- Autobiography of Red
infobox Book |
name = Autobiography of Red
title_orig =
translator =
image_caption =
author =Anne Carson
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country =United States
language = English
series =
genre =Fantasy
publisher =Alfred A. Knopf
pub_date =March 31 ,1998
english_pub_date =
media_type = Print (Hardcover )
pages = 149 pp
isbn = ISBN 0375401334
preceded_by =
followed_by ="Autobiography of Red" (1998) is a
verse novel byAnne Carson , based loosely on the myth ofGeryon and the Tenth Labor ofHerakles , especially on surviving fragments of the lyric poetStesichorus ' poem "Geryonis "."Autobiography of Red" is the story of a red winged monster living in the modern day. Sexually abused by his older brother, his affectionate mother too weak-willed to protect him, the monstrous young boy finds solace in photography and in a romance with a young man named Herakles. Herakles leaves his young lover at the peak of Geryon's infatuation; when Geryon comes across Herakles several years later on a trip to
Argentina , Herakles' new loverAncash forms the third point of alove triangle . The novel ends, ambiguously, with Geryon, Ancash, and Herakles stopping outside a bakery near avolcano .The book also contains Carson's very loose translation of the "Geryonsis" fragments, using many
anachronism s and taking many liberties, and some discussion of both Stesichorus and the Geryon myth, including a fictional interview with "Stesichorus," a veiled reference toGertrude Stein .
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.