The Stories of Raymond Carver

by Raymond Carver

Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.
Cathedral

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, Literary Fiction, American, Literature, Collections

447 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Carver was born into a poverty-stricken family at the tail-end of the Depression. 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. He saw this opportunity as a turning point.

Rejecting the more experimental fiction of the 60s and 70s, he pioneered a precisionist realism reinventing the American short story during the eighties, heading the line of so-called 'dirty realists' or 'K-mart realists'. Set in trailer parks and shopping malls, they are stories of banal lives that turn on a seemingly insignificant detail. Carver writes with meticulous economy, suddenly bringing a life into focus in a similar way to the paintings of Edward Hopper. As well as being a master of the short story, he was an accomplished poet publishing several highly acclaimed volumes.

After the 'line of demarcation' in Carver's life - 2 June 1977, the day he stopped drinking - his stories become increasingly more redemptive and expansive. Alcohol had eventually shattered his health, his work and his family - his first marriage effectively ending in 1978. He finally married his long-term parter Tess Gallagher (they met ten years earlier at a writers' conference in Dallas) in Reno, Nevada, less than two months before he eventually lost his fight with cancer.

Reviews

[Tom Bensley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not much more can be said about Carver. So I'll just say this: When you're reading a Carver story, you aren't really reading. You're looking at the world through his eyes. You observe what he sees and how he sees it. He does this so flawlessly, that you don't even realise how much this man has changed your attitude towards certain characters. You just live through whatever everyday situation he's thrown you into. When that one ends, it takes no more than a few words to pull you into the next story.
What struck me as I read, was how modest Carver is. He never situates himself higher than his readers, but rather sits down with the rest of us and tells us a story. It's almost as if a close friend telling you what happened to him at dinner last night. The thing is, he just happens to tell it in a way that enthralls you, no matter the content.
Being introduced to Carver is like making a new friend. I urge anyone to shake Carver's hand and listen to what he has to say. You won't regret it.

[Kathryn Bashaar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know Carver is supposed to be one of the great short story writers of the 20th century, but I'd never read him. I didn't read all the stories in this collection; I just sampled them. I can see why he is so admired. He says a lot in a few plain words. But I think this minimalism has become a kind of tyranny for writers. Heaven forbid you should ever use an adverb, or a single extraneous word! And, honestly, by being so terse, I think he loses a lot in terms of voice. All his stories sound like they're told by the exact same alienated, kind of cynical person.

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

For Americans looking to track this UK edition down, I'll mention a few things. Not every breath the man took, but this collection is worth tracking down. The cons are that the binding seems a bit weak (seems it's how lots of British books are bound??) and the book difficult to navigate (story titles are not listed at the top of each page, and there is no single table of contents at the start). The pagination is slimmer which brings all three volumes together in 450 pages. It's great to have the essential stuff under one cover and cool to read shorter stories like "the father" and "popular mechanics" without turning a page.

[Parker Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

California, the land of promise, opportunity, and fame. Or, the land of strip malls, sorrow and failure. Carver has these drinking, playing players dancing about with visions of grandeur, while they are not aware that they are actually alcoholics, pathetic, and lost. The story of the drunk fishermen who go on a weekend camping trip, find a dead body in a creek, and decide to just tie it to the bank so it wont float away and then keep fishing and drinking for a few days before they hike back and then tell people. That one stuck. The all do. a great read. FIVE FABULOUS STARS.

[Lucynell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how many ways there is to tell a story but Raymond Carver's must be among the better ones. He uses a simple and clear language that gives substance to just about anything he uncovers, man and animal, a street, a house, an ashtray. There's also another thing, his stories can pick up speed and move real fast, before you even realize it you are somewhere else. He writes about ordinary people and their ordinary lives, sometimes slightly on the odd side. You'd think you wouldn't care, but you do. People struggle with their partners, themselves, occasionally a sunset. The dialogue is just about perfect. Completely unadorned and free of any pretensions. I already read one of the three collections in this volume but now in this bulk they seem even more special.

[Olia Braguța · Rating 3 out of 5]

Witty stories with hidden lessons. One must have an understand of US culture to really enjoy these stories.

[Chazza · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dull. No story seemed to have a beginning, middle, or an end.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful short stories that have implanted themselves vividly in my mind, the characters are so perfectly flawed and real. Carver manages to capture the subtle things in life that brilliantly sum up what makes us human.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carver writes with a clear style that is beautiful in its simplicity.

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blindness by Jose Saramago

A different version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:

- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... and http://realini.blogspot.ro/

The Norwegian Book Club has asked prominent writers from about fifty seven countries to say which are the best books ever written.
Blindness by Jose Saramago is among them.

