Loosely based on the myth of Geryon and the Tenth Labor of Herakles, it is the story of a boy who, at least in a metaphorical sense, is the Greek monster Geryon. 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 lover Ancash forms the third point of a love triangle. The novel ends, ambiguously, with Geryon, Ancash, and Herakles stopping outside a bakery near a volcano. Anne Carson is a Canadian poet, essayist, translator, and professor of Classics. She taught at the University of Michigan, and at Princeton University from 1980 to 1987. She was a 1998 Guggenheim Fellow, and in 2000 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.
New York City, NY; NYC