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

A book that captures the beauty and difficulty of love, relationship, and time, more than any I have read.

beautiful and shocking. a piece for any reader. the essential beauty and shocking nature of the human is wonderfully conveyed in this piece. i participate in competitive forensics and placed 9th in the state with this piece, in my first year. the piece has so many levels that it can be understood and throughly enjoyed by the least literate, least educated and those with doctorate degrees in literature. while it may not have the same spirit as many of carson's other works, it has a beauty of its own as it creates a very complex comprehensive story of a husband and betrayed wife, with wonderful words in the 28th tango. remember "hold, hold beauty." those who are still trapped in carson's other works remember to allow the writer grow too, don't confine her to what you think she should be doing. remain open to changes in carson... she has not yet reached her prime.

Anne Carson has written a beautiful book of poems/tangoes that somehow tell the story of a marriage without actually telling a story. We have fully realized moments, conversations (Carson writes amazing poetic conversations, here and in her other works), events -- without all the connections in between. And yet these moments are woven together, internally and from one tango to the next, with language used as the steps of a dance, providing motifs and figures that carry the reader from one page to the next. Dance, games, rules, war, the rules of war, love, beauty, truth, lies and betrayal -- all of these themes run in and out of the complicated pattern of steps. The technique always serves the lyric, however, and we never lose sight of the feelings Carson wishes to evoke. You feel the separate pains of each betrayal (her betrayal of her mother, the not-yet-husband's failure to appear for their wedding, his first infidelity, each subsequent lie), but despite the pain there is no bitterness in this book -- in fact, Carson's final advice is to "hold beauty." Just as you cannot tell the tale of the lover without telling the tale of the beloved (as the final poem ironically suggests), so, perhaps, you cannot have love, beauty and truth without their opposites. Carson, plainly, is on the side of beauty.

I disagree with the naysayers.....I just heard Ms. Carson read some of these poems and they are powerful and emotional. These poems are very different from GLASS, IRONY AND GOD or AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN RED but she is just increasing her range. I am amazed at how wide she is able to cast her net, her economy of language, her wide range of references in history, literature, the classics, pop culture. I think when you see her read (and I think her poetry is still great if one doesn't hear her read) her wry humour really clicks....it is amazing how much emotion she is able to convey through her wit....I think she is one of the most unique and refreshing voices in literature today. She is a very exciting poet.

Anne Carson's poetry reflects an unusual intelligence. Her coruscating language combined with a sensitive nature make for a truly unusual book of poetry.