- What is the message?
- The main theme?
- I am not sure that I know.

It seemed to refer to the fact that we all suffer from blindness, to a certain degree.

- We are partially blind to the flowers of spring as we are always in a hurry.
- And we are more or less blind, once in a while to the spiritual, social fortune that we possess.

To the wonderful family, friends, social circle that we so often take for granted and for whom we lose sight temporarily.

Why is the wife of the doctor able to see when all around are blind?
Is this because she was kind, brave and generous?
Does the author try to say that the virtuous are bett gifted and they really See the world?

There are questions about the end and why things happen at the end.
Without a spoiler alert I will not ask questions about the surprising events that take place in the final countdown.

From the first page of the book, a man driving his car becomes blind.
Throughout the narrative, he will be called The First Blind Man.

There are no names for the characters.
The First Blind Man is taken home by a Good Samaritan, or so we think.

When his wife comes home, they want to go to the doctor, but their car has been stolen by the generous thief.
He is not able to enjoy for long, for he becomes blind soon after his crime is committed.

The doctor that they see becomes blind and so do his patients and gradually...everyone else.
Only The Doctor's Wife remains able to see and help all around.

The first contingent of blind people is sent to an abandoned asylum for mental patients.
They are guarded by soldiers and have to obey strict rules.

When they don't, they get shot.
There is no compassion for the patients, only the terrifying fear that their affliction would spread.

The blindness is considered to be catching and it could and eventually does become epidemic.
The tragedy of the blind people is overwhelming.

It is hard to imagine the level of debasement.
The dirtiness is appalling.

Since they don't see and many stop caring, there are excrements all over the place.
Furthermore, they have no means to wash and food is becoming scarce.

To make an already disastrous situation even worse, some of the evil blind decide to use violence and terror to abuse the other victims of the malady.
They decree that since they have a gun and superior power they will dictate who eats.

First it is all the possessions and values that the rest have and must give.
Then they exploit and force the women to have sex with them.

I will stop here, with the events and horrible acts that took place in the first part.
And add in conclusion a quote, something one character says:

- " I think we are blind, blind people who can see but do not see"


And this is alas something that can apply to so many of us, once in a while.

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unique to my knowledge. Would recommend to anyone, especially with interest in American culture. Incredibly short, terse description which makes you slow down. Very human in nature, great storytelling. No bias towards romanticism - it feels very real in human failing. A hair's breadth away from being gloomy.

I think Carver's precision - which gradually lessens as we move through anthologies 1, 2 and 3 - makes him less human as storyteller. These stories feel so direct but they also feel objective. A human narrator would use more words. A human perspective does not have that clarity. The lens Carver has us look through is precise and clear.

Just as clear are the plots. There is only one turning point. Men cheat; couples divorce; children fight. The unemployed despair. It seems to me that progressing through the stories there is a brightening. Stories are not always as dark, and the style becomes less curt. Eventually Carver comes closer to the midline, to characters that we believe still have hope, that can still change.

I have seen lots of comparisons to the artwork of Edward Hopper - simplicity and 'K-mart realism' are terms bandied around by those examining this work. Banal and humdrum lives exposed to the air, for all of us to see.

[Brooke West · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly a review from the back of this edition puts it perfectly -

‘Like Edward Hopper, whose landscape his characters inhabit, Carver depicts a frozen world, blue-shadowed, where time is the betrayer of lives. The men and women in these stories do not ask for much. Some common happiness - life without surprises, with a touch of dignity. Sometimes they get it, more often not… In terse, harsh, meat-and-potato words Carver writes about a world that is lethal in its ordinariness. We wouldn’t want to live there. But we do.’

Absolutely wonderful anthology, packed to the brim with naturalistic and heartbreaking (and at times, very entertaining) tales. This will be a favourite and inspiration of mine for a long while

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

A clumsy romanticization of white poverty masquerading as dirty realism. Artistically lacking in subtlety in all the places it shouldn’t. Often boring. Stylistically, a more socially conscious man’s Hemingway with the voyeurism of a Harmony Korine film, just less interesting than that may sound. Three stars because I appreciate the effort and the undeniable influence Carver’s had on later American writers.

[Caterina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of these short stories do *things* in twenty pages that some so-called novels can't do in hundreds. Cathedral and A Small, Good Thing are two of the best stories I've ever read, and I am so happy that this re-read in original language confirmed the impression I had years back at my first read in translation.

