Call If You Need Me
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- £7.99
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
When he died in August 1988, Raymond Carver had just published what were thought to be his last stories in the collection entitled Elephant and his own collection of stories, Where I'm Calling from. Five previously unpublished stories have recently been discovered, and this new volume brings together all of his uncollected fiction, including a fragment of an unfinished novel, five early stories, and all of his non-fiction prose.
Three of these late-found stories are fine examples of Carver's late, open style, while two date from his middle period. The non-fiction prose includes all of his essays, together with occasional commentary on his own fiction and poetry, writings on the American short story, and reviews of work by his contemporaries, among them Donald Barthelme, Richard Brautigan, Jim Harrison, Thomas McGuane and Richard Ford. Also included is Carver's latest essay "Friendship", about a London reunion with Richard Ford and Tobias Wolff.
Call If You Need Me takes us into Carver's workshop, and alongside All of Us: The Collected Poems and Where I'm Calling from: The Selected Stories completes the picture of one of the most original writers in the English language of his generation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
For fans of Carver, who died in 1988, the five newly discovered stories collected here are like a stash of diamonds stumbled upon in a long-abandoned mine. The writer's style is, as always, spare and succinct, demonstrating Carver's ability to see deep into the human heart and expose human frailty in a way that leads readers to understand things they have known all along but never before identified. The title story deals with the dissolution of a marriage, a subject Carver practically had a patent on. A couple, both engaged in affairs, decide to spend a quiet summer together in an attempt to mend their marriage. "Kindling" concerns a recovering alcoholic who tries to exorcise his demons by chopping a pile of logs into kindling. Possibly the strongest narrative is "What Would You Like to See?" in which a couple who have been bad tenants in the past try to redeem themselves by leaving their rental in spotless condition. Rewarded with a good-bye dinner, they congratulate themselves on their cordial relationship with their landlords, only to be snubbed the next morning when an unfortunate incident changes the tenor of their leave-taking. Carver's many fans will initially be attracted to this collection by the new stories, but they won't be disappointed by the remainder of the book, which includes five early stories, a fragment from a novel and assorted nonfiction pieces--book reviews, essays and brief meditations--the most interesting of which focus on Carver's theories of fiction writing.