Autobiography of Red: a novel in verse (Cape poetry)

It’s no secret that I have a spiritual affinity with Canadian poet and champion of all my heart-stuffs Anne Carson, and her ‘Autobiography of Red’ follows in the trend of her works that have fundamentally altered how I think. I’ve been digesting this book slowly over the past two days to figure out exactly how I feel about it - in many ways a novel, told through poetry, a mythic retelling in modern mortal terms, full of love and longing and homosexual beauty, told with care. Every part of this long-poem is either a joy or a great weight to read, able to oscillate between redeeming one’s love for the world and crushing it instantly, and to do so constantly over 130ish pages... it’s just immense. “... immortality on their faces, / night at their backs.”

Ultimately I was hoping for something a little more in tune with the classical world it invokes. Despite the character being called Geryon and Herakles, they really have nothing more in common with their mythical counterparts than the name. I also felt the world of the classics did not seem present. Other authors (such as Mark Merlis in his novel An Arrows Flight) manage to set the myths in the modern world whilst still keeping ancient Greece as an influence. Anne Carson leaves every trace of classicism behind. That isn't necessarily bad, but it raises the question of why she is using these myths at all when her poem has so little to do with them. it just feels like a waste, and is a little frustrating when the matter around the poem itself promotes the myth so heavily.The poetry is solid but unexceptional. There were some nice passages, though nothing really memorable.Ultimately, this is an enjoyable enough poem, but I couldn't recommend it at the price.

A good book is like a dream/ once you read a good book / it is yours/everything in it is you. This book can be about mythological characters / it is about you / it is serious/funny, familiar/strange. It is wonderful.

Anne Carson is a part of the very rare numbers or elite poets. This book takes you on a journey, that no other prose poem can. Recommended read for poetry lovers, and those that appreciate fine art, through the medium of words.

Gorgeous book.

This book was genuinely like brand new. Better condition than I expected even for a 'used good condition' book.

Fascinating - very enjoyable and interesting concoction from Anne Carson. Anne Carson is a master of work that is not one thing nor the other - this isn't a novel but it isn't a poem; it also isn't a verse novel. It isn't a modern retelling of the myth of Geryon but it also isn't not. It isn't a classical retelling of the myth of Geryon; it also isn't a biography. It isn't a work composed entirely of fragments, but it is also not in any respect completely whole.I've since read Red Doc > by Carson as well, and found that this description held there too, i.e. that Carson's work is always more easily defined by what it is not than what it is; whatever our expectations of a work of literature are, she is the negative.

One of the best poetry books I have read. I couldn't put it down. A kind of re-telling of a Greek myth for contemporary times - but that is selling it short. It is weird, odd, original, quirky, affecting - I didn't want it to end.