Books : Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories
|
|
In association with Amazon.com
|
by: Raymond Carver
List Price: $12.95Amazon.com's Price: $11.01 You Save: $1.94 (15%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780679722397
ISBN: 0679722394
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 208
Publication Date: June 18, 1989
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: June 18, 1989
Sales Rank: 449864
Studio: Vintage
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
'You should read Fires now. These stories and poems...show the enormous talent of Raymond Carver beginning to take hold.'
-- San Francisco Chronicle
'Seminal in Carver studies...A disparate collection of work bound by a unity of vision and obsession.'
-- Los Angeles Herald Examiner
'Carver's most revealing book...This collection confirms the worth of Raymond Carver's work...Like bright birds in distant trees, Carver's stories appear in flashes, glimpses; Fires reveals the arc of his purposeful flight.'
-- Boston Globe
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - The wonderful and aptly named Carver!
Carver is a master of the short story but this collection is a good introduction to his poetry as well because it collects both poems and stories. It's a wonderful example of how he used themes from his stories manipulated into shorter poems. As always his exact use of language cuts straight to the heart. Reading Carver's work is like studying with a very great writing teacher.
Rating: - The fire this time
This review relates to the poems, and not the essays and the stories. The poems are among Carver's best. They mark out the time of life when he is most deeply disturbed. So the poems about alcoholism ( although this is not the right way of saying it because they are never simply just about that) are among the most moving. His long poem on Charles Bukowski is very effective. It gives a sense of how this kind of 'portrait of another person' by seeing the world through his voice, can truly be an insight ... Read More
Rating: - The "fires" in his life! - Greatest influences
When Raymond Carver died in 1988 at 50, the literary world lost a truly unique short story writer. Carver, a master at dialogue and often called a minimalist, created stories with substance where a mystery looms beyond the surface, stories so commonplace, with common people doing common things.
It's true, the stories are laced with people who endure alcoholic sadness, financial burdens, emotional immaturity and those just searching for the dream that doesn't quite happen.
We ... Read More
Rating:  - Read it for the Poems
As spare as they are, most of Carver's short stories strike me as a bit long-winded. Not so his poetry, which treats his usual themes--alcoholism, working-class poverty, and rocky relationships--with greater wit and vigor than his prose. The essays will be of interest to would-be writers and Carver biographers, but what makes this book outstanding is the 60 pages of poetry which comprise its heart.
Rating:  - good stuff
I've always thought Carver's prose was better than this poetry, but I think I like the poetry in this book better than the prose. Maybe that's because I've seen most of the prose in other books in slightly different forms. So Much Water So Close to Home is one of my favorite Carver stories, but I like it better in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.
Anyway, the poetry shines here, which is good because they take up the majority of the book. The essays are nice as well, showing a slightly ... Read More
|
|
|
