Synopses & Reviews
In a stunningly original mix of poetry, drama, and narrative, Anne Carson brings the red-winged Geryon from Autobiography of Red, now called "G," into manhood, and through the complex labyrinths of the modern age. We join him as he travels with his friend and lover "Sad" (short for Sad But Great), a war veteran; and with Ida, an artist, across a geography that ranges from plains of glacial ice to idyllic green pastures; from a psychiatric clinic to the somber house where G's mother must face her death. Haunted by Proust, juxtaposing the hunger for flight with the longing for family and home, this deeply powerful verse picaresque invites readers on an extraordinary journey of intellect, imagination, and soul.
Review
“A startling picaresque unlike one might have read or imagined...[Carson’s] real inventiveness is the oddly engaging, oddly distancing story told in fragments that don’t want to end in a moral....Essential reading for poetry sophisticates.” Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal (starred review)
Review
“Breathtaking....Stunning....Personal, necessary and important. Anne Carson has a history of doing unpredictable and genre-crossing things....Read this book. You’ll find it hard to forget.” The New York Times Book Review
Review
“A mischievous blend of genres that is difficult to classify, but a joy to read....A companion piece to the now-classic Autobiography of Red, [it] continues her effort to revive the pleasures of narrative verse, and, facing the dread of mortality, to create spaces that are suspended in time....In Red Doc>, which can [like Autobiography] be read as fiction or poetry, darkly whimsical moments abound, and they charm....Carson delights in the kinetic energies of danger and desire that drive most novels, [and] shuffles the book’s real-time narrative with memories and dreams....Her poetry lets us surrender to the moment, then it surprises with action....Since the end returns us to the beginning, in a sense, with G revisiting his mother on her deathbed, it all may as well have been a dream. Either way, it's a memorable ride.” Cleveland Plain Dealer
Synopsis
**New York Magazine's Top 10 Books of 2013****GoodReads Reader’s Choice Award Winner**
Some years ago I wrote a book about a boy named Geryon who was red and had wings and fell in love with Herakles. Recently I began to wonder what happened to them in later life. Red Doc> continues their adventures in a very different style and with changed names.
To live past the end of your myth is a perilous thing.
About the Author
Anne Carson was born in Canada and teaches ancient Greek for a living.