Leypoldt, Gunter, “Raymond Carver's 'Epiphanic Moments,'” in Style, Vol. 35, No. 3, Fall 2001, pp. 531-49.

Leypoldt discusses four different types of epiphanic moments in Carver's fiction: moments of sudden illumination; arrested epiphanies in which characters realize they are on the brink of a discovery but do not grasp what it is; ironized epiphanies in which the reader transcends the character's limited viewpoint; and comic epiphanies that are irrelevant to the overall plot closure.

Meyer, Adam, Raymond Carver, Twayne's United States Authors Series, No. 633, Twayne Publishers, 1995.

Meyer analyzes Carver's life and career and most of his fictional output. He traces the arc of Carver's artistic development, arguing that the term minimalist applies only to a portion of his work. In his analysis of “A Small, Good Thing,” Meyer accepts the critical consensus that the work is one of the most effective of all Carver's stories.

Nesset, Kirk...