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Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?

4.35 of 5 stars 4.35 · rating details · 5,059 ratings · 225 reviews

With this, his first collection, Carver breathed new life into the short story. In the pared-down style that has since become his hallmark, Carver showed how humour and tragedy dwell in the hearts of ordinary people, and won a readership that grew with every subsequent brilliant collection of stories, poems and essays that appeared in the last eleven years of his life.

Paperback, 192 pages

Published November 5th 2009 by Vintage Classics (first published 1976)

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Sep 11, 2012 Madeleine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: head-in-the-clouds-nose-in-a-book, our-libeary, peer-pressure, mmxii

This has been one of the most rewarding, most enjoyable years I've had in more than two decades of being an insatiable reader. I've discovered new authors to idolize, fallen even harder for longstanding heroes, experienced the rabid glee of revisiting much-loved works and immersed myself in genres that I suddenly cannot live without. Unfortunately, the awe of January's introduction to the raw beauty of Raymond Carver (who has forever changed my interest in and opinion of short stories for the be...more This has been one of the most rewarding, most enjoyable years I've had in more than two decades of being an insatiable reader. I've discovered new authors to idolize, fallen even harder for longstanding heroes, experienced the rabid glee of revisiting much-loved works and immersed myself in genres that I suddenly cannot live without. Unfortunately, the awe of January's introduction to the raw beauty of Raymond Carver (who has forever changed my interest in and opinion of short stories for the better with his mastery of the medium) fell by the wayside as I became increasingly besotted with the way post-modernism blew apart everything I thought I knew about my bookish taste.

What a delight it was to return to the terse, hyper-reality of Carver's deceptively short and tightly structured snapshots of life. My wariness of short stories stems from reading too many undeveloped or overwrought examples of it; Carver, however, is the king of cramming years of quiet suffering into an eight-page story, of building agonizing suspense in a matter of lines, of making the reader feel every aching pang of every one of his characters. That doesn't sound terribly delightful, does it? But it is. It so is. Because not one of these fictional feelings that evoke real-life responses comes even close to the conflicted bliss of losing oneself in page after minutely crafted page of brilliant, profoundly disquieting storytelling. Neither wishing a story would end so these characters could be put out of their misery while also not wanting to get closer to finishing one of Carver's precious few works nor the growing knot in my stomach while reading some of these stories kept me from rolling around in his words with nerdy abandon.

I wasn't as universally drawn to the characters in these stories as I was with "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love": There seemed to be more Domestic Strife With Children (which I can't relate to) in this collection and the instances of people being less than awesome to animals (which I can't deal with) automatically turned me off a little bit. But that's really where my petty complaints stop.

Most of these stories felt like those moments of stark clarity right before the shit hits the fan, when a carpet stain or isolated section of tablecloth pattern is your entire field of vision because it's the only thing keeping your world together with its desperate normalcy. It captures those moments that become significant not for what they are but rather for what they're a prelude to. And I love that so many of these taciturn tales start like an establishing shot before slowly zeroing in on the heart of the matter with an intimidating combination of misdirection, back story and realism to underscore the rising action that's typically outside the scope of these stories. Carver shows (not tells!) that there's so much more than the traditional climax of a story, that sometimes the rising action is more indicative of the resolution than anything else. There are so many directions for the narrative to go as Carver keeps fine-tuning its path, usually arriving at an ending drenched with hopelessness and only one logical, deftly implied conclusion. It's a morbid celebration of how all these tiny moments comprise the bigger picture and determine the trajectory of a life.

The juxtaposition of the stories' unusual focal points (chopping wood, aimless wandering, awkward small talk) against very relatable troubles (children's skirmishes that call for adults' intervention, unhappy marriages, occupational dissatisfaction, feeling like the American Dream is always juuuuust out of reach) is the best kind of understatement. Even with my favorite literary device being expertly executed over and over again, what I found especially interesting was that all these little details concerning everything BUT the very unhappy elephant in the room offered such a vivid contrast between the way people lived in the '60s and '70s compared to the way we live now: So much has changed in the world and absolutely nothing has changed about the human condition. I'd be willing to bet that Carver's legacy will include the way his writing both serves as a time capsule of human sadness and offers irrefutable evidence that quiet misery is modern society's major linking factor because we've all been keenly acquainted with any five emotions tearing through these pages at some point in our pasts. (less)

