Carver, Raymond

Average customer rating:

Best Bang for the Buck
Contains some of the best short stories I have ever read.
Great book

American Short Story Masterpieces

Manufacturer: Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0440204232
Release Date: 1989-04-02

Customer Reviews:

Best Bang for the Buck.......2004-05-11

Perhaps I am biased by nostalgia since this was the text used way back in my high school creative writing class, but this sublime anthology is pound for pound the best collection of short fiction around. There are other excellent collections -- Scribner's Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction comes to mind -- but ASS masterpieces (as we called it back then) has a splendid mix of short story classics in addition to an absurd number of gems. On the all-time classic side, there is "Sonny's Blues," "Rock Springs," "Where are you Going, Where Have you Been?", "A Good Man is Hard to Find," "The Conversion of the Jews," and "The Liar" just to name a few. It's already a terrific list; how many other collections have all these under one roof? But then there are a whole host of lesser-known stories that push this sucker over the top. "1/3, 1/3, 1/3," "A Poetics for Bullies," "The Ledge," "The Heavenly Animal" ... all first-rate stories. And it's only $8.00! Forget Best American Short Stories of the Century. Forget the Norton Anthology. If you can only have one fiction anthology on your shelf, this should be the one.

Contains some of the best short stories I have ever read........2003-05-22

I read "Midair" standing up in the bookstore. This book contains some true classics in short story writing.

Great book.......2000-05-05

This book will boggle your mind. The words used to describe the situations in the short stories. There are more that many excellent stories in this book. I find it more enjoyable that a single novel. Advanced school programs use this as a learning experience. It is a 4 star book.

Where I'm Calling From: Selected Stories

Average customer rating:

Nice introduction to contemporary writing
A Storytelling Poet (for the everyman)
A voice so minimal it's barely audible
Where Chekhov is calling from
Concise and Captivating

Where I'm Calling From: Selected Stories
Raymond Carver
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679722319
Release Date: 1989-06-18

Amazon.com

The last story collection published during Carver's life (he died in 1988) contains most of his greatest hits from his earlier books, as well as seven stories that hadn't been collected up to that point. The breadth of the collection makes these 37 stories an extremely complete map of Carver territory, of a particular area of America and of the specific texture of the people Carver writes about -- their difficult attempts at survival in a world where happiness does not arrive wrapped up in neat packages but comes in far more peculiar parcels, if it comes at all.

Book Description

By the time of his early death in 1988, Raymond Carver had established himself as one of the great practitioners of the American short story, a writer who had not only found his own voice but imprinted it in the imaginations of thousands of readers. Where I'm Calling From, his last collection, encompasses classic stories from Cathedral, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, and earlier Carver volumes, along with seven new works previously unpublished in book form. Together, these 37 stories give us a superb overview of Carver's life work and show us why he was so widely imitated but never equaled.

Customer Reviews:

Nice introduction to contemporary writing.......2007-02-12

I am a hopeless lit. snob. I read only classics. When new books are presented to me, especially books with works published less than 40 years ago, I tend to be very cautious. Raymond Carver's collection may have just changed that. He's accessible to a wide array of readers, from hardcore English majors to "the working man" about whom he so often writes. Stories vary in length from a few pages to over ten, and while some seem to have impenetrable depth of thought, many are easily enjoyed without thinking TOO hard :)

Whether you aren't much of a reader or have books upon books that you've read and loved, this collection has something you can enjoy.

A Storytelling Poet (for the everyman).......2007-01-04

This ought to be called the Greatest Hits of Raymond Carver--with Bonus Tracks*. All of my own personal favorites are here: "Cathedral", "Fever", "Why Don't You Dance?". A few which appeared in previous collections are here restored to Carver's original conception. They appear more fleshed out, the characters are more developed, and oftentimes the tone is entirely changed. Some of Carver's stories will no doubt confound expectations. "Why Don't You Dance?" is told in such a sparse and poetic language that it may not be so easily accepted as a story; it seems to be more like a dance of words and images that dares its way into the heart. Carver's stories are famous for their intimacy with everyday life and everyday folk. His characters' struggles are exalted rather than belittled by the rationality of their predicaments. In "So Much Water So Close to Home" a man's absent-minded choice not to let a floating corpse interrupt his fishing trip culminates in a cosmic battle of Good and Evil between him and his wife yet right in the middle of their kitchen.

I think that many readers who express a dislike of Carver's stories are in fact favoring one Carver style over another. I can't imagine any lover of fiction with a shred of sensitivity being able to brush off "A Small, Good Thing" as a banal tale of child tragedy; the character of the baker is such a perfectly fulfilling example of the duality of human nature. However I can imagine a reader who enjoyed "A Small, Good Thing" completing the last sentence of "Fat" feeling puzzled about where to draw the conclusion between a large man gorging himself in a restaurant and a waitress's off-handed confession of rape. One story doesn't necessarily inform or justify another, and in that sense perhaps that's why this is a selection and not a "collection".

My best advice to new readers of Carver is to give each one of these stories its own personal creative license and realize that Carver was a poet. Really. He published poems as well as stories, and sometimes the accessibility of his vocabulary and the accessibility of his themes aren't consistent. What is consistent is the pleasure of his craft which can be experienced throughout these stories albeit on shifting levels.

*referring to the seven previously unpublished (in book form) stories included at the end of the book

A voice so minimal it's barely audible.......2006-08-22

After having read `Cathedral' for an English Composition class I was teaching last semester, I bought this book in earnest and waited eagerly for its arrival. I wanted so much to like it. I wanted poignant prose and acerbic wit, evidence of a keen observer's eye. Instead, these translucently-thin slices of life left me half-filled, and wondering why the portions weren't more ample. Many of the 37 stories in this book seem to be told both by and in the exact same voice. The overwhelming majority of them revolve around domestic squabbles or silly disagreements that aren't really worth writing about, and the quality of the prose isn't high enough to offset the lack of an intriguing plot. I suppose this is what Carver fans would consider to be `beautiful banality', but for me many of these tales seemed both unfulfilling and tiresome.

