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47th out of 47 books
—
12 voters
All of Us: The Collected Poems
"Carver's poetry is like an almost invisible strand of fishing line reeling us all together, connecting us by the heart." --San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle
This prodigiously rich collection suggests that Raymond Carver was not only America's finest writer of short fiction, but also one of its most large-hearted and affecting poets.Like Carver's stories, the more than 3...more
This prodigiously rich collection suggests that Raymond Carver was not only America's finest writer of short fiction, but also one of its most large-hearted and affecting poets.Like Carver's stories, the more than 3...more
Paperback, 416 pages
Published
April 4th 2000
by Vintage
(first published 1988)
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Jul 14, 2008
Baiocco
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
alcoholics or addicts in recovery
Shelves:
poetry
I read one Raymond Carver story called Cathedral recommended by my friend Jason and it kicked ass. It was about an aloof alcoholic whose wife invites over an old friend of her younger years who happens to be blind. It was terrific.
I don't like reading too many short stories by the same writer that are terrific because my expectations get too high and they usually turn out to all be terrific in the same way, a way probably unknown and unintened by the author, but a way nonetheless as I come to se...more
I don't like reading too many short stories by the same writer that are terrific because my expectations get too high and they usually turn out to all be terrific in the same way, a way probably unknown and unintened by the author, but a way nonetheless as I come to se...more
Raymond Carver is known only for his short stories and his poems, as he never completed a novel. His style is characterized by a dutiful honesty that is sometimes beautiful, sometimes brutal and embarrassing, yet never self-indulgent. An exhaustive compilation of most, if not all, of Raymond Carver's published poems, All Of Us contains some works that will stay with you the rest of your life. Far from being a wallower, Carver nakedly charts his downslope into abject alcoholism and the quiet triu...more
Jul 25, 2012
Bibliomantic
is currently reading it
I have always admired Carver's stories, even when some of them were unpleasant to read due to the directness with which he made some of what his characters were going through feel so real. Now I find out that he was a poet first, and really last as well. These are good. They read like his stories, though sometimes with a tighter focus on an emotion, or a sense of something. It's nice too that they are all collected in one perfectly printed Vintage Contemporaries paperback--one of my favorite pub...more
God damn you, Raymond Carver. You spent time with Haruki Murakami when your books were selling better in Japan than America. Because the Japanese were infatuated by the deep roots of shame in your work, and we were too scared of how it made us feel. You spent time with Bukowski when he had money and threw it around like a man who understood how ephemeral it was. You were the best and no one knew it until you were dead. I love you, Raymond Carver. The same way I love my dad, like a god, untouchab...more
Raymond Carver is perhaps the most under-appreciated poet of the post-modern world. Known almost exclusively as a short story writer, even the might Norton Anthology does not mention his work as a poet. Carver was as good a poet as he was a fiction writer, and this collection contains pretty much all of his poems.
Spare, stark, and honest, Carver's work perhaps is neglected because it is so accessible. But don't let that fool you. This is art. Great art on supposedly artless subjects, like fishin...more
Spare, stark, and honest, Carver's work perhaps is neglected because it is so accessible. But don't let that fool you. This is art. Great art on supposedly artless subjects, like fishin...more
Raymond Carver's poems vary in style and length and subject a great deal, and there were some I liked a lot more than others. By the end, the book seemed to drag a bit, as it took me a long time to finish it because of college courses, and by the time I finally managed to finish it, I was a little sick of reading only poetry. But that's not Raymond Carver's fault. I love his poetry because it is clean and clear, but still paints a picture. It doesn't use complicated language or complex poetic de...more
Your Dog Dies
You Don't Know What Love Is (an evening with Charles Bukowski)
The Mailman as Cancer Patient
The Ashtray
Still Looking Out for Number One
Next Year
Energy
Locking Yourself Out, Then Trying to Get Back In
My Boat
Plus
Reading Something in the Restaurant
The Author of Her Misfortune
The Possible
An Account
Waiting
Left off the highway and
down the hill. At the
bottom, hang another left.
Keep bearing left. The road
will make a Y. Left again.
There's a creek on the left.
