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Vitamins
Vitamins is a short story by American author Raymond Carver. It was originally published in the Spring 1981 edition of Granta magazine and subsequently in 1984, in the short story collection Cathedral.
- GenresShort Stories
26 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1981
9 people want to read
About the author
Raymond Carver
359 books5,136 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 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 25, 2020
One of the finest short story I happened to read in recent times. Carver writes with simplicity, but only on the surface. There is a lot he conveys by not WRITING it.
September 6, 2025
My daughter Sara-Lee recently introduced me to Raymond Carver's "Vitamins" as part of her university English assignment, and whilst I can appreciate why it's included in academic curricula, the story left me rather cold.
Carver demonstrates technical competence in crafting an unreliable narrator, but the execution feels more like a writing exercise than a fully realised short story.
Carver clearly understands how to construct a character who reveals more than he intends, and the protagonist's self-deception feels authentic in its repetitive patterns. However, this is precisely where the story begins to falter. Once you recognise the narrator's blindness to his drinking problem, the story has precious little else to offer.
What makes the narrator particularly unsympathetic is his casual mistreatment of women throughout the narrative. His interactions with his wife and the other female characters reveal a man who views women primarily as objects for his own needs, whether sexual or emotional. This toxic behaviour, presented without any apparent awareness from the narrator himself, adds another layer to his unreliability but also makes the reading experience deeply unpleasant.
The story's conclusion, where "things kept falling", serves as a rather heavy-handed metaphor for the narrator's complete collapse. Whilst this image effectively captures his downward spiral, it feels predictable rather than revelatory. The falling objects mirror his falling apart, but by this point, any reader has long since recognised the trajectory of his self-destruction.
"Vitamins" reads more like a demonstration of narrative craft than a story with genuine emotional resonance. The unreliable narrator device, though competently handled, cannot carry a narrative that ultimately offers little beyond obvious observations about addiction and misogyny.
A well-crafted but ultimately hollow exploration of self-deception that serves academia better than personal reading. In a classroom, students can dissect its narrative mechanics, but for readers seeking deeper understanding, the story treats the narrator's psychological devolution with complete apathy. Admittedly, given its bleak subject matter of addiction and abuse, catharsis was never on offer, but the story fails to provide the kind of unsettling illumination that makes confronting such darkness worthwhile.
Carver demonstrates technical competence in crafting an unreliable narrator, but the execution feels more like a writing exercise than a fully realised short story.
Carver clearly understands how to construct a character who reveals more than he intends, and the protagonist's self-deception feels authentic in its repetitive patterns. However, this is precisely where the story begins to falter. Once you recognise the narrator's blindness to his drinking problem, the story has precious little else to offer.
What makes the narrator particularly unsympathetic is his casual mistreatment of women throughout the narrative. His interactions with his wife and the other female characters reveal a man who views women primarily as objects for his own needs, whether sexual or emotional. This toxic behaviour, presented without any apparent awareness from the narrator himself, adds another layer to his unreliability but also makes the reading experience deeply unpleasant.
The story's conclusion, where "things kept falling", serves as a rather heavy-handed metaphor for the narrator's complete collapse. Whilst this image effectively captures his downward spiral, it feels predictable rather than revelatory. The falling objects mirror his falling apart, but by this point, any reader has long since recognised the trajectory of his self-destruction.
"Vitamins" reads more like a demonstration of narrative craft than a story with genuine emotional resonance. The unreliable narrator device, though competently handled, cannot carry a narrative that ultimately offers little beyond obvious observations about addiction and misogyny.
A well-crafted but ultimately hollow exploration of self-deception that serves academia better than personal reading. In a classroom, students can dissect its narrative mechanics, but for readers seeking deeper understanding, the story treats the narrator's psychological devolution with complete apathy. Admittedly, given its bleak subject matter of addiction and abuse, catharsis was never on offer, but the story fails to provide the kind of unsettling illumination that makes confronting such darkness worthwhile.
March 5, 2021
další démoni a deprese klasické literatury. nonono
March 18, 2024
Hvorfor er alle folk alkoholikere i hans bøger?
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews