Snippet
“Raymond Carver used to describe himself as a cigarette with a body attached to it.”
“How did that work out for him?”
“He died of lung cancer.”
“Well then, I guess Raymond Carver is just a cigarette now.”
“Maybe he’s this cigarette,” I suggested, holding out my durrie.
Kat laughed. “You’re smoking the world’s greatest ever short story writer. I hope you’re enjoying him.”
I carefully inspected the cigarette for evidence that it might somehow be Raymond Carver in the afterlife. But I didn’t find anything conclusive, so I continued smoking. When I’d finished sucking the dregs, I gave the possible Raymond Carver a sombre burial in a pot plant and we headed inside.
7 Comments:
dan, have you read nam le's book?
tim
Nup - I'll check it out.
i wasn't recommending it... necessarily.
why'd ya bring it up?
Carver, short-story writing, Melbourne etc... He seems to have been touted as this master of the form and I thought you might have read it and have some thoughts. The blurbs and the first few pages were pretty enticing but when I started to read it I found it mostly irritating.
Looks like it's available here in the US - I'll hide in the corner in a bookshop and try a story.
Lately, I've been discovering Tobias Wolff's short stories. Check The Night in Question if you can.
I think he's been living in the US for years, and may have been published there, so yes, should be very available. He's a graduate of the Iowa laboratories. I've read The Night in Question about seven times - it's definitely his best. 'Smorgasbord' is one of the few pieces of fiction that can consistently make me laugh. Tim
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