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Carver Country: The World of Raymond Carver
A poignant portrait of the landscapes and people that would greatly influence Raymond Carver’s writing. Carver Country is a new updated edition of a 1990 classic. Adelman’s evocative duotone photographs of the landscape and people of Carver’s life in Washington, Oregon, California, and New York state are paired with selections from Carver’s poems, stories, and letters. This “visual biography” reveals that the great depth and melancholy Carver manifested in his character’s lives was often directly born out of the surrounding world and his inner demons. What results becomes a profound meditation on the intersection of the fictionalized world and the physical world. 120 duotone photographs
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
7 people are currently reading
139 people want to read
About the author
Raymond Carver
360 books5,104 followersCarver 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
August 8, 2017
Il fotografo Bob Adelman ci offre un ritratto insolito dello scrittore statunitense Raymond Carver. Ogni scatto è accompagnato da una poesia o da un estratto di un racconto; attraverso i luoghi dell'infanzia e della vita matura, il lettore riesce a intrecciare una duplice narrazione davvero riuscita. Mi ha emozionata osservare la fotografia del fiume a cui Carver si ispirò per il racconto "Nessuno ha detto niente", lo immaginavo meno paludoso, raccolto da una fitta vegetazione e invece la fotografia di Adelman mi ha restituito un fiume antieroico, meno perfetto e in questo, più affine ai temi dell'autore. Una lettura interessante che permette un viaggio negli USA che palpitano dell'umanità più vera e meno nobile.
May 26, 2024
Un libro bellísimo para ahondar en la vida y la obra (tan ligadas) de Raymond Carver.
Las fotos de Bob Adelman forman un relato biográfico que recorre muchos de los lugares donde vivió Carver y que aparecen en sus libros, pero también retrata a algunas de las personas que inspiraron a sus personajes (e incluso el molde de la dentadura deforme que aparece en su cuento “Plumas”).
La selección de textos de que acompañan las fotos —entre poemas, fragmentos de cuentos e incluso cartas inéditas— son el complemento perfecto para entender cuán onda era la relación entre su vida y su obra, pero además hacen que Ray resulte todavía más entrañable.
Y el largo epílogo de Tess Gallagher, esposa y ayudante y la “mejor crítica” de Carver, es un texto hermoso en el que cuenta anécdotas y analiza aspectos clave de su obra.
Es un libro hermoso porque se nota todo el cariño con que está armado.
Las fotos de Bob Adelman forman un relato biográfico que recorre muchos de los lugares donde vivió Carver y que aparecen en sus libros, pero también retrata a algunas de las personas que inspiraron a sus personajes (e incluso el molde de la dentadura deforme que aparece en su cuento “Plumas”).
La selección de textos de que acompañan las fotos —entre poemas, fragmentos de cuentos e incluso cartas inéditas— son el complemento perfecto para entender cuán onda era la relación entre su vida y su obra, pero además hacen que Ray resulte todavía más entrañable.
Y el largo epílogo de Tess Gallagher, esposa y ayudante y la “mejor crítica” de Carver, es un texto hermoso en el que cuenta anécdotas y analiza aspectos clave de su obra.
Es un libro hermoso porque se nota todo el cariño con que está armado.
February 4, 2014
Sicuramente non avrei scommesso che foto di luoghi e paesaggi, ritratti fotografici dello scrittore e delle sue persone più care fossero mezzi per comprendere meglio un percorso letterario.
Sono costretto a ricredermi:
http://www.lamacchiaumana.blogspot.it...
Leggere Carver Country è importante. Restituisce l'immagine di un'esistenza vissuta a fondo, inscindibile dalla dedizione totale alla scrittura. Questo volume non cade mai nel voyeurismo, non è un ricettacolo di curiosità e aneddoti sulla vita privata di uno scrittore, non fa nemmeno leva sull'emotività e la compassione del lettore. Attraverso un'alchimia riuscitissima tra testo e fotografia si ricrea appunto il mondo di Carver tra vita e letteratura.
Sono costretto a ricredermi:
http://www.lamacchiaumana.blogspot.it...
Leggere Carver Country è importante. Restituisce l'immagine di un'esistenza vissuta a fondo, inscindibile dalla dedizione totale alla scrittura. Questo volume non cade mai nel voyeurismo, non è un ricettacolo di curiosità e aneddoti sulla vita privata di uno scrittore, non fa nemmeno leva sull'emotività e la compassione del lettore. Attraverso un'alchimia riuscitissima tra testo e fotografia si ricrea appunto il mondo di Carver tra vita e letteratura.
