Why you should read Red Doc> by Anne Carson

Dave Ritter plays keyboards and sings with Juno Award-winning band The Strumbellas. He's also the self-described book geek of the band, and right now he's reading Red Doc> by Anne Carson. He told The Next Chapter why he picked up this "poetic novel." This interview originally aired on March 7, 2016.

Red Doc> is a sequel to one of my favourite books of all time, The Autobiography of Red, which is a novel in poetry, or a poetic novel, that retells one of the myths of Herakles. The two main characters in that book are Geryon, a sort of red monster, and Herakles. They fall in love, and it doesn't go well. It's wildly creative, sort of set in the contemporary world. Carson draws from myth and pop culture — she's an academic and a scholar, so she also draws from all that. Red Doc> is the sequel, set 10 or 15 years later, and it's like returning to old friends. I'm just starting it, but it's like seeing someone in my family who I haven't seen for awhile. Visiting these characters again has been really fun.

Dave Ritter's comments have been edited and condensed.