The book starts off with a bang, "Nobody Said Anything", the tale of an adolescent narrator and a big fish caught with a newfound friend one afternoon. "Bicycles, Muscles, and Cigarettes" follows, a colorful vignette about a row between three boys that spills over to their fathers. There are other bright lights in the collection, but halfway through (the stories are ordered chronologically, so I read them in order) the mundanity sets in. Literally countless tales of middle-aged protagonists agonizing over the minutiae of life at 4 in the morning on sleepless nights. All of his characters are divorcees, or soon to be separated. Most are alcoholics. Most tales start in media res, but leave us there as well, ending just as arbitrarily as they begin. Fans of Carver might attempt to call this a strong point, but the majority of these stories seem more suited to short stage performance pieces than to prose. Dialogue that is Seinfeldian in its simplicity, only sans the wit. A story that ends with the paltry self-affirmation, "My life is going to change. I feel it." Lots of "we just don't feel the same way as we used to" lines shared between despondent erstwhile lovers. But when we aren't told of the origins of the rift, it's hard to feel sympathy one way or the other.

There is a lot of the author in many of these stories - indeed, one question I came up with time and time again was just how `fictional' much of this short fiction really was. But no fewer than 12 of these stories revolve around a spousal dispute and/or alcoholism. And when Carver ventures out into other territories, it seems as though he is almost lost without the security blanket of the one topic he knows all too well.

Perhaps the last story in the collection, "Errand", unwittingly sums up the author's oeuvre all too well. In it, uncharacteristically, Carver recounts the tale of the last days of the playwright Chekhov. He mentions that Tolstoy came to see Chekhov as he was nearing death, although he was no fan of the man's work. He said of it "the plays were static and lacking in any moral vision. `Where do your characters take you?' he often demanded of Chekhov, "From the sofa to the junk room and back.'" At the completion of this book, I was left wanting to ask Carver the same.

Where Chekhov is calling from .......2006-04-14

The readers of Raymond Carver's selected stories "Where I'm Calling From" is likely to spend 500 pages wondering is this writer is the American Chekhov of suburbia, and is never sure. Until the reader reaches the very last story. The first word in "Errand" is "Chekhov", and as we progress in the reading we can notice that this narrative is about the Russian writer. Then it is time all doubts are dissipated and we can only conclude that Carver's work is a sort of homage to or influence by Chekhov.

Either case, it is a good thing, since that Russian writer is one of the biggest masters of short stories. But, even being under Chekhov's spell, Carver is still a writer of his own. Actually one of the best short story writers of the XX century. Too bad he died so young, one can only imagine what he would have produced more.

In this book of selected stories, the reader can have a vast tableau of Carver's themes, style, approach, and sensibility. There are 30 texts that were previously published, and seven new stories. In these 30-plus tales, the writer is able to dissect with beauty and witty the American psyche -- or yet, soul.

It is not difficult to be seduced by his dry style in which he doesn't try to make beautiful sentences -- but better yet, he reaches deeper depths in the soul of his characters. Carver is not after poetic moments, but he brings up some poetry from everyday life, from banal moments that are important only to those who are the main character of them.

His stories are usually short, and at the same time very efficient. The characters Carver portrays could be living in the same neighborhood, and at the same time they have very different lives. From his stories, we can realize that every life has its own beauty.

And these aspects are very close to those that made Chekhov one of the best, and we still read him, admire his work and consider his texts vanguard a hundred years later they were produced. Carver is very likely to have the same reward in the future. He does deserve it.

Concise and Captivating.......2006-03-29

Where I'm Calling From is a collected edition of Raymond Carver's short stories. Carver died from lung cancer in 1988, but before doing so he was said to have been one of the writers responsible for bringing back the glory of the short story.

Where I'm Calling From is certainly the work of an expert. The stories are nothing particularly outlandish or special in terms of subject matter, but they most definitely cut to the heart of what it means to be human and to have relationships with other humans. Carver seemed especially intent upon giving us stories about married couples who are divorced, in the process of getting divorced, or are on their way to getting a divorce.

That's not to say all of the stories found within this collection deal with such topics. Some of them deal with losing a child, some deal with reflecting on parents, and some deal with simple experiences one has in life. However, all of them are told in a concise and captivating manner where the reader can't help but finish the story in one sitting.

I recommend reading Where I'm Calling From if you are interested in studying non-traditional short stories, especially if you're a writer. I think his work may be a little too abrupt and unconventional for just the casual reader, though I feel everyone would benefit from reading this man who mastered his art.

To me, the most fascinating aspect of Raymond Carver is that as he neared his death, his stories actually got more positive. That says something.

(Visit author Scott William Foley at www.swilliamfoley.com)

Average customer rating:

Every writer should read this book
Every aspiring writer should read this
A mix of theory and practice
Gardner the master
Honest book. No coddling.

On Becoming a Novelist
John Gardner , and Raymond Carver
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0393320030

Amazon.com

Picture the poor, young, serious-fiction writer. He toils alone at a pace not so different from that of Lincoln Tunnel traffic at rush hour in New York. His spouse has a "real" job, or perhaps he has a trust fund. His college friends are cashing in on their dot-coms and wondering if he's ever going to join the real world. He is not hell-bent on publication; he is trying to write "serious, honest fiction, the kind of novel that readers will find they enjoy reading more than once, the kind of fiction likely to survive." He's likely to have no idea whether he's succeeding. Nobody understands him.

Well, almost nobody. John Gardner understands him. Gardner's sympathetic On Becoming a Novelist is the novelist's ultimate comfort food--better than macaroni and cheese, better than chocolate. Gardner, a fiction writer himself (Grendel), knows in his bones the desperate questioning of a writer who's not sure he's up to the task. He recognizes the validation that comes with being published, just as he believes that "for a true novel there is generally no substitute for slow, slow baking." Gardner also has strong feelings about what kinds of workshops help (and whom they help), and what kinds hinder. But a full half of Gardner's book is devoted to an exploration of the writer's nature. The storyteller's intelligence, he says, "is composed of several qualities, most of which, in normal people, are signs of either immaturity or incivility." In addition, a writer needs "verbal sensitivity, accuracy of eye," and "an almost demonic compulsiveness." But wait--there's more. A writer needs to be driven, and to be driven, he says insightfully, "a psychological wound is helpful." --Jane Steinberg

Book Description

On Becoming a Novelist contains the wisdom accumulated during John Gardner's distinguished twenty-year career as a fiction writer and creative writing teacher. With elegance, humor, and sophistication, Gardner describes the life of a working novelist; warns what needs to be guarded against, both from within the writer and from without; and predicts what the writer can reasonably expect and what, in general, he or she cannot. "For a certain kind of person," Gardner writes, "nothing is more joyful or satisfying than the life of a novelist." But no other vocation, he is quick to add, is so fraught with professional and spiritual difficulties. Whether discussing the supposed value of writer's workshops, explaining the role of the novelist's agent and editor, or railing against the seductive fruits of literary elitism, On Becoming a Novelist is an indispensable, life-affirming handbook for anyone authentically called to the profession.