Keep going. Just before
the road e...more
You Don't Know What Love Is (an evening with Charles Bukowski)
The Mailman as Cancer Patient
The Ashtray
Still Looking Out for Number One
Next Year
Energy
Locking Yourself Out, Then Trying to Get Back In
My Boat
Plus
Reading Something in the Restaurant
The Author of Her Misfortune
The Possible
An Account
Waiting
Left off the highway and
down the hill. At the
bottom, hang another left.
Keep bearing left. The road
will make a Y. Left again.
There's a creek on the left.
Keep going. Just before
the road e...more
view 2 comments
I don't read much poetry, but I really enjoyed this collection. I much more enjoyed the earlier collections -- Fires and Where Water Comes Together with Other Water. By the time you get to Ultramarine, and then especially in
A New Path to the Waterfall
, Carver has abandoned the fishing streams and trailer parks that make his work accessible, touching, and human, and has begun to focus on higher subjects, like Greek mythology, Chekhov, and, especially, dying. The final collection is incredibly s...more
I know it's hip to hate him and now with the Lish melodrama going on, he's even more tarnished I suppose. But I've always been a big fan of the writing even with its uneven quality. The poems are often despised for their prosoid, talky, confessionalist New Yorker qualities...there are some like that in here but the vast majority strike me as successful transpositions of a particular school of Russian poetry into English. He's very Russian for an American. I think he was trying to write up to Che...more
Re-reading carver stirs up so much heart, wisdom, loss, hope, and all the rest. I miss him --- find myself wishing he was still here and writing. These poems have me determined to read again his stories --- and to read them in the Carver version that was re-released a few years ago (as opposed to the earlier published versions of the stories that had been edited so fiercely by Gordon Lish).
Ultramarine is the most memorable section of this book.
There is a poem about looking at an amputated leg on the surgery table that is vivid. Carver had a job as a janitor at that surgery suite so he wrote a poem about it.
There is another poem that mentions M.F.K Fisher which lead me to The Gastronomical Me
Also the sense of the North West and fishing is pleasant. The imagines of Milk and Roe of the salmon seems to have said something about creativity.
There is a poem about looking at an amputated leg on the surgery table that is vivid. Carver had a job as a janitor at that surgery suite so he wrote a poem about it.
There is another poem that mentions M.F.K Fisher which lead me to The Gastronomical Me
Also the sense of the North West and fishing is pleasant. The imagines of Milk and Roe of the salmon seems to have said something about creativity.
Very ordinary things happening around all of us had become amazing poems in the capable hands of Raymond Carver, particularly the prose poems at the end of the book. When I borrowed the book, I never expected to be mesmerized by its simple and straightforward style, so that I would read more than 300 poems in two or three days. If one is interested in poetry, one should not miss experiencing Carver's poems.
Lo tuve en mis manos hace 4 años, creo. Y no me lo llevé. Hoy se ha sentado conmigo en el sillón, y he charlado con Ray como charlan dos colegas. Porque esa es la sensación que transmite.
Apasionante, duro, conmovedor, desequilibrante e histórico. Una técnica compositiva cuidada y mimada al mínimo punto y coma.
Fantástico. Fuerte. Genial.
Apasionante, duro, conmovedor, desequilibrante e histórico. Una técnica compositiva cuidada y mimada al mínimo punto y coma.
Fantástico. Fuerte. Genial.
I'm not finished with this book yet, but I already know without a doubt that it gets a perfect score. I'm even breaking my rule against rating the book before I finish it, a practice my linear sensibility finds distasteful. I guess it makes sense that it is a book of poetry to pull me away from the careful mental boundaries and boxes I construct for myself.
Here is a taste of Carver's absolute gorgeousness. This poem, included in this volume, has long been a dear favorite of mine-- it is what ind...more
Here is a taste of Carver's absolute gorgeousness. This poem, included in this volume, has long been a dear favorite of mine-- it is what ind...more
The story of Raymond Carver's life is a poem in itself, with the hero moving from wreck and ruin to a kind of noble damage with the power to save others. LIke his prose, it's not delicate, so read it when you need someone who's Been There. "Late Fragment", in its simplicity, is my favorite poem of all time.
