A review by corvuscorax
Decreation: Poetry, Essays, Opera by Anne Carson

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

This was the most Anne Carson book of poetry I could have ever imagined. I will come right out and say that she is much better at literary analysis than at poetry, but it feels as if she is mildly aware of this. At the very least, she plays to her strengths in this book. The thematic division through essays was very fitting, and manages to put her work in the context of its sources of inspiration in a very gentle and original way. The section that gives the book its name was my absolute favourite, and it even made me sort of accept the existence of sample poems. Carson does incredibly insightful stuff with samples, which I begrudgingly started to see as a part of the cohesive story she was telling. 

Here are a few of my favourite sections of the book:

• The poem "Lines"
• The essay about sleep, especially her linking it with the distortion of space and time 
• The essay written from the perspective of an inmate at an asylum
• Opening Gun Dialogue and Tender Guns, the latter for its impeccable parallel with ancient Greek mythology and its superb rendition of what it is to be merciless and armed
• H&A screenplay, mainly because I remembered that Abelard was a philosopher with a very specific conception of universals quite late and it made me appreciate the whole thing a lot more - scene two was heart-wrenching
• Decreation, particularly the 4th essay, the play about Hephaistos and Fight Cherries