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Rating:  - A voice so minimal it's barely audible
After having read `Cathedral' for an English Composition class I was teaching last semester, I bought this book in earnest and waited eagerly for its arrival. I wanted so much to like it. I wanted poignant prose and acerbic wit, evidence of a keen observer's eye. Instead, these translucently-thin slices of life left me half-filled, and wondering why the portions weren't more ample. Many of the 37 stories in this book seem to be told both by and in the exact same voice. The overwhelming majority of them revolve around domestic squabbles or silly disagreements that aren't really worth writing about, and the quality of the prose isn't high enough to offset the lack of an intriguing plot. I suppose this is what Carver fans would consider to be `beautiful banality', but for me many of these tales seemed both unfulfilling and tiresome.
The book starts off with a bang, "Nobody Said Anything", the tale of an adolescent narrator and a big fish caught with a newfound friend one afternoon. "Bicycles, Muscles, and Cigarettes" follows, a colorful vignette about a row between three boys that spills over to their fathers. There are other bright lights in the collection, but halfway through (the stories are ordered chronologically, so I read them in order) the mundanity sets in. Literally countless tales of middle-aged protagonists agonizing over the minutiae of life at 4 in the morning on sleepless nights. All of his characters are divorcees, or soon to be separated. Most are alcoholics. Most tales start in media res, but leave us there as well, ending just as arbitrarily as they begin. Fans of Carver might attempt to call this a strong point, but the majority of these stories seem more suited to short stage performance pieces than to prose. Dialogue that is Seinfeldian in its simplicity, only sans the wit. A story that ends with the paltry self-affirmation, "My life is going to change. I feel it." Lots of "we just don't feel the same way as we used to" lines shared between despondent erstwhile lovers. But when we aren't told of the origins of the rift, it's hard to feel sympathy one way or the other.
There is a lot of the author in many of these stories - indeed, one question I came up with time and time again was just how `fictional' much of this short fiction really was. But no fewer than 12 of these stories revolve around a spousal dispute and/or alcoholism. And when Carver ventures out into other territories, it seems as though he is almost lost without the security blanket of the one topic he knows all too well.
Perhaps the last story in the collection, "Errand", unwittingly sums up the author's oeuvre all too well. In it, uncharacteristically, Carver recounts the tale of the last days of the playwright Chekhov. He mentions that Tolstoy came to see Chekhov as he was nearing death, although he was no fan of the man's work. He said of it "the plays were static and lacking in any moral vision. `Where do your characters take you?' he often demanded of Chekhov, "From the sofa to the junk room and back.'" At the completion of this book, I was left wanting to ask Carver the same.
Rating:  - Where Chekhov is calling from
The readers of Raymond Carver's selected stories "Where I'm Calling From" is likely to spend 500 pages wondering is this writer is the American Chekhov of suburbia, and is never sure. Until the reader reaches the very last story. The first word in "Errand" is "Chekhov", and as we progress in the reading we can notice that this narrative is about the Russian writer. Then it is time all doubts are dissipated and we can only conclude that Carver's work is a sort of homage to or influence by Chekhov.
Either case, it is a good thing, since that Russian writer is one of the biggest masters of short stories. But, even being under Chekhov's spell, Carver is still a writer of his own. Actually one of the best short story writers of the XX century. Too bad he died so young, one can only imagine what he would have produced more.
In this book of selected stories, the reader can have a vast tableau of Carver's themes, style, approach, and sensibility. There are 30 texts that were previously published, and seven new stories. In these 30-plus tales, the writer is able to dissect with beauty and witty the American psyche -- or yet, soul.
It is not difficult to be seduced by his dry style in which he doesn't try to make beautiful sentences -- but better yet, he reaches deeper depths in the soul of his characters. Carver is not after poetic moments, but he brings up some poetry from everyday life, from banal moments that are important only to those who are the main character of them.
His stories are usually short, and at the same time very efficient. The characters Carver portrays could be living in the same neighborhood, and at the same time they have very different lives. From his stories, we can realize that every life has its own beauty.
And these aspects are very close to those that made Chekhov one of the best, and we still read him, admire his work and consider his texts vanguard a hundred years later they were produced. Carver is very likely to have the same reward in the future. He does deserve it.
Rating: - Concise and Captivating
Where I'm Calling From is a collected edition of Raymond Carver's short stories. Carver died from lung cancer in 1988, but before doing so he was said to have been one of the writers responsible for bringing back the glory of the short story.
Where I'm Calling From is certainly the work of an expert. The stories are nothing particularly outlandish or special in terms of subject matter, but they most definitely cut to the heart of what it means to be human and to have relationships with other humans. Carver seemed especially intent upon giving us stories about married couples who are divorced, in the process of getting divorced, or are on their way to getting a divorce.
That's not to say all of the stories found within this collection deal with such topics. Some of them deal with losing a child, some deal with reflecting on parents, and some deal with simple experiences one has in life. However, all of them are told in a concise and captivating manner where the reader can't help but finish the story in one sitting.
I recommend reading Where I'm Calling From if you are interested in studying non-traditional short stories, especially if you're a writer. I think his work may be a little too abrupt and unconventional for just the casual reader, though I feel everyone would benefit from reading this man who mastered his art.
To me, the most fascinating aspect of Raymond Carver is that as he neared his death, his stories actually got more positive. That says something.
~Scott William Foley, author of The Imagination's Provocation: Volume II: A Collection of Short Stories
Rating: - Good writer, flawed storyteller.
My problem with Carver's stories isn't that they often just kind of stop, rather than ending. My problem isn't that his characters lack depth--actually, they do seem to have depth. We just don't see it.
In a typical story, Carver shows you the "mask" that the characters put on for the outside world. Their public faces. Then, Carver hints at what's underneath that--the character's true selves; their deep, innermost thoughts, beliefs, and desires.
Then he stops.
You never find out what's under the surface. Carver seemed content to say, "People have a lot more going on inside themselves than what they show to the world," which is a fine, true thing to say, but then Carver never bothers to show what's under the surface, what's the real issue, problem, etc.
Ultimately, I'm left saying, "So what?" I read his stories, I get to the end of most of them, and I say, "So what?"
It's not enough to just claim that the apparently-moronic beer-swilling slug on the barstool next to you actually has a rich internal life. The author needs to show what that life is, or the character's still not very interesting.
Rating: - First Experience with Carver
I bought this book because several of my friends recommended Raymond Carver in general. So, being the economically efficient college student that I am, I purchased the largest collection of Raymand Carver short stories I could (because they're all priced about the same). I started reading the stories, and they blew me away. I was so shocked at the level of detail and creative but true characterization Carver was capable of.
These stories provide a large variety of types of stories--perspective wise, as well as situational.
I read the book as quickly as I could; when I finished I put the book down and wished that Carver hadn't died so early. The stories are incredible, and I would definitely recommend this collection of stories to someone who is just discovering Carver.
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