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Jan 02, 2013 Con McVeety rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Due back to the library today, they only have one copy and it's a big library system with many branches, I once read that Carver is one of the authers whose's books are most stolen, maybe that is why they only have one. The librarian wouldn't give the address or even a name of the person who requested it. I can't fathom why, all I would do was contact whoever it was and say to them , "You read Carver and so do I, What's your most favorite one and hey let's get coffee, cause us readers have to st...more

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Dec 26, 2011 Meghan Fidler rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american-literature

Haruki Murakami translated this book (and many of the works of Scott Fitzgerald) into Japanese... and with good reason. Raymond Carver is an excellent distiller of the middle-class suburban American experience, and this book contains 22 short stories which begin without a beginning, and end without ending, holding the readers attention through subtle underlying tensions between characters. They fit wonderfully into Japanese expectations of contemporary storytelling.
The short stories captivated...more

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Apr 09, 2009 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-classic, short-stories-are-your-friends

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Not a review, just a summary - might be useful...

“Fat” - A waitress serves a fat man and is moved by the experience.

“Neighbors” - A couple house-sitting for neighbors are gradually taking over their neighbors’ lives. They begin to enjoy the feeling of
voyeurism and begin to hope: One says, “Maybe they won’t come back.”

“The Idea” - A couple spies on a man who spies on his own wife from his garden.

“They’re Not your Husband”* - An out of work salesman makes his waitress wife diet when he realise...more

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May 22, 2012 AC rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories, novels-english-american-writers

What a sad, really heart-breaking collection of little stories; each one of them masterfully built.

I remember back in the 80's, when I wasn't reading literature, how Carver was mocked by many in the media for his minimalist style -- yet not a hint about the emotional intelligence contained in his writings. Just wonderful.

It's also a small personal triumph for me, as I'm learning finally how to read short story collections.

Anyway, great stuff.

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May 22, 2007 Norman Brettski rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is one of those blow your hair back, curl your toes books. It’s like drinking juice concentrate. All the stories are brief and "to the point". Yes they are minimalist, but more to the point, Carver captures the human experience at a certain important moment in time. Further character study, plot explanation, or environment description are a waste and would only water down the tale on the page. Carver does away with all this fodder as well as any author I have ever read.

A friend once told m...more

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Nov 19, 2008 Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

such a masterpiece collection of the short story form. Gritty, isolated, real and honest. Quoting the NY Times Book Review, "they are especially artful in their suggestion of repressed violence."

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Aug 15, 2012 Tara rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, read-in-09, short-stories

Brilliant. I don't know what else I could really say to drive the point home.

Reading Carver's short stories feels like being a little kid reading a pop-up book. The characters are human--fragile, funny, scarred, real. In my opinion, a big challenge in writing short stories is being able to really get a strong feel of a character within a short amount of time without a whole lot being said.

And he executes this perfectly. If only I could write this concisely. It's a rarity in short fiction.

I will...more

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Jan 07, 2013 Jillwilson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“…prose is architecture and the Baroque age is over.” Carver’s stories are a beige block of 1960s flats with paint peeling off the window surrounds. Reading these stories, I’m reminded of the cartoons of Oslo Davis- each is a glimpse of something deeper, maybe sadder. In an interview, he said “I write the best kind of story I can write . . . The story ought to reveal something, but not everything. There should be a certain mystery in the story. No, I don't want the reader to be frustrated, but i...more “…prose is architecture and the Baroque age is over.” Carver’s stories are a beige block of 1960s flats with paint peeling off the window surrounds. Reading these stories, I’m reminded of the cartoons of Oslo Davis- each is a glimpse of something deeper, maybe sadder. In an interview, he said “I write the best kind of story I can write . . . The story ought to reveal something, but not everything. There should be a certain mystery in the story. No, I don't want the reader to be frustrated, but it's true I create an expectation and don't fulfill it.” (http://sun.iwu.edu/~jplath/carver.html) The quote about architecture comes from Hemingway: “For me, Hemingway's sentences are poetry. There's a rhythm, a cadence. I can reread his early stories and I find them as extraordinary as ever. They fire me up as much as ever. It's marvelous writing. He said prose is architecture and the Baroque age is over. That suits me.”

