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No Heroics, Please: Uncollected Writings
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 already entered the canon of modern American literature.
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 already entered the canon of modern American literature.
239 pages, Paperback
First published June 9, 1992
7 people are currently reading
296 people want to read
About the author
Raymond Carver
360 books5,107 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 - 26 of 26 reviews
July 14, 2021
SENTIVO IL CUORE CHE MI BATTEVA. SENTIVO IL BATTITO DEL CUORE DI OGNUNO. SENTIVO IL RUMORE UMANO CHE FACEVAMO TUTTI, LÌ SEDUTI, SENZA MUOVERCI, NEMMENO QUANDO LA STANZA DIVENTÒ TUTTA BUIA.
Non ci sono eroi in un motel.
Pubblicata tre anni dopo la sua morte dalla moglie Tess Gallagher, questa raccolta di brevi saggi racchiude l’essenza del pensiero carveriano: niente eroi né eroismi, per favore, non ne abbiamo più bisogno, l’ordinario è già straordinario, non serve creare eroi.
L’inquietudine dell’ordinario.
È finito il tempo degli eroi e delle grandi storie: è rimasto il mondo delle piccole cose, dei gesti quotidiani, degli uomini di tutti i giorni. E si chiama realtà.
Si chiama vita.
È l’epica della tragedia quotidiana della gente comune.
Che chi scrive può solo farci percepire.
Una vasta umanità.
Come il protagonista del racconto Cattedrale: al cieco che gli chiede di descrivergli una cattedrale, non sapendo spiegare con le parole, la disegna pezzo dopo pezzo, linea dopo linea, mentre quello lo segue con la mano.
Allo stesso modo qui Carver ci spiega cos'è per lui la scrittura e quindi cos'è per lui la vita.
I racconti di Carver sono una color correction tarata sulla gamma dei grigi.
Scala di grigi.
Carver in inglese è un modo di dire scultore, perché ‘to carve’ vuol dire appunto intagliare, scolpire.
E cos’era lo scrittore Carver se non uno scultore della parola che come Michelangelo partiva da un blocco di parole, invece che di marmo, per scavare, tagliare, ridurre? Perché dire con venticinque parole quello che si può dire con cinque?
Michael Keaton interpreta Riggan Thompson, il protagonista di “Birdman” di Alexandro Gonzalez Iñárritu. Nel 2015 il film ha ricevuto nove candidature agli Oscar e ne ha vinti quattro: miglior film, miglior regia, miglior sceneggiatura originale, miglior fotografia.
In ogni pagina scritta da Carver compare un essere umano: uomini e donne, adulti, che hanno dialoghi densi ma spezzati, spesso senza concludere le frasi – affogano nella reciproca comprensione che sconfina nell’incomprensione.
Edward Hopper
Un po’ come ci si immagina Babele
(Curiosamente, il terzo film di Alexandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, che su Carver ha costruito Birdman, il suo primo premio Oscar, s’intitola proprio Babel.)
Michael Keaton/Riggan Thompson è il regista di una pièce teatrale ispirata al racconto di Raymond Carver del 1981, in cui Edward Norton è l’attore protagonista: un affascinante gioco di rimandi. Il compositore Antonio Sánchez sarebbe dovuto essere premiato con l’Oscar per la migliore colonna sonora.
Di cosa parliamo quando parliamo d’amore si conclude con le parole che ho usato come titolo a queste mie note. Cioè, si chiude con la sparizione della luce: quell’oscurità che il racconto di Carver annuncia lungo il corso di tutta la sua breve narrazione, alla fine si compie, e si porta via i quattro protagonisti.
Proprio come quando si spengono le luci a teatro, attori e pubblico sono immersi nel buio, immobili in piedi o nelle poltrone, respiri e battiti di cuore, rumori umani, il sipario che cala.
Bukowski e Carver si ubriacano insieme una sera.
Non ci sono eroi in un motel.
