all the Anne Carson books i’d like to take out at the library are always missing from the shelf—i finally took this one out so i could stop frowning at it. as i thought, i’m not so into the story here: it’s “the story of a marriage” and throughout the characters are called “the wife” and “the husband” but other characters have names. i love the way she writes though, the way she approaches her ideas and presents the concepts. i think over half the references went right over my head.

there is a reading group guide at the vintage website.