I loved this collection; his first published work. Each slight vignette made me want to read just one more, then one more. He focuses mainly on the American equivalent of “Howard’s battlers” – people who feel like they are up against it – whatever “it’ is. This probably reflects the place he was in. He says that he wrote short stories, rather than novels, because of his own life circumstances. “I was very young. I got married at eighteen. My wife was seventeen; she was pregnant. I had no money at all and we had to work all the time and bring up our two children. It was also necessary that I go to college to learn how to write, and it was simply impossible to start something that would have taken me two or three years. So I set myself to writing poems and short stories. I could sit down at a table, start and finish in one sitting.” (http://sun.iwu.edu/~jplath/carver.html)

Dylan Black, a university lecturer says, in an essay well worth a read, “This core—which gives Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? at least something of the character of a sequence—consists of two tightly-intertwined themes, or “obsessions,” as Carver preferred to label his overriding concerns. The most prominent of these is what Carver critic Kirk Nesset calls “love and its absence”—the ways in which ordinary people are “alternately bewildered, enraged, diminished, suffocated, isolated, and entrapped by love.” The volume’s second “obsession” is the failure of individuals to communicate with those who surround them, especially their spouses or partners.” (http://ir.lib.au.edu.tw/dspace/bitstr...) Carver has looked into the abyss a few more times than most other people and it all spills out on paper.

I bet this description makes you want to rush out and buy it!!! The characters in most of these stories are filled with a sense of lost opportunities, of unfulfilled dreams, empty relationships. I’m reminded yet again of the work of Irvin Yalom – of his view that life is about an existential requirement that we come to terms with the essential meaninglessness, the aloneness of the individual and with the fact that we all die. Carver gets this stuff in spades. His characters are drained by disillusionment and negative experiences. Why do I like these stories? Same reason as I like neo-neo realism cinema – I think they’re real. Like is like that. The other thing I like is that a sense of mystery or ambiguity often attaches to the ending – the reader is left with an idea of how things might go in the future but, like life, no black and white, all singing, all dancing finale. Carver said that this was his aim: “I write the best kind of story I can write . . . The story ought to reveal something, but not everything. There should be a certain mystery in the story. No, I don't want the reader to be frustrated, but it's true I create an expectation and don't fulfill it.” (http://sun.iwu.edu/~jplath/carver.html)

I liked this description of his work: “This is really the genius of Carver: to be able to imply desolation without so much as typing a ‘d’. He’s the biggest shower-not-teller I’ve ever read. Carver’s simple sentences seem to play tricks. Straightforward (‘I had a feeling tonight.’); vernacular (‘I’m getting jealous, Rudy says to Joanne.’); and barely touching a 4 on the affect scale, there’s nothing flashy to the discrete parts of language that make up the stories. Neither are there any ‘big bang’ moments; as far as we can tell, these are either in the past or future. Carver places his characters on a cliff which is crumbling from underneath. Woven together, the words, sentences and paragraphs create portraits that would seem mild but for the ellipses and cathexes* Carver is able to evoke.” http://www.3000books.com.au/2009/03/w...

My favourite story? Hard to choose but I loved “Why Honey?”, the story of a disintegrating relationship between a mother and son with a clever, Roald Dahl-style twist. And a soft spot for “What is it?” about a disintegrating relationship.

* In psychoanalysis, cathexis is defined as the process of investment of mental or emotional energy in a person, object, or idea.[1] …For Freud, cathexis is defined as an investment of libido. Freud often described the functioning of psychosexual energies in mechanical terms, influenced perhaps by the dominance of the steam engine at the end of the 19th century. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathexis)
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Aug 01, 2011 Sarah Etter rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i do not understand why i am never sick of raymond carver. somehow, i just plow through every story, even though most of the time it's clear it's going to end up like most carver stories do - with some bloody thread hanging there untied, hinting at something really awful.

but out of all of his short story collections (minus, you know, the big one of all the stories), this one is my favorite, i think. maybe it's because it opens with a fat man from the circus in a diner. that's very possibly the...more

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Jun 23, 2011 Tress Huntley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-reading-list, on-my-shelves

I must first admit that, historically, I have a lot of difficulty appreciating short stories. I would love to love them, seeing as I am trying to write them myself. But practically every venture I have made into reading short story collections has left me feeling immensely frustrated and dumb. Reading this collection started out in a similar fashion, but by the time I got to the third or fourth story, something started to click. Carver turned out to be incredibly understandable!

Some elements th...more

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Jul 14, 2010 Eric Kibler rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I just finished Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver. I'm dovetailed reading Carver with reading the biography the came out last year, Raymond Carver: A Writer's Lifeby Carol Sklenicka.

I must say, I really am finding Carver to be a kindred spirit. I remember those desperate days of my youth when I was a student, lived on a shoestring, and moved house frequently. These early stories mostly concern married couples in that condition, or people transgressing societal boundaries. Restl...more

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Sep 17, 2009 Ryan Werner rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? sets the stage for a career of solid, highly-crafted writing based around the life of everyday people and their everyday lives.

