Reading Raymond Carver

by Randolph Paul Runyon

Book by Runyon, Randolph

246 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apparently, I just can't get enough. Yes, I actually read books about people writing books.

[Lars Kenseth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of the analysis in this book concerns how Carver's collections were structured -- how the themes, symbolism and ideas connect and flow from one story to another. That's interesting, from an academic point of view, but if you're someone who reads Carver for pleasure then it's kind of irrelevant, in my humble opinion. I'm honestly suspicious whether or not Carver even gave the structure any thought, in this way. His stories were raw and honest, about regular people in real situations. Real humanity. The idea of him arranging stories in this way -- oh, let me line up three stories with vague allusions to fat people, tee hee hee -- I just can't see it. But, that might not even be what Runyon's proposing here. It's analysis after all, and everything's fair game. I get that. The connections he lays out are valid, I'm just betting it was all subconscious on Carver's part. Every writer has a thematic hobby-horse or some slice of visual imagery that reappears, sometimes many times over, in their work. I remember the last Millhauser collection I read, there were a couple different stories that describe someone reading a beach read that had a knife on the cover. I don't know what to draw from that, haha. Some images, themes, ideas just stick with you. And if that's true, maybe they'll stick with the reader, too.

[Kevin]

I read recently a Carver retrospective that asserts that Carver's "signature style", that terse evokation of everyday life, was largely the creation of Carver's editor, who pared down the writer's fuller-bodied narratives with near contempt for authorial intent. This book would not appear to address this fact, but note to self: a topic for later reading.