Sateisten päivien jälkeen: valitut runot

by Raymond Carver, Arto Lappi (Translator), Juha Rautio (Translator)

Genres: Poetry

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

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

[Tomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kirja joka sai innostumaan runoudesta uudella tasolla. Lainasin ensin kirjastosta, mutta nyt on oma kappale :)

[Mai Laakso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ennen Raymon Carverin (1938-88) upeaa runokirjaa Sateisten päivien jälkeen olen lukenut häneltä yhden novellikirjan Mistä puhumme kun puhumme rakkaudesta. Novellikirja pureutui arkirealismilla jopa paikoitellen inhorealistisesti rakkauden eri muotoihin. Sateisten päivien jälkeen runoteoksen teemoja löytyy arkirealismin eri laidoilta, mutta jälleen rakkaus on yksi teemoista mikä nousee vahvasti läpi muiden runojen ja teemojen. Kirjassa on noin 190 runoa ja se kattaa 2/3 kirjailijan kirjoittamista runoista. Kirja on koottu neljästä eri runokirjasta.
On uskomatonta miten paljon runot voivat kertoa ihmisen elämästä. Koko Carverin elämänkaari tulee läpinäkyväksi näiden runojen voimasta. Loppuvuosien syöpäsairastaminen näkyy myös runoista ja kuoleman kolkuttelu on mukana ajatuksissa ja runoissa. Carver kuoli 51-vuotiaana vahvasti jopa vaikeasti eläneenä ja kokeneena kirjailijana.

[Kirja Vieköön! · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yhtä timanttista kerrontaa kuin Carverin novellitkin. Helposti luettavia proosarunoja.