Customer Reviews:

Every writer should read this book.......2007-06-20

I first read Gardner's "The Art of Fiction" some years ago. It was a fine book with some sound advice. However, it read too much like a how-to book for my tastes. And the how-to advice seemed a bit too formulaic. Though I am sure it is a fine book for instruction, especially for people who are just starting to look at fiction seriously.

"On Becoming a Novelist" is a different book all together. It deals more with the philosophy and life of writing. It is simply a joy to read. It does not tell you how to write, but instead it addresses, in a very direct way, whether or not you should write.

The forward by Raymond Carver is a good essay in itself. Should I ever find myself in a position to teach writing on any serious level, I will use this book. I wish I had read it sooner.

One of the things I appreciate is the way the book speaks to the seriousness of writing. Now I understand that people write for different reasons, and as a teacher I encourage my students to write and stress the importance of writing in all areas of life. And we often have teacher trainings that encourage teachers to write. Many of my colleagues consider themselves writers. Some even go so far as to say that they "could not live without writing." There are all sorts of writers. But it is the sort of writer that Gardner speaks to is the sort that I wish to become.

Gardner's writer is not a seer. He is not a celebrity. He is a practitioner, a tradesman. And to compare Gardner's writer to most day to day writers is to compare the full time furniture maker to the guy who builds picnic tables out of 2x4s. And of course we need picnic tables.

Every aspiring writer should read this.......2007-02-02

If you're planning on becoming a novelist rather than just writing a novel - and I do believe there's a difference - you must pick up this book. It's 145 pages dedicated to the most common question aspiring writers have:

"Do I have what it takes to be a writer?"

Of course this question doesn't have an easy answer, but John Gardner uses his years of experience as both a writer and teacher and throws in his two cents. The book is divided into four sections:

1. The Writer's Nature. The longest section - it's about half the book. Think of it as a field guide to writers. My one gripe about this is that at times, it's a little too stereotypical - he suggests that if you have a screwed up childhood, you'll make a good writer. I don't agree with this at all, although, looking at the recent slew of trash memoirs, I suppose it's a bit prophetic.

2. The Writer's Training and Education. This covers writing workshops, why they're worth going and how to spot a good one; the benefits and drawbacks to majoring in English or creative writing; what you're going to have do to support yourself so you can write. (Among his suggestions: marry rich.)

3. Publication and Survival. This section does a very competent job explaining the entire publication process, from submission to copyediting to receiving a physical copy of your book. Because the book was written in 1983, a lot of it is twenty years out of date. One of his suggestions is to walk into an editor's office with a copy of your manuscript. I don't think you could get away with that anymore. Even if you managed to get into their office, you'd probably get escorted out of the building.

4. Faith. Maybe the most important part of the book. It reveals the cure for writer's block - writing - and how to keep believing in yourself in the face of countless rejection letters or slow writing or a lack of support.

I can honestly say that I now have a much better grasp on what it's going to take to become a professional writer. Although Gardner can be a pretentious blowhard from time to time, and some of the advice doesn't sound quite right for today, this is probably the best book of its kind out there.

A mix of theory and practice.......2006-10-29

John Gardner doesn't pretend to have all of the answers, and he doesn't lay out a program that will turn anyone into a novelist. He mixes his advice for writers (i.e. do something that you like, learn to spell) with some advice about the culture and business of writing (e.g. how to spot a bad workshop).

The book has the feeling of a master class where the author is talking in the simple terms that only a truly gifted writer feels confident in using because he doesn't have anything to prove to anyone. His advice is frank and to the point, but also mixed with the humility that's he been wrong before.

In all, he says the successful writer is the one who keeps at it and keeps working to improve. The key is to find your own voice and style and develop those, even if teachers or other writers try to turn you into clones of themselves.

Gardner the master.......2006-08-12

Gardner seems always aware that he is a master and he views the readers of his books on craft as students as well as disciples. While he offers much guidance to the novice writer, the book serves best as a reminder that we what we are doing is not some vain hobby, not some time-waster as others may think it to be. This book reminds us that our efforts are worthy of the time spent and that we are not alone in our quest. At the same time that we need stories to excite and inspire us, we need to be reminded of why it is we do what we do. And it's also helpful for us to be reminded of the discipline necessary for our labor. Unfortunately, the author falls into that same creative writing teacher trap of trying to weed out those unworthy. He wants to be sure that in attempting this that we are up to the task. At the same time, that talk can be discouraging to those sensitive writer-types who are by nature filled with self-doubt.

