A review by mrsdallogay
The Albertine Workout by Anne Carson

4.0

Carson's pamphlet provides a wry deconstruction of the character of Albertine from Proust's In Search of Lost Time. Working out the critical and analytical significance of this character allows Carson to examine lesbianism, female freedom and love: all in a brisk, yet densely intelligent 38 pages. Particularly, the discussion of wanting to own the "other" yet then becoming dissatisfied by owning, and therefore knowing the other is astutely realised and a point I found to be highly interesting and still pertinent to contemporary human relations. Carson notes however that Proust's narrator would never be able to posses Albertine, after all:

"how can he possess her mind if she is a lesbian?"