Pubblicata tre anni dopo la sua morte dalla moglie Tess Gallagher, questa raccolta di brevi saggi racchiude l’essenza del pensiero carveriano: niente eroi né eroismi, per favore, non ne abbiamo più bisogno, l’ordinario è già straordinario, non serve creare eroi.
L’inquietudine dell’ordinario.
È finito il tempo degli eroi e delle grandi storie: è rimasto il mondo delle piccole cose, dei gesti quotidiani, degli uomini di tutti i giorni. E si chiama realtà.
Si chiama vita.
È l’epica della tragedia quotidiana della gente comune.
Che chi scrive può solo farci percepire.
Una vasta umanità.
Come il protagonista del racconto Cattedrale: al cieco che gli chiede di descrivergli una cattedrale, non sapendo spiegare con le parole, la disegna pezzo dopo pezzo, linea dopo linea, mentre quello lo segue con la mano.
Allo stesso modo qui Carver ci spiega cos'è per lui la scrittura e quindi cos'è per lui la vita.
I racconti di Carver sono una color correction tarata sulla gamma dei grigi.
Scala di grigi.
Carver in inglese è un modo di dire scultore, perché ‘to carve’ vuol dire appunto intagliare, scolpire.
E cos’era lo scrittore Carver se non uno scultore della parola che come Michelangelo partiva da un blocco di parole, invece che di marmo, per scavare, tagliare, ridurre? Perché dire con venticinque parole quello che si può dire con cinque?
Michael Keaton interpreta Riggan Thompson, il protagonista di “Birdman” di Alexandro Gonzalez Iñárritu. Nel 2015 il film ha ricevuto nove candidature agli Oscar e ne ha vinti quattro: miglior film, miglior regia, miglior sceneggiatura originale, miglior fotografia.
In ogni pagina scritta da Carver compare un essere umano: uomini e donne, adulti, che hanno dialoghi densi ma spezzati, spesso senza concludere le frasi – affogano nella reciproca comprensione che sconfina nell’incomprensione.
Edward Hopper
Un po’ come ci si immagina Babele
(Curiosamente, il terzo film di Alexandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, che su Carver ha costruito Birdman, il suo primo premio Oscar, s’intitola proprio Babel.)
Michael Keaton/Riggan Thompson è il regista di una pièce teatrale ispirata al racconto di Raymond Carver del 1981, in cui Edward Norton è l’attore protagonista: un affascinante gioco di rimandi. Il compositore Antonio Sánchez sarebbe dovuto essere premiato con l’Oscar per la migliore colonna sonora.
Di cosa parliamo quando parliamo d’amore si conclude con le parole che ho usato come titolo a queste mie note. Cioè, si chiude con la sparizione della luce: quell’oscurità che il racconto di Carver annuncia lungo il corso di tutta la sua breve narrazione, alla fine si compie, e si porta via i quattro protagonisti.
Proprio come quando si spengono le luci a teatro, attori e pubblico sono immersi nel buio, immobili in piedi o nelle poltrone, respiri e battiti di cuore, rumori umani, il sipario che cala.
Bukowski e Carver si ubriacano insieme una sera.
December 7, 2019
Update on 07 Dec.
It has been some time since I hoisted a Carver, but his paperbacks occupy a revered spot in my bookshelves. It may be nostalgia, but I don’t think so. My brother just younger than me (who doesn’t read a lot of fiction) alerted me to him in the late 80s, and I read most of his repertoire in the early 90s. Carver identifies as a short story expert, and I enjoy his more than about any other author. I have a cassette of Peter Riegert (yes, that one) reading “Where I’m Calling From” that I pretty much wore out in the early 2000s, long after I read that book. It still remains one of the most memorable reading experiences of my (alarmingly) lengthening life. He captures the pathos of struggling with alcohol, blue collar work, broken relationships and fishing in a way that is unmatched. The tragedy of his death at 50, after 10 years of sobriety, was a great loss for the literary world.