[Scott Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insight into modern life

[aga]

I wrote my MA thesis based on these stories.

[Finn Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Low key kinda slapped ngl

[Jill Johnson]

Read 5 or 6 stories. Depressing.

[Flavia Menéndez · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perspective challenger and a life changer

[Greg Halvorson · Rating 5 out of 5]

When the master craftsman is weird, and he recognizes our weirdness, and he writes about weirdness, this is what happens. 🤓

[Rachelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd read 2/3 of this book before I even picked it up. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is one of my FAVORITE short story collections of all times. I've also read Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? before, which I didn't find quite as masterful. So my game plan was to dig in by rereading WWTAWWTAL, just for kicks, and then tackle Cathedral.

I've finished WWTAWWTAL again and I did still like it. There's such terseness in Carver's style of dialogue that I often imagine the characters muttering the words in a monosyllabic tone whilst their arms hang listlessly at their sides like bad actors. This quality became almost overpowering to me at times, even though certain stories, like A Serious Talk still kicked my ass upside down and sideways. He depicts disconnectedness in such an amazing way, especially between husbands and wives, that it strikes me as a beautiful truth instead of leaving me melancholic.

And Cathedral is quite amazing. I was worried that he peaked at WWTAWWTAL and I would be disappointed... but no! These stories lose a bit of that "bad actor" quality I was talking about in the previous collection. The characters seem, if not more animated, more defined. Carver's strength is in his definition of times that we fray, lose our grip, and reach for the bottle. Cheers.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

He was a master of the short story, brought to my attention by a psychiatrist who became a friend late in my life. I found the new Library of America copy of his collected stories, and read upwards of a dozen. "The Cathedral" seems to be the most famous and lasting of Carver's stories. His stories range from only very few pages up to several dozens. Each of his stories which I read used concise sentence structure, usually short and pithy comments on the people and their thoughts and actions, and stories presenting telling imagery, with clarity and superb writing in a rather short format.

Since I do not find short stories providing me as much of a faction with as much of a lasting important impact on me as does an excellent novel of a few hundred pages, I am not likely to seek out Carver again, though I'd welcome coming across him again. I contrast a fine short story with a fine novel of a few hundred pages as CONTRASTING WITH a fine string quartet playing chamber music by a master compared with a fine symphony by a master composer - for the longer writing has more plot depth, more character development, and more of a substance to leave a more deep impression on me - resulting in writing which I remember much more longer than I do a short story.

[Erica Lage · Rating 4 out of 5]

You gotta love some depressed and alcoholic mid century americans.

[Melissa Ramirez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read Raymond Carver before, but never a real collection of his short stories. "Collected Stories" is definitely quite a collection!
Overall, I really liked the stories, but I feel (like I sometimes do) that there is some larger meaning behind many of them, that I'm just not grasping. So...I don't really know what that feeling equates to...but just let it be known that I've expressed it.

Anyway. I did like these stories. Except that I found the majority of them (at least toward the beginning, that is) sort of 'extremely sexual'...? I'm a big girl, and I've learned to handle (somewhat) sexual books with class; but it still took me a little by surprise.

3 solid stars for Raymond Carver!

[Hasnain Ali]

i watched the movie stuck in love, and i loved the last sentence of raymands carvan's one book.the sentence is;
when we talk about love, carver in in the last lines of the book says,
'' i could hear my heart beating''. ''i could hear every ones heart''and i could hear the human noise we sat there making .when there is no light no one of us move..... i think that's called the writing.
that's what i wanna to read the books of raymand carvan

[Mark McKenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the same reason I read a lot of Russian Literature, Carver writes about LIFE. He takes the simple, every day things, and turns them into works of art. I loved it. Each and every single story. My only regret is not reading him when my tutor at University was advising me to. Oh well, that's reading I guess. We find our favourites in our own time. So, READ THIS NOW, or find it in your own time. Just remember it.

[Hilary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is one of his earlier books, written while he was still drinking, so it's pretty dark. I appreciated the regional aspects of it, as well as the simplicity of how he captures people in a moment of their lives and lets his reader experience that moment with the character without delving into a ton of backstory.

[Mrshumolicious · Rating 5 out of 5]

3 books of raymond carver's short stories collected into one. all extraordinary.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection. The menace that hides under supposedly normal human experiences is enthalling. Carver's characters embody him - a lot of alcohol gets consumed.

[Mynameisandycostello · Rating 5 out of 5]

He's not afraid to talk about the ordinary, and most often, he's not afraid to say it in an ordinary way. He always finds a way to make the ordinary sound noteworthy. Each and every story is a gem.