just the deities.” Stabile hammers home this is a god that should make readers question why society has pedestals that continually hoist monsters up for all to worship throughout the collection. This obvious portrayal feels fresh and insightful in the face of what has become the normal interpretation of these deities. In recounting the personal cost of this trauma in poems like “Depression Wakes Me Up in the Morning” that hammer “today/ I will not survive/ with my knees/ between my teeth”, Stabile reminds us that our propensity for hero worship comes with a physical and emotional cost.