June 12, 2013
guardare negli occhi le parole che ami.
May 28, 2020
Sencillamente excelente. Recomendado para leerlo, al menos después nde haber leído De qué hablamos cuando hablamos de amor (Principiantes), Catedral y alguno de poesía.
January 7, 2016
Read this in a book store . . . A collection of photographs portraying places Carver lived, or that figure into his stories and poems. Also includes photographs of Carver and Gallagher and their friends and family. These photographs are woven together with Carver poems, story fragments, and letters, creating, as Gallagher says in her introduction, a story of his life, his work, and their life together. Her introduction is itself a beautifully written tribute, full of stories capturing the essence of the man she knew. Her introduction is also full of insights about what Carver tried to express in his work. I didn’t buy the book so I’ll preserve Gallagher’s choice observations here:
" . . . the floodlight intensity of Ray’s own writing, which put honesty of emotion and truth-telling above all, even to the point of laying his character’s lives open and vulnerable at moments when they were most shamed and overwhelmed" (9).
"[his characters] even when they seem on the verge of being overwhelmed by their struggles or by the ruptures they feel with their surroundings or with their families or mates, they don’t capitulate without an assessment of the damage. Ray’s stories are a personal record of individual lives lived with no safety net and no imagination of a safety net" (10).
"His characters, whether alone or within marriages or on the periphery of family, have compulsions which arise from the sheer need to be included or remembered. Often they are reduced to simply inventing a usefulness for themselves. These compulsions take hold especially when they find themselves out of work or away from the solace of family. His characters sometimes serve these repetitive, desperate actions as faithfully as they might have worked jobs" (13-14).
"It's never certain what it is that allows for growth in one’s character and a tearing away of chaff toward clear vision, but Ray sought more than the petty and meager. He strove in his writing and life not to betray the hardships of his experience. At the same time he didn’t reserve enlightenment for the educated and self-reliant. His characters might be ignominiously engaged in actions which belonged to the mire, to the partialities of their talents, and the laxities of their wills, but he also allowed them their clear moments of recognition and communion when these came, and did so in their vernacular" (14).
" . . . the floodlight intensity of Ray’s own writing, which put honesty of emotion and truth-telling above all, even to the point of laying his character’s lives open and vulnerable at moments when they were most shamed and overwhelmed" (9).
"[his characters] even when they seem on the verge of being overwhelmed by their struggles or by the ruptures they feel with their surroundings or with their families or mates, they don’t capitulate without an assessment of the damage. Ray’s stories are a personal record of individual lives lived with no safety net and no imagination of a safety net" (10).
"His characters, whether alone or within marriages or on the periphery of family, have compulsions which arise from the sheer need to be included or remembered. Often they are reduced to simply inventing a usefulness for themselves. These compulsions take hold especially when they find themselves out of work or away from the solace of family. His characters sometimes serve these repetitive, desperate actions as faithfully as they might have worked jobs" (13-14).
"It's never certain what it is that allows for growth in one’s character and a tearing away of chaff toward clear vision, but Ray sought more than the petty and meager. He strove in his writing and life not to betray the hardships of his experience. At the same time he didn’t reserve enlightenment for the educated and self-reliant. His characters might be ignominiously engaged in actions which belonged to the mire, to the partialities of their talents, and the laxities of their wills, but he also allowed them their clear moments of recognition and communion when these came, and did so in their vernacular" (14).
June 25, 2023
A tip of the hat to my wife for introducing me to both Jim Harrison and Raymond Carver. Now I get to work through our collection to read further.
December 26, 2016
This little gem opens the door on the life of writer Ray Carver, with photos commissioned by him and his longtime companion, Tess Gallagher, with the understanding that Ray didn't had little time left to live. As the poem "Gravy" tries to explain at the end of this book, each day was one more Ray was thankful for.
Without much window dressing, Ray described the ordinary lives of people struggling with alcoholism, each other, and the circumstances, usually, that come with not having money. Yet, a current of joy runs through this book. Ray was a student of John Gardner, one of my favorite authors, and his spare writing style shows some of Gardner's influence on editing a work. Carver Country contains episodes that illustrate this process that he and Tess adhered to, despite demonic cats and the rare pull of the past on their lives. In these times, the readers feels the love this couple encompassed. Having met Tess, it's clear to me what a gentle soul Ray was, what he became despite the ravages of his early and ongoing familial upheavals. Bob Adelman's photos add a dimension to this book that is not only unobtrusive, and not merely explanatory, but profound. His pictures do not make this a coffee table book, though it could be. What this book does best, at least for this reviewer, is to open a window on life's brief pageant. It sparks that dull coal inside to write.