Honest book. No coddling. .......2006-06-19

In the Literary world, the name John Gardner - as author, aesthetic critic, or teacher - evokes strong and contrary reactions, some of praise and admiration; some of the most virulent, strain of anti-academic sentiment. It should come as no surprise that his works of non-fiction, which are a combination of his prose, critique, and instruction, be met with the same contrasting opinions. "On becoming a Novelist" is crafted as a consolation to the aspiring writer, not as a "how to book." It enumerates many of the hardships an aspiring writer will encounter, often the result of the very qualities that predisposes one to writing, without sugarcoating the truth, and in doing so puts the tribulation into perspective. He dares to ask the questions every Creative Writing teacher should ask but doesn't dare: Are you willing to work for this? Do you expect a mote of natural talent to set you apart from the throngs of writers who were considered "good" writers in their class or school? You might not want to be hit with such questions when opening a book that you're hoping will put you on the fast track to fame and fortune, so the negative criticism, while not entirely unfounded, is expected.
"On becoming a novelist" doesn't mislead the prospective reader. All you had to have read is the preface to know whether or not this book was for you: "I write for those who desire, not publication at any cost, but publication one can be proud of...for the beginning novelist who has already figured out that it is far more satisfying to write well then simply to write well enough to get published." For you to continue reading this book when you know full well you are strictly a genre writer (horror, mystery, action, romance) concerned only with entertainment and dollar value is a waste of your time, and if you purchased it, money. And for such a person to review this book would be like an art house intellectual watching an Adam Sandler movie and then slamming it - meaningless. The review says nothing about the movie's comedic value within the context of its genre, comedy, only the predisposition of the reviewer. This is all to say that the harsh criticism received by "On becoming a Novelist" tends to betray the scribers unwillingness to submit to discipline, or inability to recognize the difference between Literary and Genre fiction, a line at times so permeable that some of our best fictions are home in either category; yet at others, cannot possibly be further from each other.
People have a tendency to bring their own baggage to any review. I'm sure many snickered, or responded with some equal gesture of displeasure, at the mention of "Literary" as opposed to "Genre" fiction in the previous paragraph. (Some may well have written me off as a supplicant of Mr. Gardner's camp and therefore stopped paying attention to anything subsequently written, only continuing on the combative impetus to see their premature assumption confirmed). But to write off Gardner's work as stuffy, pendantic, antiquated scrawl is unfair. In his discussion on "Verbal Sensitivity" he establishes the difference between the academic and the writer's sensibility: "Good grades in English may have more to do with the relative competence, sensitivity, and sophistication of the teacher." He goes on to say that aspects of good prose, such as sentence rhythm are not requisite for the alumni, and that often the Sophisticated literati's adherence to rules of grammar, distaste for linguistic change and certain classes of society obscures their ability to recognize true verbal sensitivity, "such as "black kids playing `The Dozens' - piling up ingenious metaphors grammatical or unmixed." He also criticizes university courses and workshops for opting almost exclusively to teach from allegorical fiction because of their facility to instruct on "theme" and "symbolism, while neglecting the quality that actually attracts a reader to a text, memorable characters and their presence in a vivid and continuous setting.
However, Gardner does suggest that the formally educated writer has a better shot of producing a literary work of art because he has been exposed to a broader scope of literary styles, regions, and movements, especially if his peers only know from book-of- the month paperbacks. I fail to see how this is elitist; after all, his view leaves plenty of room for the rustic writer who recognizes his disadvantage and as a result devours the classics. Gardner goes so far as to state that a man schooled only in the lessons of life may still go on to write a great book and become the voice of a people, but he will remain limited in the narratives and topics he'll be able to utilize for his fiction. Demanding meticulous scrutiny of ones choice of words as it accords to the overall image or meaning of a scene or bit of description has nothing to do with academic stuffiness, but everything to do with accuracy, style, and - a characteristic that any true artist is possessed by - the desire to challenge oneself.
Bleak is also often used to describe Gardner's description of the writer's situation. Gardner is not the first to point out the association writers, and the process of writing, have with the solemn and tragic. A cursory look at the authors of works considered great literary accomplishments (remember: we are dealing with `literary fiction') will reveal a veritable gallery of obsessive, compulsive, drug addicted, vice ridden eccentrics. What Gardner has been able to do, and why he is imputed with cries of "cynical', is collate this information with his own life-as-writer experience and explain how the writer (long dead and/or aspiring) manages to persevere in the face, and sometimes because, of debilitating internal and external obstacles.
Unfortunately Gardner's attempt to find a silver lining in the figurative cloud representative of the aspiring writer's career gets misinterpreted. What arrest the reviewer's attention are ideas like a "psychological wound" being beneficial because it "bends the soul inward," or "let no one tell you that all good writers eventually get published." What seem to slip between the crack are lines like "only a talent that doesn't exist at all can't be improved," when he explains that if the writer can compensate for his shortcomings in one department with acumen in another, he can still attain greatness. The entire chapter entitled "Faith" explores the writer's development, explaining how the slumps the writer finds himself in are more often than not the result of a perspective that falls out of focus due to overuse: 1.As an amateur, writing seemed more enjoyable only because you were incapable of recognizing all your mistakes. 2. The process of writing doesn't get easier because learning a handful of tricks to solve common, technical problems unwittingly cause the writer to engage more difficult ones. 3. Writing requires the use of multiple mental processes, which must be understood individually before the writer can trust his instinct to just write from instinct.
Although the lines quoted above adequately challenge the claim that "On Becoming a Novelist" is a pessimistic work, it doesn't discredit all the negative reviews, nor does pessimism account for all the negative reviews. A strong personality, on the side of John Gardner, is the culprit. Aside from stating in the opening that these are his personal opinions based on his experience, John Gardner offers no apologies about his views. I find myself at odds with some of them. His discussion on "literary masks -" the way we detach ourselves and our subject matter from real life through literary techniques - I immediately found interesting. One such mask is labeled "Pollyanna," and its successor, "Dispollyanna." Both are masks that rely on stock, clichéd phrasing and word choice, and Gardner feels they should be done away with. No one will deny that trite devices can cheapen the strongest prose, but where I take issue is to what extent Gardner feels the writer should eradicate a phrase that isn't original. Our relation to our time and place will reflect itself in our writing and the writing of our contemporaries. It would be impossible, and deplorable for posterity's sake, to discount the parlance of a generation of writers simply because it is common; if the choice of words, phrasing, description accords with the concerns of a generation, their use - and possible overuse - is forgivable.
Gardner's views on Editors and Agents I thought surprisingly benevolent, considering what I've read in other books. In the chapter "Publication and Survival" Gardner states, "one should fight like the devil the temptation to think well of editors" and then just a few lines away, "they are often ambitious idealists; they would like nothing better than to discover and publish a great book." He also argues against the belief that editorial emendations are based solely on making a work more commercially viable, believing instead that changes are generally made to make a work the best that it can possibly be within its genre.
Editors as intelligent, best friends, deserving the benefit of the doubt are a stark contrast from the image depicted in other books that deal with publishing, many of which inadvertently, not maliciously, portray editors as temperamental and petty, eager to find any reason to junk your manuscript. Although, it should be mentioned, much of Gardner's accolades are reserved for editors already committed to working with you, I still find the loyalty Gardner attributes to editors hard to believe, being on this side - the unpublished side - of the divide. But it would be rather silly of me to challenge the conclusions Gardner has come to as a result of his own experience in the industry, especially since he doesn't present them as fact. If "On Becoming a Novelist" is read with this much in mind, there is no reason why any writer, regardless of genre should feel slighted. If as an aspiring writer you are able to honestly evaluate your ability and your devotion, based on the contents of this book, to the craft of writing, "On Becoming a Novelist" will either be a permanent fixture on your desk or the milestone that ends your self-deluding, freeing you to find your true calling in life. Either way you benefit.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: Stories

Average customer rating:

good book
Wonderful Carver
Mixed Bag
reinvented the short story
A Mixed Collection...