“No Heroics” has his first short story, the beginnings of an unpublished novel, several poems, a number of short book reviews and a variety of essays and memoirs. It is a pleasant pastiche, the least of which I enjoyed being the poems (I must confess I have not cultivated the ear for poetry). Carver makes the point that the short story and poem are very close kin – I had never thought of that. He writes about his favorite writers, some famous and others now obscure (I must confess I added a couple to my TBR pile in Goodreads, trusting Ray’s taste without question). I learned a great deal about how he writes, re-writes, and cuts his stories down to their essence, hearkening Hemingway, one of his heroes. But I find Carver much more readable than Ernest, but that may be my immaturity as reader or simply I’ve not yet grasped the times in which Hem wrote.
What I most took away is a thirst for more reading – and an understanding of why I like the authors I like. Carver is friendly and supportive of Tom McGuane, Richard Ford, Jim Harrison, Tobias Wolff and several others I’ve read. They are storytellers, where the fiction is more “real” than nonfiction could ever be – this is my philosophy as well and, honestly, about the only litmus test I have for what I enjoy reading. He renewed a hunger for the novels of Jim Harrison, and Ray’s comments sent me scurrying to my shelves to pull down “Farmer” and put closer to my bedstand where the next books to be read reside for me. Carver is about as honest a writer as I have ever encountered, he has nothing but scorn for the experimental novelists of his generation (the 70s) where character development is ignored. He hearkens to a more traditional style, and writes with fervor and passion and an artistry (like great music, he uses silence and avoidance of clutter in his spare style like a genius). He knows an extra word can ruin the story or distort a sentence to the point where the meaning is lost to confusion.
Recently I read a forward to a posthumous William Gay Novel where the author mentions a conversation. Apparently Gay said Robert Penn Warren’s Blackberry Winter was a perfect story – not a single word could be altered. This resonated as I recall encountering Warren’s Portable Reader a couple decades back where I was crushed to oblivion by the beauty of that story – I had never heard anyone else acknowledge. It reminded me of what Carver said about writing.
I hope someday others can enjoy Carver as much as I do. This book included the forward when he was editor for “America’s Best Short Stories” (1985 I think). I have this on my shelf too, I’m likely to pull it down because anything Carver likes, I’m likely to love. Get you some!
It has been some time since I hoisted a Carver, but his paperbacks occupy a revered spot in my bookshelves. It may be nostalgia, but I don’t think so. My brother just younger than me (who doesn’t read a lot of fiction) alerted me to him in the late 80s, and I read most of his repertoire in the early 90s. Carver identifies as a short story expert, and I enjoy his more than about any other author. I have a cassette of Peter Riegert (yes, that one) reading “Where I’m Calling From” that I pretty much wore out in the early 2000s, long after I read that book. It still remains one of the most memorable reading experiences of my (alarmingly) lengthening life. He captures the pathos of struggling with alcohol, blue collar work, broken relationships and fishing in a way that is unmatched. The tragedy of his death at 50, after 10 years of sobriety, was a great loss for the literary world.
“No Heroics” has his first short story, the beginnings of an unpublished novel, several poems, a number of short book reviews and a variety of essays and memoirs. It is a pleasant pastiche, the least of which I enjoyed being the poems (I must confess I have not cultivated the ear for poetry). Carver makes the point that the short story and poem are very close kin – I had never thought of that. He writes about his favorite writers, some famous and others now obscure (I must confess I added a couple to my TBR pile in Goodreads, trusting Ray’s taste without question). I learned a great deal about how he writes, re-writes, and cuts his stories down to their essence, hearkening Hemingway, one of his heroes. But I find Carver much more readable than Ernest, but that may be my immaturity as reader or simply I’ve not yet grasped the times in which Hem wrote.
