Autobiography of Red is inventive in a sense that it makes familiar things unfamiliar, by intentional discrepancy and absence. It claims to be an old Greek myth. However, it is a contemporary queer love story where Hercules who used to be a hero historically is a heartbreaker while Geryon, a red monster, is the one readers might cheer for and love. It also claims to be an autobiography, but it is rather a biography of Geryon writing an autobiography. The interview of the author, inserted at the last pages of the book, does not possess any answer or guide about interpreting the book.
The difference between what it is expected to be and what actually it is points out contradictions and oppressions of the world we are expected to live. By retelling the old myth that was pervasively known in a new perspective, the novel suggests there might be stories of minorities untold and unknown in our world. By hiding what the Geryon is writing about in his autobiography, which must be Geryon’s understanding of himself, in other words, his own identity, the biography written in a third party perspective refuses to determine Geryon’s identity. By asking questions while answering nothing in the interview, the novel opens up enough room for readers to imagine infinite possibilities in the book. Overall, the novel adapts forms of perspicuity, such as a heroic myth, an autobiography and an interview, and turns these into inspiring texts that does not dictate readers what to see, and that reveals forgotten and abandoned sides of our world.