Anne Carson

This clear-eyed, brutal, moving, darkly funny book tells a single story in an immediate, accessible voice–29 “tangos” of narrative verse that take us vividly through erotic, painful, and heartbreaking scenes from a long-time marriage that falls apart. Only award-winning poet Anne Carson could create a work that takes on the oldest of lyrical subjects–love–and make it this powerful, this fresh, this devastating

A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos

The Beauty of the Husband

lauren amitirigala

“Why did nature give me over to this creature—don't call it my choice, 

by some pure gravity of existence itself,

Since Glass and God, which was her first full-length collection published in Britain and which was nominated for the 1998 Forward Prize, Anne Carson has published a book a year to extraordinary critical acclaim. Her last two volumes, Autobiography of Red and Men in the Off Hours were both shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, and she has received numerous North American awards, including the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. In her brilliant new book, she tells a single story. A long-time love, now a crumbling marriage, unfolds in 29 'tangos' of narrative verse, informed by the romanticism of Keats, the wisdom of the classical world and, most importatnly, by Carson's own unique sensibility. The unnamed narrator - sometimes 'I', sometimes 'the wife' - speaks of the man she calls only 'the husband', illuminating moments that are by turn sensual, erotic, painful and heartbreaking. The Beauty of the Husband is a work that explores these oldest of lyrical subjects - beauty, desire, love, betrayal - with freshness and devastating power.

The Beauty Of The Husband

Terry Nguyen

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

Helena

vanessa

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

iamazoo

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.

madina

Emily Morgan

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.”

Prashant Prasad

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

Anna Talbot

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

The Beauty of the Husband A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos

Reviews

Highlights