Without much window dressing, Ray described the ordinary lives of people struggling with alcoholism, each other, and the circumstances, usually, that come with not having money. Yet, a current of joy runs through this book. Ray was a student of John Gardner, one of my favorite authors, and his spare writing style shows some of Gardner's influence on editing a work. Carver Country contains episodes that illustrate this process that he and Tess adhered to, despite demonic cats and the rare pull of the past on their lives. In these times, the readers feels the love this couple encompassed. Having met Tess, it's clear to me what a gentle soul Ray was, what he became despite the ravages of his early and ongoing familial upheavals. Bob Adelman's photos add a dimension to this book that is not only unobtrusive, and not merely explanatory, but profound. His pictures do not make this a coffee table book, though it could be. What this book does best, at least for this reviewer, is to open a window on life's brief pageant. It sparks that dull coal inside to write.
November 28, 2017
Lo mejor es la primera parte, es decir la de las fotografías acompañadas de extractos de poemas, cuentos, cartas, de Raymond Carver. Eso abarca tres cuartos del libro y es lo mejor, aunque hacia el final quizá acaba cansando.
Luego viene un largo epílogo escrito por su última esposa, que también es poeta y por tanto tiene sus propias pretensiones literarias, que la verdad no es que cueste leer pero sí tiene una calidad bastante baja. Por momentos se convierte en una reivindicación de su papel en la vida de Carver. Una exposición de lo importante, crucial, que ella ha sido incluso en las decisiones narrativas de Carver a la hora de resolver sus cuentos etc. La forma en que incluso se puede decir que lo salvó emocionalmente blabla. Cosa que puede ser verdad. Seguro que sí. No sé. No tengo ni idea. Pero que me parece un poco grotesco de leer cuando quien lo escribe es la directa interesada. Tendría que haber dejado que lo escriba un biógrafo o algo. Tener algo más de paciencia quizá. Lo cierto es que de esa forma no queda como un buen corolario del libro. Ya que la tal Tess ni siquiera escribe bien.
Luego viene un largo epílogo escrito por su última esposa, que también es poeta y por tanto tiene sus propias pretensiones literarias, que la verdad no es que cueste leer pero sí tiene una calidad bastante baja. Por momentos se convierte en una reivindicación de su papel en la vida de Carver. Una exposición de lo importante, crucial, que ella ha sido incluso en las decisiones narrativas de Carver a la hora de resolver sus cuentos etc. La forma en que incluso se puede decir que lo salvó emocionalmente blabla. Cosa que puede ser verdad. Seguro que sí. No sé. No tengo ni idea. Pero que me parece un poco grotesco de leer cuando quien lo escribe es la directa interesada. Tendría que haber dejado que lo escriba un biógrafo o algo. Tener algo más de paciencia quizá. Lo cierto es que de esa forma no queda como un buen corolario del libro. Ya que la tal Tess ni siquiera escribe bien.
July 9, 2022
Una gema. Una edición creada con mimo. Los textos de Carver soberbiamente escogidos que, aunque parezca difícil, son enriquecidos por las fotografías de Bob Adelman. Y si todo ello fuera insuficiente, una semblanza de Ray Carver, escrita por Tess Gallagher, de la que es imposible escapar sin una lágrima. Agradezco infinito al librero del stand de @anagrama en el Retiro que me lo recomendó.
June 29, 2022
Este documento engrosa el imaginario alrededor de Raymond Carver: el sitio donde emplaza sus historias y el aire que se respira en cada drama. Bob Adelman y Tess Gallagher le rinden tributo con sendas contribuciones que en conjunto se siente como un testimonio sólo permitido a su círculo familiar.
June 4, 2007
as always, subtly incredible.
April 17, 2009
Not really a book you read, so much as peruse to learn the roots of Carvers fiction. Excellent, touching, somewhat sad B & W photography befitting Rays world.
August 3, 2013
Sul mio blog la recensione al libro: www.robertocotroneo.me
March 1, 2014
some sights and sounds of where Raymond Carver came from. too small an appetizer for the main of course of his work.
June 12, 2015
Starkly beautiful.
August 2, 2018
I was excited to acquire this book, but disappointed by its bland presentation and dull collecting of photographs. I wanted to see at least something of his birthplace, Clatskanie.
July 6, 2019
Beautiful photographs and beautiful writing. An insight into a beloved writer.
March 22, 2023
Interesante primer acercamiento a este autor del que todavía no he leído ninguna obra. Texto y fotografías convierten esta obra en algo íntimo.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews