Preview
  • Autobiography of Red

  • Vintage Contemporaries Series
  • By: Anne Carson
  • Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
  • Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (117 ratings)

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Autobiography of Red

By: Anne Carson
Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
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Publisher's summary

The award-winning poet Anne Carson reinvents a genre in Autobiography of Red, a stunning work that is both a novel and a poem, both an unconventional recreation of an ancient Greek myth and a wholly original coming-of-age story set in the present.

Geryon, a young boy who is also a winged red monster, reveals the volcanic terrain of his fragile, tormented soul in an autobiography he begins at the age of five. As he grows older, Geryon escapes his abusive brother and affectionate but ineffectual mother, finding solace behind the lens of his camera and in the arms of a young man named Herakles, a cavalier drifter who leaves him at the peak of infatuation. When Herakles reappears years later, Geryon confronts again the pain of his desire and embarks on a journey that will unleash his creative imagination to its fullest extent.

By turns whimsical and haunting, erudite and accessible, richly layered and deceptively simple, Autobiography of Red is a profoundly moving portrait of an artist coming to terms with the fantastic accident of who he is.

©1998 Anne Carson (P)2016 Tantor
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What listeners say about Autobiography of Red

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
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Perfect Poetry

This is how poetry is meant to be given! Incredible strange story of a red boy.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Wholly Original and Entirely Captivating

Refreshing original narrative. Captivated my imagination and understanding each moment of the literary journey. Anne Carson is a star writer.

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2 people found this helpful

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good

excellent audio adaptation of an unconventional text. worth the while. if you're into that sort of thing

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Wow. Those that write of poetry are really stretching it.

This was nothing I expected from reading reviews. The reviews remind me of the emperors new clothes. The story while beautifully written for the most part was disconnected and splintered. There was a message but I was able to discern that very early on then it was a slog.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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A masterpiece

What a magnificent artistic vision. I felt truly transported by the descriptions, like I was there myself zoomed into every detail.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing performance

The reader’s interpretation of this book makes it beautiful and clear, where it is not always clear to read silently.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Incendiary Novel in Verse

Gorgeous flow, hilarious tone and wit, all within such a moving story arranged in genius poetic prose. SO SO BRILLIANT I have to let my thoughts marinate closer to the molten golden goodness Anne Carson serves here. HIGHLY RECOMMEND to set your soul on fire.

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Beautiful writing and narration

The story so charged with love, and its language subtle and incredibly beautiful. Even if its message in its entirety remains a bit cryptic to me upon finishing it, I am still in awe of the stills Anne Carson created through an intense command of language. Totally recommend this one.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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broken audiobook

last parts of the book had no audio. don't know how it ended. don't care.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Could not get into it

Could not understand or get into it. Not the authors fault based on the awesome reviews. Apparently not my style of writing.

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1 person found this helpful