What I most took away is a thirst for more reading – and an understanding of why I like the authors I like. Carver is friendly and supportive of Tom McGuane, Richard Ford, Jim Harrison, Tobias Wolff and several others I’ve read. They are storytellers, where the fiction is more “real” than nonfiction could ever be – this is my philosophy as well and, honestly, about the only litmus test I have for what I enjoy reading. He renewed a hunger for the novels of Jim Harrison, and Ray’s comments sent me scurrying to my shelves to pull down “Farmer” and put closer to my bedstand where the next books to be read reside for me. Carver is about as honest a writer as I have ever encountered, he has nothing but scorn for the experimental novelists of his generation (the 70s) where character development is ignored. He hearkens to a more traditional style, and writes with fervor and passion and an artistry (like great music, he uses silence and avoidance of clutter in his spare style like a genius). He knows an extra word can ruin the story or distort a sentence to the point where the meaning is lost to confusion.
Recently I read a forward to a posthumous William Gay Novel where the author mentions a conversation. Apparently Gay said Robert Penn Warren’s Blackberry Winter was a perfect story – not a single word could be altered. This resonated as I recall encountering Warren’s Portable Reader a couple decades back where I was crushed to oblivion by the beauty of that story – I had never heard anyone else acknowledge. It reminded me of what Carver said about writing.
I hope someday others can enjoy Carver as much as I do. This book included the forward when he was editor for “America’s Best Short Stories” (1985 I think). I have this on my shelf too, I’m likely to pull it down because anything Carver likes, I’m likely to love. Get you some!
June 4, 2024
I wouldn't start with this book as an introduction to Carver. This feels more inclined to the reader interested in the "how" and "why" Carver writes. No shock here that Chekov is referenced many times, and rightfully so. It is impossible not to see the influence Chekov had on Carver's tendency for the efficient hand.
It is an enjoyable book if you're interested in seeing how the sausage is made and why the sausage maker makes his sausages. I'm grateful for such a book to exist and I liked it. Don't expect it to be the collection of Carver writings that you love and know. Otherwise, disappointment awaits.
It is an enjoyable book if you're interested in seeing how the sausage is made and why the sausage maker makes his sausages. I'm grateful for such a book to exist and I liked it. Don't expect it to be the collection of Carver writings that you love and know. Otherwise, disappointment awaits.
November 20, 2023
Finally wrapped this up in my effort to complete the Carver bibliography. A varied collection here; Ray’s essays just don’t hook me like his fiction. Still decent, especially the “last” stories that are included, but far from the top choice when I want to pick up a Carver paperback to get lost in.
October 6, 2015
The lack of enjoyment when reading this work is almost thrilling, as it shows the normally-genius Raymond Carver to not be the immortal many thought him to be.
Upon reading through Raymond Carver’s (1938-1988) posthumously released anthology of uncollected writings, No Heroics, Please (Vintage, ISBN: 0679740074, 1992), one discovers that there’s a certain joy in seeing his stories drag and his poems go nowhere. There’s something encouraging about discovering the pitfalls of a figure previously thought to be invincible.
The Uncollected Fiction
The short stories in No Heroics, Please isn’t just underwhelming: it’s underdeveloped. “Furious Seasons” is a mediocre Faulkner writing-exercise, while “The Aficionados” is a rib on Hemingway’s bullfighting obsession. “Poseidon and Company” is nearly pointless. “Bright Red Apples” is like something an undergraduate would write if he was into ripping off Flannery O’Connor and ending on a melodramatic note.
The best fiction here is “The Hair,” and even that is just an uneventful sign of what was to come. The segment of the novel is all right, but there’s no way he could have sustained that for longer than 20-30 pages, especially being the revision-hound that he was. If these early stories were all someone was to read of Carver’s work, not reading more would be completely understandable.
Reading this collection is similar to watching a home movie of “giant’s first steps” and seeing the behemoth fall down and crack his face on the coffee table. Surely guys like Carver come out of the womb with a furrowed brow and a knack for prose. Or so one would think.
The Uncollected Poetry and Non-Fiction
Carver’s poetry isn’t that great to begin with, falling into the same traps as Charles Bukowski’s poetry, where the poem is just a shortchanged story with line-breaks. The book reviews here aren’t that good either, as his summaries give away too much, provoking an urge to skip the summary and just read his closing thoughts. His opinions on literature – while being well thought-out and written – are essentially underwhelming.
