Short Cuts: Selected Stories
by Raymond Carver
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 697)
Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
drunks
At my birthday party, I mentioned to someone that I had recently read these stories, and two other people, seperate from each other and from me, started raving about how good Carver is. It's true.
All I want to do after reading this guy's stories is drink and beat my wife. Except beautifully.
Sample quote, from "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?":
"For their honeymoon they drove to Guadalajara, and while they both enjoyed visiting the decayed churches and the poorly lig...more
All I want to do after reading this guy's stories is drink and beat my wife. Except beautifully.
Sample quote, from "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?":
"For their honeymoon they drove to Guadalajara, and while they both enjoyed visiting the decayed churches and the poorly lig...more
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I read Short Cuts after reading What We Talk About... and it's simply nowhere near as strong a collection, which seems fitting as it was compiled by Robert Altman and not Carver himself. About the highlights that don't completely overlap: "A Small Good Thing" is one of the highlights here, a more elaborate version of "The Bath" from What We Talk About... with names, emotions, and even a resolution(!) provided this time around. "They're Not Your Husband" is just abou...more
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Read in December, 2007
Carver's short stories are interesting and realistic. Some of the events are easy to relate to, they depict personal relationship problems and choices that sound familiar. The one story about the fishermen who find a dead body but continue their fishing trip because they are 1)die-hard fishing buddies and 2)she's already dead, is very eerie. Like "the fish that got away" stories, you never fully trust that account of what happened. I feel the characters are a little one dimensional, bu...more
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It's interesting to read what a filmmaker chose from Carver's stories. These are the most dramatic Carver stories I know, full of death, adultery, bar fights, rape, murder, abandoned dogs.... Nobody, say, sits around a table getting drunk for a really long time and talking about love. But they're great. And it's been long enough since I've seen the movie that I didn't recall who played which character, or get frustrated with liberties that were taken. A hint, perhaps, of Lyle Lovett in the ...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommended to Sheyla by:
Ms. Kelle Schilliaci
It’s amazing how details and small facts in a story let the reader use imagination, feelings and emotions. Once you let yourself get deep into the reading it’s not possible to stay indifferent to such a precise descriptions of things going on, in Carver’s stories. Obviously the sensitivity of the reader plays a big roll on the way someone can be affected by simple words placed on a piece of paper; but Carver gives such description on what he writes that it’s almost impossible not to reac...more
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I like the way the stories have certain elements in common and of course, Raymond Carver is an amazing writer who uses simple language to make complex exclamations. The subject matter could be dark but it was still common humanity, past to present and here to there. I wish I had started this website right after reading it so it was more fresh in my mind, but I did think that the man in the last story was the one in question in the first story...a nice question and answer set up. I've heard the m...more
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Read in June, 2008
I'm not really sure why I like Carver's stories.. I guess it's because they are unlike anything I have ever read before. They always leave you with a disturbed sense of mystery and loss, much like a Gregory Crewdson photograph. I don't know what it is about other people's problems that is so entertaining but I just couldn't put this book down.
My favorites are:
"Neighbors"- all time favorite
"Will You Be Quiet, Please?"
"Collectors"
"Tell the Women We'
My favorites are:
"Neighbors"- all time favorite
"Will You Be Quiet, Please?"
"Collectors"
"Tell the Women We'
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Carver is one of the great short story writers of the 20th Century. His stories range across the Pacific Northwest and parts of California, evoking the people, cities, and landscape. His works often are spare, but just as often he delves into the brutality and irrationality of human relationships.
The stories in this collection are taken from other collections, and were the basis for Robert Altman's film "Short Cuts".
The stories in this collection are taken from other collections, and were the basis for Robert Altman's film "Short Cuts".
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Read in September, 1993
The original collected stories by Raymond Carver that Robert Altman used in creating his 1993 movie Short Cuts. Some of the stories are minor, but the best ones (A Small, Good Thing; Tell The Women We're Going; Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?)are modern masterpieces of short fiction. If you're looking for one Carver book though, look for "Where I'm Calling From" instead.
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Read in September, 2002
recommends it for:
anyone who likes a book where lives crash into each other
This was a book we read in my Books and Film class at LVC. This is one of the better books I've ever read. The movie is worth a watch as well. There are various stories and they all eventually impact one another in surprising ways. Paul Haggis may have made waves with Crash, and though I've never seen it this is very much in a similar vein and it came first.
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Read in February, 2008
Del tot prescindible. Raymond Carver és conegut per crear el corrent del Dirty Realism en l'escriptura, i és cert. Els seus textos són una explicació amb llenguatge corrent del que passa, sense passatges descriptius ni retòrica. Cada conte no té res a veure amb l'anterior i costa fer-te amb els personatges.
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I read this on flights to/from Houston, in coach to Houston and in 1st class from Houston. It was a poignant and depressing read all the way through, which should surprise no one. However, I would like to challenge my friends to point me toward at least one Raymond Carver story that is remotely life affirming.
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I've read some of this before, but I'm reading it as a whole now, and I love it! Raymond Carver kinda has a dark side to his writing, but it's realistic and calculative. After every story I need to take a few long moments... to take it all in. It's really substantial without being too wordy or overdone.
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You might want to kill yourself upon finishing this collection (and if you're woman, you might want to punch Carver in the face juuust a little too), but god he can write so *much* in just six, seven pages. I can't think of a more perfect short story than "They're Not Your Husband."
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
Film buffs, short story/essay enthusiasts
This is a collection of the Raymond Carver stories that were used in the Robert Altman film "Short Cuts". The stories are interesting - little glimpses into everyday lives, and how quickly those lives can turn upside down. Kind of depressing, but interesting. Recommended.
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The version I have of this book is actually the smaller sized copy that came along with the SHORT CUTS Criterion Edition DVD. These all came from other collections, but if you're looking for a good Carver starter and an AWESOME Criterion DVD, get this.
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Read in February, 2000
recommends it for:
short-story lovers who want real life
I read this book several years after seeng the Robert Altman movie, "Short Cuts," which was based on these dark but excellent short stories by Raymond Carver. Real life isn't always kind. I highlly recommend this collection of stories.
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Read in December, 2007
Disturbing, good, full of misery. I definitely get caught up in this world; the language is very tight to the point of being abrupt; I am emotionally pulled this way and that. Maybe it isn't a pleasure to read but it is a marvel.
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This book would have gotten five stars...but in one of the stories this guy has his girlfriend pop his blackheads for him. Ugh. That's just a little too gritty for me. I had to change my opinion of him after that.
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Carver's prose is so clean and clear, and the stories are tauntly constructed, making the reader feel all things intensely, passionately and immediately. I'm going to look for more of his work.
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