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: Stories
Raymond Carver
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Cathedral
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ASIN: 0679723056
Release Date: 1989-06-18

Amazon.com

"What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" is not only the most well-known short story title of the latter part of the 20th century; it has come to stand for an entire aesthetic, the bare-bones prose style for which Raymond Carver became famous. Perhaps, it could be argued, too famous, at least for his fiction's own good. Like those of Hemingway or any other writer similarly loved, imitated, parodied, and reviled, these stories can sometimes produce the sense of reading pastiche. "A man without hands came to the door to sell me a photograph of my house." "That morning she pours Teacher's over my belly and licks it off. That afternoon she tries to jump out the window." "My friend Mel McGinnis was talking. Mel is a cardiologist, and sometimes that gives him the right." What other writer ever produced first sentences like these? They are like doors into Carverworld, where everyone speaks in simple declarative phrases, no one ever stops at one beer, and failure or violence are the true outcomes of the American dream.

Yet these stories bear careful re-reading, like any truly important and enduring work. For one thing, Carver is one of the few writers who can make desperation--cutting your ex-wife's telephone cord in the middle of a conversation, standing on your own roof chunking rocks while a man with no hands takes your picture--deeply funny. Then there is the sheer craft that went into their creation. Despite their seeming simplicity, his tales are as artfully constructed as poems--and like poems, the best of them can make your breath catch in your throat. In the title piece, for instance, after the gin has been drunk, after the stories have been told, after the tensions in the room have come to the surface and subsided again, there comes a moment of strange lightness and peace: "I could hear my heart beating. I could hear everyone's heart. I could hear the human noise we sat there making, not one of us moving, not even when the room went dark."

Much of what happens in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981) happens offstage, and we're left with tragedy's props: booze, instant coffee, furniture from a failed marriage, cigarettes smoked in the middle of the night. This is not merely a matter of technique. Carver leaves out a great deal, but that's only a measure of his characters' vulnerability, the nerve endings his stories lay bare. To say anything more, one feels, would simply hurt too much. --Mary Park

Book Description

In his second collection of stories, as in his first, Carver's characters are peripheral people--people without education, insight or prospects, people too unimaginative to even give up. Carver celebrates these men and women.

Customer Reviews:

good book.......2007-03-31

Got the book as promised in a timely manner. The book is good needed it for a class that I was behind in and was able to catch up the same day it came in.

Wonderful Carver.......2007-03-25

Carver's texts are pure American, and in their purity his characters and stories become a universal experience. His language, strong, concise and to the point is charged with emotion. He uses only the necessary words to describe and each word is there for a purpose.
This is my second book by Carver. I started with Fires and I'm anxiouslly awaiting the arrival of recently purchased Cathedrals.

Mixed Bag.......2007-01-17

All art, on some level is subjective, certain styles and artists speak more to some than others. For whatever reason this collection of stories failed to speak to me consistently.
It wasn't his evanescent minimalism or the plotlessness that bothered me; it was the lack of psychological depth of some characters that made me just not believe it.
The realistic short story can be very effective in capturing a moment in time, and I think that's what Carver was trying to do, however it must seem plausible. For example: in the story Sacks, a father and son who haven't seen each other in years meet in an airport for a drink. During the course of the conversation the father spills out, in an almost uninterrupted soliloquy, the story of how he cheated on his wife, his interlocutor's mother. It just seemed unnatural. There was no shame or awkwardness in his confession and I didn't believe a second of it. There were other moments when I felt the same way, but I'll spare you the details.
Carver did have a few gems mixed in; stories like After the Denim and the title story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love are excellent to say the least.
I get the sense that his later work was better and I would be interested in checking out other collections of his in the future, but to me this was a mixed bag.

reinvented the short story.......2006-12-20

this has been said many times before, but Carver reinvented the short story as a credible litterary genre. I recommend reading this first then diving into Cathedral. It's a delicious showcase of the author as editor and revisionist. As he ages and perspectives change, Carver adds a richness to many of the stories.

A Mixed Collection..........2005-10-23

Raymond Carver is one of my all-time favorite short story writers. This brief collection gives some of his best, and some of his lesser works. My favorite stories here include the title story, "So Much Water So Close To Home," and - perhaps my favorite - the quasi-horror story, "Tell the Women We're Going." Carver's lean style captures the feel of the America in which he is writing; his characters are usually suburban and lower-middle-class. They are cynical and frequently disillusioned by love - yet there is still hope coming through.

Some of these stories don't feel finished though. They stand merely as slices of life. ONE of them definitely isn't finished: the story, "The Bath," would later be expanded into one of his most famous stories - "A Small, Good Thing."

Selected Shorts: Timeless Classics (Selected Shorts series)

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Selected Shorts: Timeless Classics (Selected Shorts series)

Selected Shorts: Timeless Classics (Selected Shorts series)
James Thurber , Edith Wharton , Symphony Space , Jack Thurber , Richard Connell , D. H. Lawrence , and Raymond Carver
Manufacturer: Symphony Space
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Binding: Audio CD

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Great Classic Stories: 22 Unabridged Classics (Audio Editions)

ASIN: 0971921830

Book Description

This three-CD compilation features some of the best short stories from National Public Radio's Selected Shorts, an award-winning series of classic and contemporary short fiction read by distinguished stage and screen actors and recorded live at the Peter Norton Symphony Space in New York City. More than three hours of recordings in each collection capture the intimacy of live performance, with stories that are alternately exciting, poignant, and funny, making this the perfect accompaniment to any number of daily activities—driving, cooking, exercising, relaxing, or intently listening.

Timeless Classics includes, among others, James Thurber's "The Night the Ghost Got In," read by Isaiah Sheffer; Edith Wharton's "Roman Fever," read by Maria Tucci; Jack London's "Make Westing," read by Steven Gilborn; D. H. Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner," read by John Shea; Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," read by Marian Seldes; Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game," read by Charles Keating; and Raymond Carver's "Cathedral," read by James Naughton.

Customer Reviews:

Selected Shorts: Timeless Classics (Selected Shorts series).......2007-01-04

So much fun! Great for a few minutes or hours.

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Not what I expected.
Carver delivers
A Master and his Craft
What else is there?
Blah...So What??

Cathedral
Raymond Carver
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: Stories
Where I'm Calling From: Selected Stories
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ASIN: 0679723692
Release Date: 1989-06-18

Amazon.com

It was morning in America when Raymond Carver's Cathedral came out in 1983, but the characters in this dry collection of short stories from the forgotten corners of land of opportunity didn't receive much sunlight. Nothing much happens to the subjects of Carver's fiction, which is precisely why they are so harrowing: nothingness is a daunting presence to overcome. And rarely do they prevail, but the loneliness and quiet struggle the characters endure provide fertile ground for literary triumph, particularly in the hands of Carver, who was perhaps in his best form with this effort.