The “Occasions” section is interesting, though with conversational non-fiction, it’s hard to mess up. The essay on “Friendship” was a bit cheesy (he finally let his happiness get to him, scoring yet another victory for mere mortals) and the meditation was all right at best. The section with a bunch of introductions is fluff in an already fluffy collection.
A Collection for Believers
The stories are flat, the poetry is laughable, the non-fiction is bland. So why read this? If for no other reason, read it after digesting everything else Carver has written, just to prove to that he wasn’t a God. At least not at first.
Upon reading through Raymond Carver’s (1938-1988) posthumously released anthology of uncollected writings, No Heroics, Please (Vintage, ISBN: 0679740074, 1992), one discovers that there’s a certain joy in seeing his stories drag and his poems go nowhere. There’s something encouraging about discovering the pitfalls of a figure previously thought to be invincible.
The Uncollected Fiction
The short stories in No Heroics, Please isn’t just underwhelming: it’s underdeveloped. “Furious Seasons” is a mediocre Faulkner writing-exercise, while “The Aficionados” is a rib on Hemingway’s bullfighting obsession. “Poseidon and Company” is nearly pointless. “Bright Red Apples” is like something an undergraduate would write if he was into ripping off Flannery O’Connor and ending on a melodramatic note.
The best fiction here is “The Hair,” and even that is just an uneventful sign of what was to come. The segment of the novel is all right, but there’s no way he could have sustained that for longer than 20-30 pages, especially being the revision-hound that he was. If these early stories were all someone was to read of Carver’s work, not reading more would be completely understandable.
Reading this collection is similar to watching a home movie of “giant’s first steps” and seeing the behemoth fall down and crack his face on the coffee table. Surely guys like Carver come out of the womb with a furrowed brow and a knack for prose. Or so one would think.
The Uncollected Poetry and Non-Fiction
Carver’s poetry isn’t that great to begin with, falling into the same traps as Charles Bukowski’s poetry, where the poem is just a shortchanged story with line-breaks. The book reviews here aren’t that good either, as his summaries give away too much, provoking an urge to skip the summary and just read his closing thoughts. His opinions on literature – while being well thought-out and written – are essentially underwhelming.
The “Occasions” section is interesting, though with conversational non-fiction, it’s hard to mess up. The essay on “Friendship” was a bit cheesy (he finally let his happiness get to him, scoring yet another victory for mere mortals) and the meditation was all right at best. The section with a bunch of introductions is fluff in an already fluffy collection.
A Collection for Believers
The stories are flat, the poetry is laughable, the non-fiction is bland. So why read this? If for no other reason, read it after digesting everything else Carver has written, just to prove to that he wasn’t a God. At least not at first.
April 7, 2016
This book contains Carver’s essays, introductions, reviews, as well as poetry and five early stories. So, from a literary artifact perspective, this was an important collection. “Furious Seasons” is an interesting story because it is the opposite of his later, celebrated, work. As Tess Gallagher, in her foreward, says, it represents the path not taken. It certainly demonstrates that his stripped down style was an aesthetic, that he knew, in fact, how to lay it on thick. So that story - given the later revelations of the Lish editing - is a great touchstone.
With the exception of the essays on “Rewriting” and “Where I’m Calling From,” which directly address how he worked on his stories, you need to cull Carver's aesthetics from what he says about other writer’s work. In the reviews he pulls no punches when describing what he likes and doesn’t like.
One of the highlights of this collection is found in the introduction titled “All My Relations” from The Best American Short Stories 1986, which he edited, he lays out the dictum that “everything inside them [short stories] should work.” And later, in the same introduction, he slips in, between discussions of stories and writers, the following paragraph: “Choices. Conflict. Drama. Consequences. Narrative.” As if to say, that’s it, that's what stories are.
