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The award-winning poet Anne Carson reinvents a genre in Autobiography of Red, a stunning work that is both a novel and a poem, both an unconventional recreation of an ancient Greek myth and a wholly original coming-of-age story set in the present. Geryon, a young boy who is also a winged red monster, reveals the volcanic terrain of his fragile, tormented soul in an autobiography he begins at the age of five. As he grows older, Geryon escapes his abusive brother and affectionate but ineffectual mother, finding solace behind the lens of his camera and in the arms of a young man named Herakles, a cavalier drifter who leaves him at the peak of infatuation. When Herakles reappears years later, Geryon confronts again the pain of his desire and embarks on a journey that will unleash his creative imagination to its fullest extent. By turns whimsical and haunting, erudite and accessible, richly layered and deceptively simple, Autobiography of Red is a profoundly moving portrait of an artist coming to terms with the fantastic accident of who he is.… (more)
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This is a modern adaptation of the story of Heracles and Geryon, the red dragon. They are lovers. And yet it is
People who do not like this book are not my people.
6 Stars
Autobiography of Red is the very best in narrative prose and retells the story of Geryon and Herakles told in modern vernacular. What a wonderfully full voice Anne Carson possesses. She manages to fill a classical story with poetry, prose, narration, fable, emotion, love, desire,
I also rarely finish books and know exactly how many "stars" the book deserves. I will be honest and say I am not sure four is the right number here.