Introduction & Overview of Where I'm Calling From by Raymond Carver

Where I'm Calling From Introduction

Raymond Carver was at the height of his career when "Where I'm Calling From" first appeared, in the March 15, 1982, issue of the New Yorker. The story was included in The Best American Short Stories, 1983 and was published in Carver's prizewinning collection Cathedral, appearing also in the author's 1988 collection Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories. The story, about a man struggling to overcome his alcohol problem in a "drying out facility," appears to have some autobiographical elements that harken back to an earlier period in Carver's life when he struggled to overcome a drinking problem which left him unable to work for long periods of time. The story is set in a rehabilitation center in which the unnamed narrator finds himself listening uncomfortably to a fellow patient relate the history of his marriage. Carver, who had been sober for nearly five years by the hide...
(read more)