With the exception of the essays on “Rewriting” and “Where I’m Calling From,” which directly address how he worked on his stories, you need to cull Carver's aesthetics from what he says about other writer’s work. In the reviews he pulls no punches when describing what he likes and doesn’t like.
One of the highlights of this collection is found in the introduction titled “All My Relations” from The Best American Short Stories 1986, which he edited, he lays out the dictum that “everything inside them [short stories] should work.” And later, in the same introduction, he slips in, between discussions of stories and writers, the following paragraph: “Choices. Conflict. Drama. Consequences. Narrative.” As if to say, that’s it, that's what stories are.
November 17, 2015
As always, carver is hard to beat. His clarity and humanity are always a tonic.
February 13, 2018
Mi è piaciuto il modo con cui si può leggere recensioni di scritti non letti e ricavarne un senso di ciò che deve essere un racconto e la narrative in genere. Mi è piaciuto meno la parte in cui parla dei suoi scritti, ma forse perchè non conoscendoli, non potevo apprezzare I commenti che faceva.
May 6, 2019
There is something unique about Carver's stories, maybe it is how he can capture everyday people in microscopic moments, or his minimalist style he had learned from his early chaotic life, either way his stories need to be read and heard.
March 24, 2018
Beetje overbodig, deze. De vroege verhalen zijn lang niet zo sterk als de latere, uitgebeende, en Carver's poezie is ook niet zo geweldig.
February 21, 2024
A mixture of early short stories, poetry, forewords, reviews, and essays. Carver's writing and voice still takes a hold on me.
March 18, 2024
Better writer than poet
December 11, 2025
Carver es el alma de todos aquellos que siguen a pesar de encontrarse en medio de la adversidad, totalmente desprovistos de esperanza para encontrar; en medio de la oscuridad, el deseo de intentarlo de nuevo.
October 30, 2011
This is a bit of a hodgepodge of stories, poems, book reviews, fragments, bits and pieces from this great story writer that had somehow not found their way into other collections of his work. What comes through as one reads is a sense of the values that made Carver the artist tick: his compassion, his love of narrative, his impatience with artifice that serves no storytelling purpose, and his warm regard for the craft of writing and generosity of spirit toward those compelled by their respective muses to try their hand at it. Not just a volume for Carver fans, but for aspiring and established writers as well.
January 17, 2016
This book of previously uncollected writings is meant for readers who have already exhausted other collections of Carver's stories and poems. Even to those readers this collection of four early short stores, nineteen poems and an assortment of shorter pieces on literature and writing may appear uninviting. Yet, I found that precisely these short pieces not only were well written, but also intentionally or not amounted to an intimate self-portrait of Carver himself.
August 8, 2015
I didn't really like this collection. As someone who is not super familiar with Carver, this was all over the place and the writings themselves were pretty rough. So I can't say it makes me want to read more of his works. But I'm sure some of his more recent polished writings would be more appealing. These just felt incomplete to me.
November 2, 2008
A rare glimpse into the start of Carver, must read for any avid fan of his work.
February 13, 2009
The emotion behind the work is evident. He is much like Bukowski at times, but without all the problems.
September 28, 2009
much different than his other stuff - rougher. But, Carver has a way of eeking out something touching but also subtle, no matter the strangeness of the plot. His essays were interesting as well...
September 11, 2012
The Hair.
May 8, 2014
Probably wouldn't recommend this to anyone trying to get into Carver. I loved the "Occasions" section , however. Good for completion if a rabid fan of Carver, fluff for anyone else.
September 2, 2014
For a great fan of Carver, after you've read everything else. Or for someone planing to teach a class on the man...
August 18, 2015
With the exception of the poems, this volume contains the same material as "Call If You Need Me". So, I read the poems and re-read a couple of reviews and declared it complete.
February 24, 2016
lecture indispensable à toute personne s'intéressant aux nouvelles et nouvellistes ...
April 24, 2014
A gift from my colleagues at work…This explains why I have read this book..
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews