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Raymond Carver by William Shakespeare.
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Carver, Raymond (1938-1988)
Raymond Carver's success derived as much from the renewed interest in the short story brought about by the publication of The Stories of John Cheever in 1978 and t...
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"One cannot imagine the late Raymond Carver as a first baseman, or as financier, or as Cromwell's foreign secretary," wrote Lee Oser in World Literature Today. "His writing explores a narrow bandwidth...
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Appreciative of Anne Tyler's description of him as a "spendthrift," Raymond Carver said during an interview with Kasia Boddy (in Conversations with Raymond Carver, 1990), "I think a writer ought to sp...
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Biography Essay"He was not of an age, but for all time." So wrote Ben Jonson in his dedicatory verses to the memory of William Shakespeare in 1623, and so we continue to affirm today. No other writer,...
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The English playwright, poet, and actor William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is generally acknowledged to be the greatest of English writers and one of the most extraordinary creators in human history.The ...
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Considered by critics, scholars, and the theater-going public the most important dramatist in the history of English literature, William Shakespeare occupies a unique position in the pantheon of great...
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"He was not of an age, but for all time." So wrote Ben Jonson in his dedicatory verses to the memory of William Shakespeare in 1623, and so we continue to affirm today. No other writer, in English or ...
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William Shakespeare's reputation is based primarily on his plays. With the partial exception of the Sonnets (1609), quarried since the early nineteenth century for autobiographical secrets allegedly ...
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Critical Essay by Robert Houston
Raymond Carver is a pernicious alchemist. Take [the] setting, for example, from the beginning of the title story of his new collection, What We Talk About When We Talk...
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Critical Essay by David Kubal
In reading Raymond Carver's second volume of stories, [What We Talk About When We Talk About Love], while one is impressed, even stunned at times, by the brevity a...
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Critical Essay by Gary L. Fisketjon
The region to which much of [Raymond Carver's Furious Seasons and Other Stories] is affixed is, roughly, the Pacific Northwest—magnificent scenery not...
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Critical Essay by David Boxer and Cassandra Phillips
[Many] of the stories of Raymond Carver [are woven into] a double strand of voyeurism and dissociation. The term "voyeurism" is used ...
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Critical Essay by Robert Towers
[Here is how] most of the stories that make up Raymond Carver's What We Talk About When We Talk About Love [can] be described: low-rent tragedies involving peopl...
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Critical Essay by Michael Koepf
This latest collection of Mr. Carver's short stories [What We Talk About When We Talk About Love] and the clear, contemporary vision it gives of the American sou...
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Critical Essay by James Atlas
The lives Carver depicts [in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love] are narrow, starved of context. One knows virtually nothing about these people: where they'...
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In the essay below, Gearhart traces the differences between the original story, "The Bath," and Carver's revision of the same story, "A Small, Good Thing."
Raymond C...
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In the following essay, Brown—a professor at the University of California, Davis—argues that Cathedral is not a radical departure from Carver's style, but an example of his postmo...
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In the essay below, Hathcock compares "Feathers" and "Cathedral" to illustrate the ways in which Carver allows his characters greater freedom and ability to redeem their li...
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In the following excerpt, Campbell, a professor at Texas A&M University, traces the changes in Carver's writing, noting that in Cathedral he exhibits great skill in adopting a softer, more ...
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In the excerpt below, Runyon examines the connecting elements and recurring themes in the short stories from Cathedral.
"feathers"
"Before and after" (14), Bud said, holdin...
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In the essay below, Nesset, a professor at Whittier college, argues that the stories in Cathedral differ from Carver's earlier work in that some of the characters are able to escape their self-...
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In the following review, Knapp praises Carver's poignancy and emotional depth in Cathedral.
Rarely, and at unpredictable intervals, a writer of genius appears on the literary scene, who waves a...
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In the review below, Grinnell praises Carver's writing, arguing that he has improved on his old style and added new elements.
Things are finally looking up for Raymond Carver. In a way it is en...
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In the review below, Schnapp, who is a professor at Bowling Green State University, discusses the significance of the inability to articulate essential truths and beliefs in Carver's characters...
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In the following essay, Facknitz compares "The Calm," "A Small Good Thing," and "Cathedral," arguing that these stories represent unique attempts by Carver to...
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In the following essay, Goodheart analyzes Carver's moral code, arguing that he is at his best when his characters adhere to it.
The affectless narrative voice of a Raymond Carver story defends...
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In the following essay, which was originally published in Études lawrenciennes in 1988, Cushman states that although Carver was not influenced by D. H. Lawrence's short story "The...
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In the following excerpt, Saltzman compares such stories as "Feathers," "Chef's House," and "The Compartment"—which reflect hopelessness and des...
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In the following essay, Meyer, a professor at Vanderbilt University, traces Carver's use of minimalist style throughout his career, arguing that Carver returns to his previous, more expansive s...
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In the following interview, Carver reflects on his childhood, his writing methods, and his literary influences.
To be inside a Raymond Carver story is a bit like standing in a model kitchen at Sears&#...
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In the following review, Kuzma praises the poems in Ultramarine for being “like traffic accidents, or miraculous escapes. We come away gasping, shaken, and in awe.”
Now and then a writer...
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In the following essay, the novelist tells of reading poems in memory of Carver, discusses a few poems, and urges the reader to “read everything Raymond Carver wrote.”
And did you get wh...
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In the following essay, Gallagher, a poet in her own right and Carver’s wife, describes events with Carver in the months before his death and finds these events reflected in the poems contained...
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In the following essay, some of Carver's late poems are read as strategies for interpreting other works by Carver, as well as intimating an ability to interpret the motives and intentions of ot...
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In the following essay, Carver's work and career are considered in terms of the influences of his friends, mentors and editors, and his literary reputation in relation to the tremendous good wi...
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In the following laudatory review of the short story collection What We Talk about When We Talk about Love, Marsh contends that the title story “suggests many of the problems of both love and c...
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In the following review, Houston regards “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love” as emblematic of Carver's short stories.
Raymond Carver is a pernicious alchemist. Take this ...
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In the following review, Bumpus discusses the dominant themes of the stories in What We Talk about When We Talk about Love.
Like the buck in “The Calm,” people in Raymond Carver's...
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Mystery loves company. From time to time we find that in our own lives, when something elemental happens, we tend to question it. Whether it is a change in lifestyle, relationships or a change in ours...
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Carver, Raymond (1938-1988)
Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver
William Shakespeare
Critical Essay by Robert Houston
Emotional Connections in "The Bath" and "A Small Good Thing"