Book Description

"A dozen stories that overflow with the danger, excitement, mystery and possibility of life...Carver is a writer of astonishing compassion and honesty...his eye set only on describing and revealing the world as he sees it. His eye is so clear, it almost breaks your heart."--Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World

" Cathedral contains astonishing achievements, which bespeaks a writer expanding his range of intentions."--The Boston Globe

"A few of Mr. Carver's stories can already be counted among the masterpieces of American fiction... Cathedral shows a gifted writer struggling for a larger scope of reference, a finer touch of nuance." --Irving Howe, front page, The New York Times Book Review

"Clear, hard language so right that we shiver at the knowledge we gain from it." --Thomas Williams, Chicago Tribune Book World

"Carver is more than a realist; there is, in some of his stories, a strangeness, the husk of a myth." --Los Angeles Times

Stories included:
"Feathers"
"Chef's House"
"Preservation"
"The Compartment"
"A Small, Good Thing"
"Vitamins"
"Careful"
"Where I'm Calling From"
"The Train"
"Fever"
"The Bridle"
"Cathedral"

Customer Reviews:

Not what I expected........2007-03-07

Despite the reviews, I don't connect with this book. It had nothing memorable. Sorry, it's going to get donated to the local library.

Carver delivers.......2006-11-26

"Cathedral" was actually the first time I read a collection of Carver stories. I'd heard his name alot but don't read short stories much. Great realist storytelling about working class people facing changes/crisis/alterations in life. It made me think of my 70's childhood and the adults around me then(since I think the stories were from that period). I also recognized one of the stories from Altman's "Short Cuts" movie. I plan to read more Raymond Carver.

A Master and his Craft.......2006-10-26

I read a few of Chandler's short stories while in school, and they always stuck with me afterwards. So, when I saw this collection of stories at a used book sale, I had to buy it and read it immediately.

I believe that Chandler was one of the greatest American short story writers in history, and this collection of stories only reaffirms that belief.

From the blind man who merely wants to "feel a cathedal under his fingers", to the lonely baker surrounded by cake frosting, the characters in "Cathedral" are so real it's sometimes painful to read. Only Carver is capable of leaving out all authorial commentary...he presents a situation, and leaves the reader to digest it, taking away what he or she will from the people and their lives.

Anyone who says "Cathedral" is boring simply has no imagination. Carver leaves the reader to continue the stories by themselves, on their own time, and he allows them to glean however much wisdom they desire from each tiny slice of life.

If you are tired of being told how to feel by writers who believe they know everything about human emotions, Carver is perfect for you. He is minimalism at its best, yet with such a profound grasp of human interaction that he feels no need to share the obvious...and in an age when morals are thrown in our faces, it's nice to know there's still someone who believes in letting the readers draw their own conclusions.

What else is there?.......2004-08-03

Unlike so many writers who came before him, Carver cuts to the bone--with a sharp, jagged knife. Sometimes what you find there isn't what you were looking for: the epiphanies aren't astounding; you're not going to scream anything (especially not Eureka!). No, Carver will, though, leave you nodding, talking to yourself ("It's just like that, isn't it?"), as you fill your glass and wonder why you were fooled by the gloss and shimmer of modern living. "A Small, Good Thing," "Feathers," "Cathedral"--these are contemporary masterpieces. You know they are because when you're done reading them you can't tell whether you've been cheated or rewarded beyond your investment--it's the latter, it's the latter! What do you give to a short story? An hour, maybe? Usually, you give less. What do you hope to take with you? A smile? A smirk? Certainly, no answers? Ah! But, guess what? Carver answers questions nobody who is well paid and well fed and not dying for a drink wouldn't ever think of asking. Not that you have to be desperate to get it. But if you are (in your own secret, silent way), then read these stories. The flowers won't be any brighter, the sky any clearer, when you're done. But you'll see yourself a bit more clearly (more honestly, I almost want to say, but how many of us do that?) and maybe understand those people you've never understood, who don't waste too much time trying to amuse themselves.

Blah...So What??.......2004-06-13

This collection of short stories is mildly interesting and compelling at parts, but as a whole it merely provides a bland and unsurprising read. There`s really nothing special or remarkable here, since Carver presents slices of life about lonely, depressed and lost american souls who haven`t much of a life. Some moments are intriguing (the short story "Cathedral", for instance, about a couple and a blind man), yet the overall result fails to rise above average, dull and bleak material. Certainly overrated, this book recieved more praise than it truly deserves.

Book Description

A movie tie-in edition to the brilliant new film by Robert Altman, based on these nine stories by Carver, "one of the great short story writers of our time--of any time" (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Customer Reviews:

One of the most exquisite collections of short stories you'll find.......2006-09-24

Carver portrays the banal, mundane, and unknown of life in his exquisite collection of short stories. It is the spouse who after twenty-five years of the same monotonous routine, breaks out and acts in ways that are inconsistent. Showing the psychological buildup of internal angst and tension is what Carver has mastered. He has a way exposing the hidden desire and passion that stem from the dark corners of the psyche. According to Joseph Campbell, many people are uncomfortable reading these types of stories.

The emotional charge that comes from Carver's careful observation takes his writing to the level of masterpiece literature. The narrative observatory techniques in the third person are detached and objective. A few of Carver's stories are written in first person, which give him an opportunity to get inside his protagonist, but even here, Carver chooses to stay at a distance, allowing the reader to dally in ambiguity.

Great introduction to a great writer..........2004-10-07

In my opinion, Raymond Carver is among the top five short story writers of the twentieth century. His stories are bold, contemporary, and never boring. This compilation - used to make the Altman film - is a superb sampling of his work. Some of his best stories are here, such as "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?," "So Much Water So Close to Home," and the heartbreaking, "A Small, Good Thing." "Tell the Women We're Going" is one of the most shocking short stories I've read recently. In his introduction, Robert Altman writes, "what he really did was capture the wonderful idiosyncrasies of human behavior, the idiosyncrasies that exist amid the randomness of life's experiences." This is a good introduction to his work.

