Red's Autobiography (Vintage Contemporaries)

In a stunning work that seamlessly blends the genres of novel and poem, the award-winning poet Anne Carson reinvents an ancient Greek myth, crafting a wholly original coming-of-age story set in the present. Autobiography of Red is a profoundly moving portrait of an artist grappling with the fantastic accident of his own identity.

At the heart of this multifaceted narrative is Geryon, a young boy who is also a winged red monster. Through an autobiography he begins writing at the age of five, Geryon reveals the volcanic terrain of his fragile, tormented soul. As he grows older, Geryon escapes the abuse of his brother and the affectionate yet ineffectual care of his mother, finding solace behind the lens of his camera and in the arms of a young man named Herakles - a cavalier drifter who ultimately leaves him at the peak of their infatuation.

Years later, when Herakles reappears, Geryon confronts the pain of his lingering desire and embarks on a journey that will fully unleash his creative imagination. By turns whimsical and haunting, erudite and accessible, richly layered and deceptively simple, Autobiography of Red is a work of profound emotional resonance.

Hailed as a "NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR" and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, this genre-defying masterpiece has been lauded by renowned author Michael Ondaatje as the work of "the most exciting poet writing in English today." The New York Times Book Review praised it as "a profound love story...sensuous and funny, poignant, musical and tender," while The Village Voice described it as "a deeply odd and immensely engaging book" in which the author "exposes with passionate force the mythic underlying the explosive everyday."

Through Geryon's captivating journey of self-discovery, Carson deftly weaves together the threads of ancient myth and contemporary experience, creating a work that is both unconventional in its form and profoundly universal in its exploration of the human condition. Autobiography of Red stands as a testament to the power of the creative imagination to illuminate the complexities of identity, desire, and the search for meaning in a world that can be both whimsical and haunting.

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