Ryan’s Reviews > Collected Stories > Status Update

The “Kindling” short story is sort of the problem with Carver's minimalism short story writing because I actually am intrigued by these characters and how they are interacting but am not sure the way he quickly just ends the story with no climax to speak of is in the best interest of its set-up.

It has been nearly two weeks since I started reading “Bright Red Apples” so when I first openned the book I had no clue what I was getting back to, recalling aspects as I read and names were mentioned. I almost feel like I should have started from the beginning given how bewildering it is to read; I have no clue what to make of this ending but it is definitely in a different world of sorts.

I take it the story "The Aficionados" is supposed to be like some sort of horror creepy fiction along the lines of "The Lottery."

"He picked up his bag and left the room and, for that matter, history" is probably a Top 10 line Carver has written in this collection so far.

He seems focused on just these small details in stories and elevating them to such a large significance while the characters give them really no significance than the superficial (in the case of "Errand" it is the room service guy wanting to pick up this cork off the floor).

This is a change of pace in the Carver stories in that "Errand" is almost like an article about the end Chekov's life that could have appeared in a magazine article.