Red Doc

Red Doc> is a book by classicist and poet Anne Carson, which combines poetry, prose, and drama. Published in 2013, it resumes the story of her 1998 verse novel Autobiography of Red.

Red Doc>

First edition
Author	Anne Carson
Publisher	Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date	2013
Awards	Griffin Poetry Prize
Preceded by	Autobiography of Red

The characters of both poems are modern re-imaginings of the Greek mythological figures Geryon and Herakles, as described in Stesichoros' poem Geryoneis. Stesichoros' poem retells the tenth labour of Herakles, in which Herakles kills the monster Geryon, a winged red being, in order to steal his cattle. In Autobiography of Red, Geryon was a teenage boy, artistic and gay, in love with the popular and charming Herakles. Red Doc> resumes their story as adults. Geryon is now known as G, and Herakles is referred to in the poem as Sad But Great after his return from war with PTSD. G and Sad go on a road trip with an artist named Ida to make their way to visit G's dying mother.[1]

Red Doc> was reviewed by Katryn Schulz as "greater than... the sum of its parts," successfully bringing together disparate elements:

This is Carson's obsession, and her gift: to make meaning from the fragments we get, which are also all we get – of time, of the past, of each other. It doesn't last, of course; the arrow of gravity, like the arrow of time, points only in one direction. Still, for a moment, she gets it all to hang together up there, the joy made keener by the coming fall. Sad but great: In the end it seemed to me that Carson had found the proper name for everything – her character, this book, this life.[2]

Red Doc> was awarded the 2014 Griffin Poetry Prize.[3]