
The Beauty of the Husband A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos
Reviews

horrifying in the best way possible. suddenly you realize that this story has you in a chokehold.

3.5*

An interesting concept. I don’t know why I keep reading things about failed marriages but here we are.

usually i find this type of cerebral / experimental(?) poetry too impenetrable to enjoy, but the “narrative” here was compelling enough to make this a thrilling read.

i think this is such a good deconstruction to the materialism vs idealism of "love", of heterosexual romance, of man's dominion over woman in a heteronormative society. the pull of beauty to a man by this woman rather than the vice versa - i couldn't help it even if the world told me he was bad news.

I must revisit this book, it feels like something for a different time. But I loved it and I love Anne Carson, eternally. “On a June evening. Here’s my advice, hold. Hold beauty.”

“Desire doubled is love and love doubled is madness.”

I am so completely in love with Carson’s work, and every book by her i read affirms this. This book is no exception.
















Highlights

“Why did nature give me over to this creature—don't call it my choice,
I was ventured:
by some pure gravity of existence itself,
conspiracy of being!
We were fifteen.”
she understands like no other

Note these two people who are not yet married stand embedded in the destiny of husband and wife as firmly as any two contiguous molecules in a chain reaction and he is whispering into the place on her neck that he shaved with his own razor an hour ago — It is very hard to be erotic with you.
Tango XVIII