Notes from Source: A motley crew steers Anne Carson’s FLOAT (Knopf, >30). There’s Edmund Husserl, Jean-Luc Godard, Joan of Arc, Pablo Picasso, mad Hölderlin, Hegel, a chorus of Gertrude Steins, and Carson’s noble, demented uncle Harry, not to mention the usual Greek suspects: late-arriving Odysseus, howling Cassandra, and a rather tetchy Zeus. What else would you expect from Carson — renowned classicist, translator, and polymath? The book is actually a collection of twenty-three chapbooks of poetry, drama, and mental peregrinations stacked in an acetate case; most have been published or performed before, but a few are new or expanded. Whether one skims or dives, there are treasures to be found. The two playlets of “Uncle Falling” plumb family tragedy; “Powerless Structures Fig. II (Sanne),” about the death of Carson’s brother’s wife, is a heartbreaker; “Eras of Yves Klein” and “Good Dog I, II and III” are goofy fun; and from the essay “Contempts,” I learned a new way of looking at Brigitte Bardot’s bottom. Still, the question arises: twenty-three chapbooks?