I've been nursing this collection of Carver's poetry for quite awhile now, and I'm glad I did. Like many others, on balance I prefer his prose to his poetry, but this collection demonstrates that he wrote some excellent poems, too. He has a simple, straightforward style that carries a lot of strength, and some of these poems are among my favorites I have read by recent poets. Not all the poems are excellent, but some are and most of the collection is at least good. The final few poems, written a...more
Although I love Ray's stories, his poems are just as good but unfortunately, less read. The chance to write about your mortality while still alive, reflecting on the end of your life and career while still living... that's really something.
I have not read all of the poems in this book but most of the ones that I have read are outstanding. A few of my favorites are
My Daughter and Apple Pie
The Party
Happiness in Cornwall
The Window
My Daughter and Apple Pie
The Party
Happiness in Cornwall
The Window
I'll be honest- I only made it about 90 pages into this collection before I stopped reading. I didn't really connect with Carver through his poems in any meaningful way, so i quit reading.
I liked the 'Shortcuts' film so thought I'd give this a go. Whoa. Wasn't expecting such raw and intense memory and emotion in these prose poems. Achingly beautiful. Will investigate more of his work now I think.
I don't remember if I've made it all the way through this poetry collection or not; I'm better at remembering individual volumes rather than collected works.
Carver is a master of the line break that same way that Bukowski was. Sometimes, the words may seem mundane, but it's the line breaks that can break your heart every time. I'm in love with the poem "Luck"--in LOVE with it. A lot of times I'll read it to beginning poetry students as an example of how poetry is writing what we really want to s...more
Carver is a master of the line break that same way that Bukowski was. Sometimes, the words may seem mundane, but it's the line breaks that can break your heart every time. I'm in love with the poem "Luck"--in LOVE with it. A lot of times I'll read it to beginning poetry students as an example of how poetry is writing what we really want to s...more
Because this is going to be so well reviewed in the land of his birth and life and death I am only going to add that it was his vision and poetic work that most interested and engaged me from America across the ocean. It's humanity and spare, intense language worked as hard as very good theatre on my imagination and he had more empathy in his little finger than most contemporary poets in my country.
Your Dog Dies alone is worth the price of the book. Mesopotamia is another favorite of mine. Some didn't appeal, but you can't deny the man knew what he was doing.
I've always devoured on Raymond Carver short stories. They were a great inspiration for me and with 'All of Us' recent read it added so much more.
Pretty much unnoticed masterpiece. I wrote a review that covered this book as well as four others. You can find it here:
http://hubpages.com/hub/FiveBestNewBo...
http://hubpages.com/hub/FiveBestNewBo...
wish i could hang with ray. these poems aren't polished, but neither was he. they are beautiful, many of them, and i feel lucky to have them on my shelf. he was especially gifted at closing the deal, and putting a final emphasis on his thoughts.
This book has been an on going bedside read for the last couple months. I pick it up to feel Carver's vibe when I need it.
Jan 18, 2011
Jim Pascual Agustin
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
reading-again
This is one of the few books that I return to when the world grows too dark. A proper review will have to follow one day.
Lovely. Carver, being the best short story writer I know, also scratches off any glossy layer of comfort in his poems.
Not sure whether to thank Carver or Lish or both, but these are some taut and finely constructed poems.
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Carver was born into a poverty-stricken family at the tail-end of the Depression. The son of a violent alcoholic, he married at 19, started a series of menial jobs and his own career of 'full-time drinking as a serious pursuit'. A career that would eventually kill him. Constantly struggling to support his wife and family Carver enrolled in a writing programme under author John Gardner in 1958 and...more
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“There is in the soul a desire for not thinking.
For being still. Coupled with this
a desire to be strict, yes, and rigorous.
But the soul is also a smooth son of a bitch,
not always trustworthy. And I forgot that.”
—
23 people liked it
For being still. Coupled with this
a desire to be strict, yes, and rigorous.
But the soul is also a smooth son of a bitch,
not always trustworthy. And I forgot that.”
“All of us, all of us, all of us trying to save our immortal souls, some ways seemingly more round about and mysterious than others. We are having a good time here. But hope all will be revealed soon.”
—
7 people liked it
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