If anything, the characters Raymond Carver creates in 1976’s Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (McGraw-Hill, ISBN: 0070101930) are painfully real, if nothing else. The types of people who say things like, “My life is going to change. I feel it” are usually trying to figure things out, working through abstract ideas about “happiness” and...more

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Feb 24, 2013 Prowisorio rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Raymond Clevie Carver werd in 1938 geboren in Clatskanie, Oregon en groeide op in Yakima, Washington Hij werkte na zijn schooltijd net als zijn vader in de houtzagerij. Hij trouwde, net negentien geworden, met de 16-jarige Maryann Burk. Zeven maanden later werd hun dochter geboren en nog weer een jaar later hun zoon. Carver was dus 20, getrouwd, vader van twee kinderen en moest - samen met Maryann - ervoor zorgen dat het gezin te eten had. Het is bijna ongelooflijk dat Carver daarnaast nog tijd...more Raymond Clevie Carver werd in 1938 geboren in Clatskanie, Oregon en groeide op in Yakima, Washington Hij werkte na zijn schooltijd net als zijn vader in de houtzagerij. Hij trouwde, net negentien geworden, met de 16-jarige Maryann Burk. Zeven maanden later werd hun dochter geboren en nog weer een jaar later hun zoon. Carver was dus 20, getrouwd, vader van twee kinderen en moest - samen met Maryann - ervoor zorgen dat het gezin te eten had. Het is bijna ongelooflijk dat Carver daarnaast nog tijd vond om te studeren ��n om te schrijven.
In 1960 werd voor de eerste keer een kort verhaal van hem gepubliceerd, maar het duurde lang voordat zijn verhalen in boekvorm verschenen. Pas in 1976, nadat er al drie gedichtenbundels van zijn hand waren verschenen, werd de eerste verhalenbundel uitgebracht onder de titel Will you please be quit, please? Het is deze eerste bundel die nu opnieuw in het Nederlands vertaald is en uitgebracht met als titel Wees alsjeblieft stil, alsjeblieft.

Waarom deze lange inleiding over de schrijver zelf? Omdat elk verhaal in deze bundel overduidelijk aantoont dat Carver weet hoe de 'blue collar' mens leeft. Hij weet dat niet alleen, hij is die mens. Hij is dat eenzame jongetje met die halve vis, die daarmee thuis aandacht hoopt te krijgen. Hij is Ralph, die zijn Marian niet vertrouwt, net zolang doorduwt tot hij de waarheid achterhaalt en er dan voor op de loop gaat. Hij is ook de postbode, die maar al te goed weet hoe het met die nieuwe familie in zijn wijk af gaat lopen. En hij is de werkloze man die een stofzuigerverkoper binnenlaat:

Hebt u een auto? vroeg hij.
Geen auto, zei ik. Ik heb geen auto. Als ik een auto had zou ik u ergens heen rijden.
Jammer, zei hij. Bij dit zuigertje zit namelijk standaard een verlengsnoer van twintig meter. Als u een auto had, dan kon u dit zuigertje tot vlak bij uw autoportier rijden en de pluchen vloerbedekking en luxueuze verstelbare stoelen eveneens zuigen. U zou ervan staan kijken hoeveel er mettertijd van ons verloren gaat, hoeveel zich van ons ophoopt, in die mooie stoelen.

Zonder opsmuk en zonder enige omweg, maar met een enorme intensiteit vertelt Carver over doodgewone mensen zonder grote wensen, zonder grote idee��n. Ze zijn allemaal op zoek naar aandacht en een beetje liefde. Of ze nu getrouwd zijn, een gezin hebben, bij hun ouders leven of een avond bij vrienden doorbrengen. Iedereen is alleen. Nooit kennen ze de ander echt of vertrouwen ze de anderen helemaal. Nee, van de verhalen in deze bundel wordt je niet vrolijk, maar wel stil. Omdat ze zo mooi zijn.
Natuurlijk merk je aan de verhalen dat ze geschreven zijn in de jaren zestig en zeventig. Uit het feit dat alle verhalen recht overeind blijven, nergens verouderd aandoen en van de eerste tot de laatste zin boeien, blijkt het weergaloze talent van Carver. Alleen als je nog maar net gestopt bent met roken is het waarschijnlijk verstandig om het lezen van dit boek nog heel even uit te stellen...(less)

