Customer Reviews

Autobiography of Red

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Classicist and poet, Anne Carson, has created a playful-but-tragic, present-tense, postmodern fable of obsessive love in her retelling of Stesichoros' "Geryoneis."

For those unfamiliar with the classics, Stesichoros was a Sicilian Greek of the early classical era. Although little of his poetry has survived, we do know it was famous for both its extreme sweetness and its grandeur.

In Carson's modern version of the Geryon myth, Herakles doesn't murder Geryon and steal his magic red cattle; he steals his heart instead. And in Carson's version, the theft of the heart may be quite a bit worse than outright murder, for, rather than dying outright, Geryon dies a little each day and his suffering is thus prolonged and made all the more difficult to endure.

Since this is a present-tense, postmodern tale, Geryon doesn't, however, suffer in silence. He attempts, instead, as a young school boy (though still red and still winged--he presents his teacher with the myth of Geryon as his own autobiography), to create a new world and a new life for himself through his camera lens and through the redemptive qualities of his art. In this way, Geryon's demons are transformed through eroticism and become, if not something of beauty, then something that is, at least, worthwhile.

Although this prose/poetry work is witty and playful, Carson's Geryon is still quite sad. Herakles is so definitely male and he loves Geryon in a stereotypically male manner, i.e., without really knowing the object of his love. Herakles seems out to have a good time and that is that. Although Geryon is red to his core, Herakles knows him so little that he even dreams of him in yellow. This upsets Geryon to the point of torment, who thinks, "Even in dreams he doesn't know me at all."

One of the most interesting sections of this work occurs when Geryon, after some years, runs into Herakles (and his Peruvian lover, Ancash) in Buenos Aires. Herakles, Geryon and Ancash form a triangle that becomes a source of violence before it becomes a source of healing. Most interestingly, the village visited by this trio is a village of volcano-survivors who look upon Geryon and his red wings as godlike. But what I liked most about this section was Carson's amazing point and counterpoint. Her language is often profound, the language only the most poetic can write, yet in this section, especially, she juxtaposes that poeticism against the bizarre: a tango singer who just happens to be a psychoanalyst; a guerilla battle fought in the eye of a roast pig; and a surrealistic night flight over the peaks of the Andes with the passengers clutching toothbrushes and Herakles making love to Geryon under a blanket. Wow. Talk about creative.

Carson pushes the medium of poetry beyond its conventional bounds and creates a profound meditation of loss, of rage, of sadness, of melancholy, of redemption...all seen through the camera lens of Geryon...and Eros. She filters love through photography, through sexual awakening, through volcanoes, through Emily Dickinsin and she does so in language that is tender, musical, funny, melancholy, witty, sensuous, poignant and downright brilliant.

Is our beloved worth the pain? This is the question Carson seems to be asking in "Autobiography of Red." The answer might well be: Only if one has wings.

Carson tells the story of a photographer, Red, from childhood through early adulthood. The bulk of the story is about Red's growing sense of himself as an artist, and his romance/friendship with the buoyant, self-assured, and devilishly handsome Hercules. Red's story is based on the myth of Geryon, a shephard killed by the mythical Hercules.

Red fashions a fascinating life, and artistic response to life, from the "foul rag and bone shop" of his youth. In the same way, Carson rhapsodizes a touching lyric from extant shards of ancient poetry regarding Geryon. Carson is not afraid to address the deepest philosophical issues a few stanzas away from a description of the toddler Red playing with his "white trash" mother. (One challenging thought: Without mood we'd be continuous with the universe...only mood lets us sense we are in, but not of the world.)

The story works on so many levels-

the metaphor of Red's wings, for instance, representing the abnormality that both elevates and alienates him....

the image of the volcano, representing (oh, such an inadequate word for all the affinities, resonances, suggestiveness of her symbols!) libido, the natural order, all the inner depths and natural wonders we're afraid to explore. (I'm reminded of Stevens's Postcards from the Volcano...Carson's E. Dickinson epigraph on the topic is yet another light show of her learning.)

I could go on an on. Anyway, I highly recommend the NY Times Magazine Story on Anne Carson (and W. Szymborska, if you get the chance!)

One realizes great learning went into making this compressed though long-limbed poem about desire and being different/young/a victim/an artist/a god. The introductory sections on Stesychorus and the fragmentary record of his poem are alone worth the price of the book--ironic and playful and melancholy all at once. And it has a great ending.

Anne Carson depicts the poignant autobiography of Geryon. I couldn't put this book down after starting to read it; Carson accurately portrays life and the myriad of emotions that come along with it. You too will experience the happiness, joy, sorrow, and loneliness of Geryon.

this is anne carson at her best! the promise she showed in plainwater and eros the bittersweet comes alive here in one of the best books from the late 90s!

Her lines don't make sense and the story kinda peeters out at the end, but Anne Carson's knack for the odd and mysterious in everyday life is like no one else's. Read it for the language, if nothing else!

This is poetry, in that it is beautiful and uses words ever-so carefully, but this is prose, in that it reads as easily as a novel and tells an engaging story. Geryon is a wonderfully-precise protagonist, going through his adventures with a quiet endurance and an energetic attachment to them. He has something of the quality of a Franz Kafka, a Michael Stipe, or an Angela Chase, but he's not so broodingly self-absorbed; rather, he's observant and thoughtful about the world around him. If the early-90s alternative rock movement had been more attentive and less despairing, it would have sounded something like this book, and would have taken a bigger audience.

The framing prose, inventing some poetic fragments of an ancient Greek poet, asks us to look at the story-telling, as a parable of history-making, and makes us sensitive to the way the book uses language. If the book made me think about its construction as a book, though, it didn't keep me from reading it as a great story.

i read this book for the first time in january of 1999...i had searched everywhere for it after reading about it in time magazine, and when i got ahold of it i was hooked by the first page, on geryon, on anne carson, on red... in the past year i have returned to this book again and again..it has helped me through moves and other upheavals, and reading other work by carson makes me want to drop everything and dedicate myself to learning ancient greek. this is the most compelling, troubling, and comforting book i've read...well ever. if given the chance, this book shines in so many arenas...and whether or not it's prose isn't important.

Anne Carson is truly one of the greatest literary talents to come along in a long time. Her lyrical use of words and innovative writing format makes for a beautifully disturbing and profound book. The thoughts that go through Geryon's head, the words that spill from his mouth, and the situations that he finds himself in manifest themselves in a surprisingly poetic manner. Not only is this book standing in a class by itself because of Carson's stunning writing ability but also because it is, plainly stated, a great story. Everyone can find a bit of themselves in Geryon's coming of age and we all could benefit from his wisom. This is most definately a book not to be missed.

my friend Ryan sent me this book saying something like, "I heard Anne Carson read and fell in love on the spot." and i trust Ryan's opinion. _Autobiography of Red_ is honest, and that's what draws you in. my friend ben called it 'intoxicating', and i think that's about right. i found myself thinking about Geryon as i was walking to class in the morning. i wanted to know if he was going to be... well, just that. but it's sad, too, and it made me walk more slowly for a while. it made my mind heavy. this book is one that you will finish and then sit there and look at the cover and think. you'll think about love and pain and death and wings. you'll remember empty fruit bowls. it's amazing. now, go read it. please. Ryan was right again, as always.