Edge of my seat.......2004-01-12

I was truly on the edge of my seat during these stories. They are beautifully written. I plan on re-reading these stories for years to come.

worth reading, though I don't love every story.......2003-03-12

Though these stories together tend to leave one rather depressed, they are still worth reading for the glimpses of the characters' lives they offer. Furthermore, some, especially "A Small, Good Thing" are less depressing and, in my mind, actually very good.
Don't assume you know these stories because you've seen the film of the same name directed by Robert Altman. He said himself (in the book's intro, actually) that he took liberties with them, and believe you me, he REALLY did. You may even appreciate the stories more after seeing the film. I did, but that might be just me.
Do take a look at these stories regardless, though!

Raymond Carver is an exceptional short story writer.......2002-07-22

Robert Altman made a wonderful film in the 90s based on 9 short stories published by famous American short story writer Raymond Carver. The film was entitled "Short Cuts" and this publication brings together these 9 stories (including a poem) which were culled from several original Carver publications. The book opens with an introduction by Altman who confesses to taking small liberties with Carver's stories and its characters but without compromising their integrity. Those who have seen the movie will concede that the changes in fact give the entity a coherence that would otherwise be missing. But as a collection of short stories. they can and should be read as standalones. Carver is a master of social commentary, using anecdotes of casual human behaviour to capture the absurdity of modern American life. These candid snapshots may not conform with the dictates of conventional fictional writing in that they may lack a beginning, distinct plot development and a neat ending. Often it isn't even the events that trigger off the response of the characters that are significant but the fact that they respond in a certain way that is interesting from the view point of understanding human behaviour. Carver seems to be saying that sometimes the strange things that happen to us are all due to chance and that like it or not, we need to factor chance into the equation of living. As a short story writer, Carver is exceptional. He has that rare ability to communicate some essential truth about the human condition without using melodrama or any of the other techniques frequently used by lesser writers to captivate and sustain our interest. The 9 stories in this collection are individually separate entities which exist in their own right. No character appears anywhere but in the story he originates from. The situations they capture are also pretty diverse. Yet, they don't seem disjointed when you read them in sequence. They are thematically bound together by Carver's magic which may be hard to define but there all the same. I found every one of them absorbing and captivating. Read this first before you watch the movie. You'll enjoy both better.

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Short Cuts: The Screenplay
Robert Altman , Frank Barhydt , and Raymond Carver
Manufacturer: Capra Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0884963780

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a book of poetry to carry with you
True life as true literature
Transcendent Beauty
Minimal is a Good Thing
all of us - the collected poems by raymond carver

All of Us: The Collected Poems
Raymond Carver
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375703802
Release Date: 2000-04-04

Amazon.com

In the late '70s and early '80s, Raymond Carver's spare, moving fiction had an impact on American letters like nothing before or since. But Carver began life as a poet, and it might be argued that in their striking rhythms, their almost lyric compression, his stories resemble nothing so much as narrative verse. In All of Us, his collected poems, we find what his widow, Tess Gallagher, calls "the spiritual current out of which he moved to write the short stories." Played out against the quintessential Carver emotional landscapes of loneliness and alcohol and not enough money, these poems seem to contain the seeds of his stories within them, sometimes caught in a single image, line, or idea. Any Carver aficionado will experience shivers of recognition while reading this volume: how the final moments of "My Dad's Wallet" ("our breath coming and going") transmute into the "human noise we sat there making" in "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love"; the way the early poem "Distress Sale" resonates in the garage sale of his "Why Don't We Dance."

"The poems give themselves as easily and unselfconsciously as breath," Gallagher writes in her introduction, and it's true. But just because they are plainspoken, don't mistake these for the doodles of a fiction writer whiling away the time between stories. Carver's poems have a lyric momentum all their own, never more evident than in his final poems, written months and in some cases just weeks before his death; Carver seems to have broken away from everything but the simplest and most direct forms of expression. This is language burnished to its essentials, heartbreaking in its very clarity. Witness the final words he ever wrote, in "Last Fragment": <blockquote> And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.
</blockquote> That much, surely, he did. Carver lived a decade longer than he had any right to expect, lived to give us some of his most powerful work: two of his three books of stories, almost all of these poems. Nearly dead from alcoholism, he was granted a 10-year reprieve--"pure gravy," he calls that time, in one poem--and so were we. --Mary Park

Book Description

"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 300 poems in All of Us are marked by a keen attention to the physical world; an uncanny ability to compress vast feeling into discreet moments; a voice of conversational intimacy, and an unstinting sympathy.

This complete edition brings together all the poems of Carver's five previous books, from Fires to the posthumously published No Heroics, Please. It also contains bibliographical and textual notes on individual poems; a chronology of Carver's life and work; and a moving introduction by Carver's widow, the poet Tess Gallagher.

Customer Reviews:

a book of poetry to carry with you.......2005-12-09

I've owned the hardcover edition of Carver's collected poems since it was released back in '99 or '00, and have kept it close to me ever since. This is the direct and honest language of his prose, condensed into a more personal, more poignant, and somehow more hopeful vision of life. Reading these poems forces you to be attentive -- to "make use" as he says -- and puts you back in touch with the things that remind you of a deeper reason to be here. And, it all happens quietly, without any effort, and without any pretense.

True life as true literature .......2004-11-07

There are a number of good qualities about the poems of Carver. They are written in a simple clear language. The reader can understand them. They are about events and relations between people, and tell little stories. This makes them more interesting than if they were simply about his own isolated feelings. They have strong feelings in them. And they have an appreciation for many of the good things in life, loving others, beauty of literature. They too show at times a world of destitution, suffering , loneliness, broken- downness .A reader often wants on the page greater misery than his own , as a form of consolation. There are elements too in the work alien to me.
But on the whole reading these poems gave the feeling of true life as true literature.

Transcendent Beauty.......2004-08-29

Carver is a true poet. He wrote about what he knew in a life both tragic and blessed. He was aware of the beauty in pain and the pain in beauty, and his poems evoke both for us with simple mastery. Here's a fragment from THE GIFT:

This morning there's snow everywhere. We remark on it.
You tell me you didn't sleep well. I say
I didn't either. You had a terrible night. "Me too."
We're extraordinarily calm and tender with each other
as if sensing the other's rickety state of mind.
As if we knew what the other was feeling. We don't,
of course. We never do. No matter.
It's the tenderness I care about. That's the gift
this morning that moves me and holds me.
Same as every morning.

Carver didn't use reality to create poems; he saw the poetry and captured it.....for us. That's his gift.