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Jan 15, 2011 Eme rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, short-story

Carver’s book is a set of short stories, and frankly, I’m not the biggest fan of the short story. I have always found them to build to a climax, at which point the story abruptly finishes or I’m in the situation where the story evokes such a curiosity that I feel frustrated because there is no way I will ever find out what happens next. The other with a short story is that the immersion you have within a story is so quickly cut off as soon as you finish it. It’s the entire set-up that frustrates...more Carver’s book is a set of short stories, and frankly, I’m not the biggest fan of the short story. I have always found them to build to a climax, at which point the story abruptly finishes or I’m in the situation where the story evokes such a curiosity that I feel frustrated because there is no way I will ever find out what happens next. The other with a short story is that the immersion you have within a story is so quickly cut off as soon as you finish it. It’s the entire set-up that frustrates me. But the whole point of reading this year is that I explore boundaries and set upon some new sights, to get myself out of a reading runt where all I do is reread or read the similar authors to those I enjoy.

Characters are what direct the plot of his stories, which demonstrates the power ordinary people have in determining their happiness or despair. Within each story, Carver is able to create characters with a paragraph or a few words that can actually bring out interest to the story. One such story, “Jerry Molly and Sam”, which was about a two-timing cheat who wants to get rid of his family dog (under the belief that getting rid of it would set his life in order) was so vividly written that within that story I was quite taken with this character. Similarly, "Put Yourself In My Shoes", a story about couple who visit old landlords, particularly exemplify a man who is lifeless and allows events around him to dictate his actions.

Carver’s writing is very accessible and light – what I mean by that is while he may imply certain events to proceed, he remains subtle and doesn’t spell things out. I enjoy this technique because it means Carver believes in the intelligence of his audience and/or, he enjoys creating atmospheres which exist in our own worlds, where people cannot be explained away so easily, just like those in his stories. His stories are realistic, though, just as in real life, there exists an almost paranormal belief that something else may be controlling people's lives - whether it be other people or fate and destiny.

Thoroughly enjoyed, although I'll be looking out for Carver's novels rather than his short-story collections next time.
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May 23, 2012 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, short-stories

I thought for a long time about to rate this book. Technically, it's superb, well worth five stars – that excellence didn't match up with how I personally enjoyed these collection of short stories, which was more like three stars.

These are the type of short stories that aren't about anything in particular. They capture seemingly meaningless moments (a few significant, such as the titular story) in an everyday life. They're stark and bleak, but unbelievably poignant. Carver has a knack of writing...more

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Jul 24, 2010 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-short-stories

In this collection, Carver alternates between the over-rated, over-analyzed tedium he's best known for and some of the most perfect explorations of the emotional lives of his ordinary American characters. Unfortunately, I think he's too celebrated for the first to ever be recognized for the second.

Notes:

Carver renders the mundane as it appears, and all of his characters are instantly recognizable to anyone who has lived a suburban life in the last fifty years. His stories are about simple human...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Kindra rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: absolute-banger

The King of the short story, I tell ya!
I continued on to this collection after having read Shortcuts , my first bout with Carver, and even though I felt like chucking it across the room many times out of frustration for the confusing, ultra-minimalistic style of many of the stories, it's good and a classic, mainly because it serves as a measuring stick for just how much he grew as an author with his later works.
My faves:
1. The titular "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?"
2. "Jerry, Molly and Sam"...more

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Apr 16, 2011 Vanessa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011

I discovered Raymond Carver years ago when I read "A Small, Good Thing" in an anthology and it blew my hair back. It's still one of my favorite short stories ever. I found this collection, Carver's first, a little uneven though. He already has his signature style but some of the stories felt more like someone trying to write a story in the style of Raymond Carver complete with the requisite drinking and smoking, circling ennui and that downbeat, apropos of nothing ending line. When the stories d...more

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Apr 04, 2011 Miranda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There is a famous remark about Zen Buddhism that characterizes it as "only everyday life with nothing to do," and one could attach a similar label to this collection of quiet, tense stories by Carver.

