Where I'm Calling From : Selected Stories

Rating:
Summary: An important work
Review: Raymond Carver is the most important short story writer of the last half century and may very well be the most important fiction writer of our time. Carver's characters are the voice of dysfunction, a voice readers are, unfortunately, too quick to relate to. But that most readers relate to so many characters in his stories lets them know where they stand in what is a cruel, soulless part of our history. Carver recognized this, put it on paper and allowed the reader to see it as well. That is what makes his works so important and perhaps the best relections of our times. This book includes some of Carver's best work, plus seven new stories written before his death. It is the best introduction to Carver, save possibly the Short Cuts compilation for new Carver readers who may have seen the Robert Altman film based on his works.

Rating:
Summary: Carver shows us real meaning in real drama
Review: Raymond Carver. I wish the man were still alive to give us more reality in the literature that is out there today. He takes us in to a situation in someone's life and, so often we see the humor, feel the pain, and taste the anger of the character('s) in their own way. The man was brilliant and we need someone out there like him again.

Rating:
Summary: The Master
Review: If you're going to buy just one book by Carver this is the one I would recommend as it contains the best of his previously published works plus seven new stories. Raymond Carver; alcoholic, chain-smoker, blue collar worker and one of the finest short story writers of the century. Master of dirty realism. This is the writer who captures the essence of our lives. The fractured dialogue of our sad failing relationships, the hilarious anti-climaxes of our confrontations with others, the long gray Sunday afternoons of our weekends, the forced gaiety of our stale parties and our ineffectual struggles to make sense of our muddled lives. Dirty realism is the opposite of escapism and it's not for everyone, but the writing of Raymond Carver is brilliant and often very funny. So if you love great writing and you feel oddly comforted to know you're not the only one without answers and life isn't one long easy happy high, then you should read this book, and you may well find you will love it.

Rating:
Summary: not bad at all
Review: some great stories, although maybe i'm not deep enough to understand all of them. it seems to me, however, that Carver is more of a modern Hemingway then any visionary original writer. the style, i mean, seems very similar to Hemingway's.

Rating:
Summary: lull of emtionally overwrought
Review: if there was a way to take the heart of an entire society and press a finger to every repressed emotion and watch the blood seep out of the heart and articulate silently the wrenching inability of humans in the late twentieth century to face themselves in the mirror day in and day out without asking if they wanted to see tommorrow or what happened to yesterday or whether that person was them at all, then this book wouldn't be required reading for everyone on the planet. carver has guts and heart and emotion like few other authors ever dreamed of having. he forsakes long lofty prose for directness; what he attacks is what's unsaid and we are left reeling.

Rating:
Summary: Addictive and mesmerizing reading!
Review: Even with the ambiguous endings, and somber characters, this book was hard to put down.
Raymond Carver's humanistic approach, and use of everyday characters is a refreshing change from the flood of dynamic, and often unrealistic fiction available today in popular modern writings.

Rating:
Summary: The Heart of the Matter
Review: Nobody ever said that life would be easy or simple, and Raymond Carver writes his way through what we all see, hear, and feel. Carver gets to the heart of the matter, and this is all anyone can ask of a writer. One of the best books I've ever read.

Rating:
Summary: The BEST collection of short stories I've ever read.
Review: Carver is one of my favorite writers. These are not uplifting stories, by most measures. However, he writes so clearly and poignantly about the realities of life that it is impossible to not be moved. These are stories that will often take your breath away

Rating:
Summary: Slice of Life
Review: Carver's eye and ear are so true that you'll feel these stories are all about people you know. Sometimes they seem a little 70's -- everybody seems to drink and smoke, but Carver deals with great truths by describing everyday events. The stories stay with you like a peanut butter sandwich

Rating:
Summary: beautiful writing, beautiful stories
Review: It doesn't really matter if Raymond Carver is a minimalist or not. Whatever category you try to "fit" him in...he'll always escape categorization. I believe R. Carver is one of the most talented american writers of the century. His short stories are amazing in that they always let you step into the world of his characters. Whoever said that his stories are "slices of life" was correct. And most importantly, slices of everyday life, of the life of real people, people that you'll identify with, people that'll make you cry, laugh or that'll just remind you of somebody you know. I don't think his stories are depressing as some people have said- it's true that the ending of each one always leaves you a little sad...but that's just life, isn't it? What I find beautiful is the way Raymond Carver ends each story. In a way there's no conclusion. After a scene, a "slice of life" is described, the story just...ends. Abruptly. Which makes you think, makes you feel things, makes you imagine where the people you got to know & like in the story would get to be the next day... The whole book is very good literature, recommended wholeheartedly...but the stories I'd select as my personal favourites, the ones that I thought were heartbreaking & very human, were: "The student's wife", "Cathedral", "Fat", "Why don't you dance?", "Distance", "whoever was using this bed" and "blackbird pie"....