Minimal is a Good Thing.......2004-04-23

Those who have stated that Carver was a minimalist seem to feel minimalism is a negative. Minimalism is a form of expression, but it reflects merely the form, not the content. These are not minimal poems. The impact comes from straight language in simple grammatical structure. It is amazing how Carver is able to convey intense emotions with such a few number of words. He is a master. After I read FEAR, I was astounded (and somewhat disturbed) at how accurately he tells the depth of fear in such mundane events and short descriptions.

I am one of those who likes Carver's short stories as well as his poetry. He definitely has a masculine voice in all his work, but there is universality in the feelings. What I find more interesting than the "masculine" aspect of his writing (Hemingway was masculine too!) is his ability to write about city life and then go back to his roots in Oregon. Most writers have one of those locations in their souls. He has both and seems at home in both.

Well, I like Raymond Carver. Could you tell? This is writing that never sought out a thesaurus and still gives more shades of interpretation than Roget ever considered.

all of us - the collected poems by raymond carver.......2003-07-19

Someone told me once that this was a book of poems for men. I am not sure this is the case, but I found them absolutely beautiful, real, sad, so direct that I feel like living them.
I prefer Carver' poems than his prose...but you should choose... one of the best and more contemporary books of poems I have ever read...

Call If You Need Me: The Uncollected Fiction and Other Prose

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Good stories, the rest is fluff
Superb
Carver for friends
New stories great; disappointing book for real Carver fans

Call If You Need Me: The Uncollected Fiction and Other Prose
Raymond Carver
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375726284
Release Date: 2001-01-09

Amazon.com

This varied collection of fiction and prose from the late, great Raymond Carver comes, once again, with an introduction by his widow, Tess Gallagher. The posthumous Carver industry, as overseen by Gallagher, rivals only that of Sylvia Plath for its thoroughness. Perhaps it's no coincidence: both were singular, contagiously influential writers who died too early. But Plath died famously miserable, while Carver died famously happy, having conquered alcohol, loneliness, and obscurity--having conquered, indeed, everything but his own disobedient cancerous cells.

Call If You Need Me includes works previously collected, as well as some that have never been seen before. Five new stories, discovered by Gallagher among Carver's papers, are themselves worth the price of admission. Particularly haunting is "Kindling," a tale of a man who rents a room in a house for a few nights in the hopes of writing a letter to his wife. "He'd just spent twenty-eight days at a drying-out facility," we read. "But during this period his wife took it into her head to go down the road with another drunk, a friend of theirs." The main elements here: a river, a couple in the other room, an unfinished letter waiting on the desk. All this is vintage Carver, as well wrought and engrossing as the Cathedral stories.

Following the new fiction are sections devoted to book reviews, introductions, and early stories. Each presents Carver in a different pose, a different voice. It's interesting and illuminating to compare his casual, often catty discussions of contemporary literature with his deeply felt autobiographical essays. Despite the mysterious purity of his writing, he's more than capable of engaging in literary feuds and pissing matches. Not to be missed, however, is the wrenching autobiographical piece "My Father's Life," which previously appeared in Fires. Also named Raymond, Carver's father struggled with alcohol, failure, and mental illness just as his son did--and just as his son did, he wanted to come out the other side and see his life clearly. This is an essay about how people blur into their parents, echo them even as they leave them behind. Trying to reckon with his father's passing, Carver also reckons with his own life: his constant struggle to keep his eyes open, to write something good or maybe true, to write something that would outlast him. --Emily White

Book Description

A VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES ORIGINAL

A literary event: Raymond Carver's complete uncollected fiction and nonfiction, including the recently discovered "last" stories, found a decade after Carver's death and published here in book form for the first time.

Call If You Need Me includes all of the prose previously collected in No Heroics, Please, four essays from Fires, and those five marvelous stories that range over the period of Carver's mature writing and give his devoted readers a final glimpse of the great writer at work. The pure pleasure of Carver's writing is everywhere in his work, here no less than in those stories that have alreadey entered the canon of modern literature.

Customer Reviews:

Good stories, the rest is fluff.......2007-05-02

Call If You Need Me is a collection of writings by Raymond Carver that wouldn't fit into any of his many short story collections. This anthology has five previously unpublished stories as well as a smattering of essays, notes and book reviews. I enjoyed the stories, of the other writing there were hits and misses - the introductions and the book reviews for example were there merely for the sake completeness and don't really serve much of a purpose. Recommended for the short stories.

Superb.......2004-01-22

I just re-read "Kindling" for the umpteenth time, and once again I had to take a deep breath of awe afterwards. I think it's my favorite Carver story. "What Would Like to See?" is good also. They're all good. Even his early work sings with that grand Carver simplicity. But "Kindling" is outstanding. If you buy this book solely for that you're getting much more than your money's worth.

Carver for friends.......2001-06-07

Try to rate a Carver short stories collection is like trying to rate your father actions. You just can't judge him, you only can stare at him. You can even try to understand him, but you don't really have to. There is something beautiful and small hidden in every adjective, every description, every end of a story. Raymond Carver's love for human actions is everywhere in his writing. He puts big attention in little details, uncovering the small moments in every relationationship. You and your wife. Your wife and her friends. Tons of couples having dinner with other couples. Every little thing is a whole world for Carver.

This book comes with four new stories recently discovered, a couple of great essays (the great "My father's life"), early stories, introductions, books reviews and a small uncomppleted fragment of a novel. Definitively, it's Carver for friends. If you are not familiar with his books, you should start with his most famous books, as "What we talk abgout when we talk about love", or his first collection of stories, "Will you please be quiet, please?". Any other case, you are welcome to enter this house.

New stories great; disappointing book for real Carver fans.......2001-03-08

I am excited that there are "new" stories by Raymond Carver. "Call If You Need Me" and "Kindling" are among his best. The rest of the book is disappointing to me: I didn't realize that this would just be the new stories tacked on to NO HEROICS, PLEASE. Essentially, serious readers of Carver's work are being asked to buy the same book twice. "Call If You Need Me" can be found in this year's O. Henry anthology, and "Kindling" can be found in the current edition of Best American Short Stories. The other new stories, I guess, can be found in past issues of Esquire magazine. If the new stories were instead collected in some other way - say, in a slim volume alone, or with some unpublished work by other worthy writers, then I wouldn't be as disappointed. I was expecting a new book altogether -- not just new pages. Still, these stories need to be read. NO HEROICS, PLEASE is a book worth owning, too. If you don't already own it, then I recommend this title. Otherwise, find the new stories elsewhere.

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