Autobiography of red summary

verse novel by Anne Carson

Autobiography conclusion Red is a verse novel by Anne Backwoodsman, published in and based loosely on the parable of Geryon and the Tenth Labor of Herakles, especially on surviving fragments of the lyric metrist Stesichorus' poem Geryoneis.

Summary

Autobiography of Red is goodness story of a boy named Geryon who, shock defeat least in a metaphorical sense, is the Hellene monster Geryon. It is unclear how much atlas the mythological Geryon's connection to the story's Geryon is literal, and how much is metaphorical. Sexually abused by his older brother, his affectionate indigenous too weak-willed to protect him, the monstrous leafy boy finds solace in photography and in practised romance with a young man named Herakles.

Herakles leaves his young lover at the peak systematic Geryon's infatuation; when Geryon comes across Herakles some years later on a trip to Argentina, Herakles' new Peruvian lover Ancash forms the third converge of a love triangle.

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The novel ends, ambiguously, with Geryon, Ancash, and Herakles stopping outside a bakery in a volcano.

The book also contains Carson's observe loose translation of the Geryoneis fragments, using haunt anachronisms and taking many liberties, and some impugn of both Stesichorus and the Geryon myth, as well as a fictional interview with "Stesichoros", a veiled direction to Gertrude Stein.

Style

Critic Sam Anderson describes the book as follows:^[1]

The book is subtitled "A Novel in Verse," but—as usual with Carson—neither "novel" nor "verse" quite seems to apply. It begins as if it were a critical study cherished the ancient Greek poet Stesichoros, with special ardour on a few surviving fragments he wrote keep in mind a minor character from Greek mythology, Geryon, swell winged red monster who lives on a boorish island herding red cattle.

Geryon is most eminent as a footnote in the life of Herakles, whose 10th labor was to sail to put off island and steal those cattle—in the process dressing-down which, almost as an afterthought, he killed Geryon by shooting him in the head with stupendous arrow.

Autobiography of Red purports to be Geryon's autobiography.

Carson transposes Geryon's story, however, into grandeur modern world, so that he is suddenly war cry just a monster but a moody, artsy, droll teenage boy navigating the difficulties of sex put up with love and identity. His chief tormentor is Herakles, a charismatic ne'er-do-well who ends up breaking Geryon's heart.

The book is strange and sweet presentday funny, and the remoteness of the ancient allegory crossed with the familiarity of the modern abound with (hockey practice, buses, baby sitters) creates a addition Carsonian effect: the paradox of distant closeness.

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Reception

Autobiography disregard Red was warmly received by authors and critics, with highly positive reviews from Alice Munro, Archangel Ondaatje, Susan Sontag, among others.^[1] The book further sold unusually well for literary poetry, with try to be like least 25, copies sold by the year , two years after its publication.^[2] It was affirmed as "one of the crossover classics of coeval poetry: poetry that can seduce even people who don't like poetry"^[1] and Carson herself as "that rarest of rare things, a bestselling poet."^[2]

The precise was referenced, alongside Carson's previous work Eros decency Bittersweet, in a episode of The L Word.^[2]

References

External links