Most are set in the northern California and Pacific Northwest of the author's own life, and it's not hard to picture the terse exchanges and abrupt gestures of the couples he writes about taking place amid the low light and gray skies of Oregon or Washington. In spare language, moving evenly and mer...more

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Sep 19, 2010 Andrew added it · review of another edition

Shelves: american-fiction, american-short-stories

In these early stories, we get to see Raymond Carver before he became Raymond Carver. He's clearly still hammering out his style. He can capture American life extremely well at this stage, but he hasn't yet learned how to craft compelling narratives yet. The dialogue is perfect, but the details are missing. All of that said, there are some brilliant stories in this collection-- most notably the title story, and "Jerry and Molly and Sam," which seem to be the two stories that point most directly...more

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Dec 28, 2009 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

From "Sixty Acres":
"Nina was at the kitchen table, the little box with her sewing things beside her on another chair. She held a piece of denim in her hand. Two or three of his shirts were on the table, along with a pair of scissors. He pumped a cup of water and picked up from a shelf over the sink some of the colored rocks the kids were always bringing home. There was a dry pine cone there too and a few big papery maple leaves from the summer. He glanced in the pantry. But he was not hungry. T...more

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Aug 19, 2011 i.a.i.a rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: letteratura-americana

Su Temperamente: Nove mesi fa, in riferimento a Cattedrale di Raymond Carver, scrivevo:

Non è lui a dirti cosa quel racconto volesse trasmettere. No, lui ti dice: arrivaci tu, resta un giorno o due in queste vite di altri. E così succede che queste vite durino nella memoria, anche a distanza di un anno.

Mi sono autocitata non certo per vanagloria, ma perché ieri, al termine della lettura del racconto Vuoi star zitta, per favore?, ho avuto una reazione che avevo rimosso. Il racconto era finito e io...more

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Feb 02, 2009 Fernanda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009

Some action, not much. Some info, not much. Carver doesn't tell us everything about his characters, neither puts them in intrincated plots that would reveal their dirty secrets. Little does Carver tells us, he lets us watch everyday scenes and conversations - these might end up in big revelations, epiphanies. However, his short stories are indeed short and quite a few end as if the most important thing is about to happen, but you won't read it. The lack of closure kinda transfers the stories to...more

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Dec 30, 2012 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

The only reason for my 3 star rating ("I liked it") is that some of the stories simply didn't interest me. The writing in this collection is fantastic, although the latter half of the stories seemed to me better than the first half. You could almost feel Carver's progression as a writer. If you like studying the craft of writing and how to say things without actually saying them, then these stories will be a goldmine for you to pore over. If you want to just sit back and skim over a story and su...more

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Feb 03, 2012 Constance rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really like Raymond Carver. I remember that the first story that I ever read by him was "Popular Mechanics" and I instantly fell in love with both the story and the beautiful way that he expressed such dark material. Carver is a master at capturing the human experience. He invokes in us feelings of sacrifice, love, understanding, and guilt. That is what makes him one of the greatest short story writers of our times. This book was just as good as all the other compilations that I have read by R...more

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Oct 22, 2008 Angie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories

He is really really great. I think I should have put down the book after each story to enjoy the next story even more.

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Dec 28, 2012 Viet Nguyen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: raymond-carver

Mình mua quyển này sau khi đọc review trên blog Goldmund của bác Lâm Vũ Thao. Phải công nhận Raymond Carver viết truyện ngắn rất ấn tượng. Những truyện ngắn trong tập "Em làm ơn im đi được không" này đều có điểm chung: suy nghĩ của các nhân vật không hề được thể hiện ra, nhưng trong cái cách họ thể hiện ra bằng hành động mình tự dưng cũng cảm nhận được suy nghĩ của họ. Carver tài tình ở chỗ đó, như lời trên bìa truyện: "Carver có một lòng cảm thông và trung thực lớn lao. Mắt ông nhìn thấu suốt k...more

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Sep 29, 2011 Dan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Reading Carver is a kind of literary voyeurism, a feeling similar to walking down the street at night and peering into the lit windows of family homes; only you don't just see into their living rooms, you see into their heads and hearts, their innermost lives as well. You know what you're going to get from a Raymond Carver book, but while all his stories are essentially of a certain type, each one seems entirely fresh and new, just because of the slightest change in character and setting. They a...more

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Jun 12, 2011 Giovanni Faga rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Chi ha letto Carver, almeno una volta, deve aver concluso il racconto con l'espressione di uno a cui è squillato il telefono dieci secondi prima dell'orgasmo. Il telefono sul comodino, a dieci centimetri dall'orecchio.
L'ho sempre catalogato nella categoria: "Tutti possono fare gli scrittori se hanno un minimo di talento e un buon editore".
Non so se ho cambiato idea. Alcuni racconti sono... efficaci? Penetranti? Boh.
Però 3 stelline perchè alla fine, davvero, ti rimane la sensaziione di aver camm...more

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About Raymond Carver

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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