Raymond Carver: Collected Stories (Loa #195): Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? / What We Talk about When We Talk about Love /Cathedral / Stories from ... / Other Stories (Library of America)

I have to say that I was a little underwhelmed when I opened my package from Amazon - this hardback book is smaller than my paperback edition of Where I'm Calling From. In fact, I was convinced that the book couldn't possibly hold all of the material that the descpription promised - but it does. The book is small because of the paper used: it's a thinner, lightweight paper that, as the book states, meets the permanence criteria of the American National Standards Institute. It's beautifully bound too - this is a book that will last. And as for the stories themselves, well... perfection! As far as I'm aware, every short story Carver wrote is collected here, including the original versions of those collected in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (published separately this year as Beginners) - the difference between the versions is quite remarkable. So that's 91 stories in total. There are also four essays, a chronology (essentially a mini-biography), notes on each story, and a chronological bibliography. So you actually get several books in one fantastic package. I just can't recommend Carver's writing or this collection enough - if I had to choose one book to last me for the rest of my life, it would be this one.

If you love short stories you must have this collection. No one does it better than Carver. A beautiful edition to be loved and enjoyed.

I would rank Carver alongside Hemingway as a writer of 'modern' short fiction. Although his style seems to have been influenced by Hemingway, as were many of his contempories, Carver's writing is fuller, a touch more introspective, always with more behind the words than is contained within them. But there's poetry in there, too. Not just journalism. Few surprises and no twisting of the tail. His slices of lives do not need any.

What a staggering collection of stories, of incredible subtlety.

This has two versions of the collection published as 'What we talk about when we talk about love,' which, by all accounts, Raymond Carver felt was over-edited. I like both; they're just different versions of the truth. That's what he was good at: the truth.

Have recently received my copy of the Library of America's edition of Carver's collected stories. Great binding and will replace the individual paperbacks. Just waiting now for them to publish a follow up book with his other collected writings (poems, essays, etc.).

The book arrived quickly and in good order. This was a present for my Nephew and he loves it.

my daughter was very happy with it.

The outer package was clean, but the cover of the book was a mess.

Me lo imaginaba más grande en especial cuando vi que rebasaba las 1000 páginas. Pero es de un tamaño medio. El empastado y las hojas se ven de buena calidad. No dudaría en obtener otro libre de la editorial.

I'm a fan of horror stories. I'm also a fan of literary short fiction though I must admit to rarely being able to figure out what I'm supposed to glean from most stories of this kind. I reckon it's like someone who enjoys crossword puzzles or word games, the joy of decoding the secret meaning. About two years ago, I came across Ray Carver, his name meaning nothing to me up to that point. The more I read about him, the more intrigued I became. Here was a guy that was considered literary, but spoke in the language of the working class. So, I picked up a used copy of Where I'm Calling which set me on what I believe will be a life long fascination w/ this man's work. After 2 years, I can't admit to understanding everything Ray's written, but I know that at the end of each story, I will feel something that no other writer can make me feel: a sense of fear in the oddity and horror that man can display; and in many of Carver's later stories, a feeling of warmth when man can overcome his true nature and stumble upon moments of true understanding. The first Carver story I read was called "Dummy", which depending on the collection you read, is also called "The Third Thing That Killed My Father Off". It was like a literary murder mystery. Now I know there've been other murder mysteries displaying a vast technical skill, but there was something about Carver's presentation that struck a chord w/ me. There are few writers who's words bring clearer images to my mind. There's an old writer's proverb "show, don't tell" and to my mind, there's no one who adhered more to this creed. Even stories who's underlying meaning may be nestled away in uncomplicated prose, the literal action of the story could not be easier to picture. Another favorite which I read early on is called "Neighbors". In it, a couple charged w/ feeding the neighbors' pet and watering their plants while they're away, slowly begin to usurp the neighbors' lives and apartment. What ensues is nothing short of brilliant. Carver's insight into the human mind is better than anyone I've ever read. No matter how odd his characters act, everything is totally believable, and when you consider that you yourself are probably in one of these stories somewhere, doing something you yourself probably don't even notice you do, well, therein lies the horror. The more I studied Carver's writing the more I found the influence of one of his earliest proponents, Gordon Lish. Lish was the fiction editor at Esquire magazine from the late 60's to the mid 70's and was responsible for bringing Ray's work to the attention of a wider audience. Early in their relationship Ray deferred all the editing responsibility to Lish, basically, I feel, because Lish had given him his biggest break. As time went on and Carver became more sure of himself as a writer, he and Lish would often clash on how Carver's story should be presented. While Ray is known as THE Minimalist, his work, though short, was often much longer than the general public was allowed to see. From the Notes in this Library of Congress edition, we learn that Carver's second collection was cut by as much as 55% from its original manuscript form. Carver begged Lish to reconsider the massive editing of the stories in this collection, but Lish steamrolled ahead with the result that Carver became even more famous. But it was a fame Carver felt he'd gotten the wrong way. These were not HIS stories, at least not the way he envisioned them. That is why this LOC edition is so important. Appended to the end of this stalwart collection is Ray's original manuscript for What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. The difference, to me, is night and day. One of my favorite's from that collection is called "Viewfinder". Many critics have found it to be one of Ray's most surreal, angry stories, but when read in it's original form, I divine a totally different outlook, one that would become more apparent in his third collection Cathedral. If you only buy one collection by Raymond Carver or even if you only have a passing interest in him, you will not be disappointed with this edition. It has nearly all of Carver's fiction plus what is arguably his most influential collection in the author's preferred, and intended, form. I can't stress enough how amazing this author is. In just a few brief pages he can encompass what it is to be Human, all too human.

内容は述べるまでもないでしょう、たっぷりレンモンドカーヴァーの短編が楽しめます。同じタイトルでもショートバージョン、ロングバージョン読み比べることも出来ますよ。 ページ紙が辞書のようなペラペラなので、読む時に、なんかあらたまって構えちゃうような。。。そんな感じなので手軽にベッドサイドや机にポンっと置いておく本ではない、少なくとも私はね。（なので星ひとつマイナスです。） 私個人としては、ペーパーバックのあの紙質と軽さが好きなんだよなぁ、と感じさせられました。

Great quality