Autobiography of Red

In the Greek myth, Geryon is a winged red monster that Herakles kills to steal his cattle. The poem by Stesichorus that told the story survives only in fragments. Anne Carson picks up the pieces and builds something else.

Here, Geryon is a shy boy living on an Atlantic island in the present day. He has red wings he hides as best he can, and an older brother who treats him badly. From early on he works on an autobiography, first in words, later in photographs.

At 14 he meets Herakles, two years older, handsome and a smooth talker. Geryon falls for him on the spot. Their romance is intense and lopsided: Herakles sets the pace and Geryon follows. Years later, now a grown man, Geryon travels to Buenos Aires, and the past comes knocking again.

Before the novel starts, Carson opens with essays and loose translations of the original fragments. Then come 47 short chapters in alternating long and short unrhymed lines. It's a book about desire, loneliness and how you see yourself when no one else does.