This book encompasses "the best" tales from other compilations, among which is What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. However, selecting this extensive collection of over three dozen stories as an introduction to Carver was indeed an error. Carver is renowned for his minimalism, adhering to the "less is more" principle. This was most definitely the case for me. The more I delved into the stories, the less I found myself enamored with them. Initially, after reading the first few stories, I would have readily assigned the book a solid 4 stars. But as I reached the conclusion, my rating had dwindled to around 2 stars.

The stories are masterfully crafted. With just a few deft strokes, Carver delineates a world filled with alcoholism, sadness, despair, infidelity, and sporadic outbursts of violence. Nevertheless, the issue for me lies in the fact that after a certain point, the stories begin to merge, exhibiting an oppressive sameness, much like grayscale sketches that cry out to be filled in with color and life.

Obliquity and ellipses are the hallmarks of Carver's minimal prose. It's a style that seems threadbare at first glance, not offering much to sink your teeth into. However, it manages to capture the threadbare lives depicted in these stories with remarkable precision. The sadness and desolation here are palpable, enough to numb you to the point of oblivion. The coiling despair tightens around you like a python's grip, threatening to swallow you whole into its blackness.

Carver takes the ephemera and flotsam of ordinary, nondescript life that most people would overlook and turns it into subject matter for his writing. And he makes it work because within these scattered shards of truth, you may catch a glimpse of a moment or two from your own experience. Those moments when life seemed to be going off the rails, when you were lurching from one drink to another, one meaningless relationship to another, one jaded conversation to another. You were there, laughing at it all because if you didn't, you might have broken down and lost yourself to the ever-approaching madness, to the simmering violence just beneath the surface.

Carver's characters grapple with a wide range of woes - loneliness, guilt, heartbreak, infidelity, broken marriages, alcoholism, job loss, bankruptcy, a sense of ennui, and a disconnect from their once-joyous core. They strive hopelessly to recover what they've lost and yearn to escape from their own lives. It's quite a smorgasbord of existential troubles!

Despite their hardships, there are a few things that offer them some company - a few worn-out records, books on makeshift bookshelves, fishing trips with buddies, chain smoking, cream sodas, and hard liquor (always the liquor). There are some truly moving moments in this collection, best appreciated when you're feeling down. Because when you hit rock bottom with these stories, there's only one way to go - up. Chaos can bring back order, and madness can lead to sanity.

This four-star rating is based on the overall impact of the collection. Like any short story collection, it's a mixed bag. Here are some of the stories I liked:

'Why Don't You Dance?' - This is my favorite story. The overwhelming sadness is palpable as a broken man's private life is laid out in the front yard for the whole neighborhood to snicker at, and he indulges a young couple who assume it's a yard sale.

'Where I'm Calling From' - The story that gives the collection its name is a remarkable example of Carver's indirect style. The horrors of a relapsed alcoholic's life are presented through the recounting of the lives of secondary characters at a dry out facility.

'Nobody Said Anything' - This story explores the effect of a messy parental fight on two sons, with much of the focus on a fishing trip.

'Gazebo' - A married couple has a meltdown after the husband's affair is discovered. This story was referred to in Gass' essay, 'A Failing Grade for the Present Tense', and it's clear that Gass is not a fan of minimalism unless the writer is Beckett.

'What We Talk About When We Talk About Love' - "It ought to make us feel ashamed when we talk like we know what we’re talking about when we talk about love.” The old couple in this story - that was love.

'Neighbors' - A young couple in charge of a wealthier couple's house during their holidays tries to impersonate their lives.

'So Much Water So Close to Home' - This story was adapted for Altman's Short Cuts (1993). It's about a group of guys on a fishing trip who discover a girl's dead body in the river and continue with their camping holiday. "Two things are certain: people no longer care what happens to other people; and 2) nothing makes any real difference any longer."

'A Small, Good Thing' - Another story that made it into the Altman movie. A couple copes with the sudden loss of their young child on his 8th birthday, and a grumpy baker keeps crank calling them about an uncollected cake. "He was a baker. He was glad he wasn’t a florist. It was better to be feeding people. This was a better smell anytime than flowers."

'The Collectors' - The face of desperation - the vacuum cleaner salesman here reminded me of Jack Lemmon's visit to a potential client's house in Glengarry Glen Ross.

'Boxes' - A son's guilt over his mother's manic house shifting - there's no peace anywhere because no matter where you go, how do you escape from yourself!

'Fever' - A harried father tries to look after his two young children, manage his job, and handle the household after his wife leaves him for his colleague.

I was hoping the story featuring Jennifer Jason Leigh's portion in Short Cuts would be included. It was a perfect example of the absurdity and irony underlying Carver's humor, but unfortunately, it wasn't in this collection.

I understand the significance of "classics" and that Carver might have been considered influential in his era or whatever. However, aside from the most basic recognition of his skill, I simply do not take pleasure in his works.

My best way to describe Carver is as if you took unedited Steinbeck and turned him into an alcoholic chainsmoker who cheats on his wife and believes that morals are for "pussies".

Yes, some of his stories were good and had elements worth exploring and nuances. But his blunt writing style and the romanization of the great American suffering were somewhat shallow. To the extent that even if all of this was a joke, ironic, and designed to play into those stereotypes, the meaning gets lost due to being too elusive and easily misinterpreted.

His use of ambiguity often crosses the line from mastery to laziness in his stories, losing the point by sometimes making it extremely difficult to understand even the basic premise of the plots.

Sorry for criticizing a good writer so harshly, but I'm really sick and tired of these angry old white men who think that all of their faults (assuming they're even aware of them) should be blamed on women. It's just not my cup of tea.

But he remains by the window, vividly recalling that precious life. They had shared countless moments of joy, laughing heartily. They had leaned on each other for support, and their laughter had been so contagious that tears had streamed down their faces. In those wonderful times, everything else seemed to fade away. The cold outside, and the uncertainties of where he would go in such a harsh environment, were temporarily pushed to the periphery. For a while anyway, they had been lost in their own world of happiness and togetherness. It was a memory that he would cherish forever, a glimmer of light in the otherwise dark and cold reality.

Stories about people who are unhappy, will be unhappy, don't know they're unhappy, or are just getting over being unhappy and are almost always drunk or drinking either way.

This is a generalization, but a rather fair one. If you haven't read Raymond Carver before, you really should.

Sometimes, when there are too many such stories at one time, their tone can turn into a dirge. And some stories are so quintessentially Carveresque that they almost seem like parodies of themselves, like "One More Thing", "Little Things", and "A Serious Talk". However, for the most part, they are at least enjoyable, and many of them are truly remarkable.

I had already read all of these stories before, but I recently re-read some of them and will likely go through all of them again in the next few weeks.

The first time I read them, I didn't like them that much. But now, I think "Fat" and "Neighbors" may be my new favorites. Of course, "Cathedral" is my all-time favorite. If he had never published anything else in his life, I believe we would probably still know him because of this story.

A collection of short stories by a writer widely regarded as one of the masters of the modern short story.

Many of these stories carry a hint of the author's youth. Given that Carver was born in 1938 and passed away at the age of 50, we can say they have a flavor of the 1940s and 50s, even though they were penned in the 1970s and 1980s.

The stories have developed a charm and quaintness from that bygone era. There are scenes of boys on bikes off to fish in the local creek, door-to-door salesmen going about their business, everyone smoking cigarettes, sipping scotch, the mailman being familiar with every person on his route, and people addressing their neighbor as "Mr. Johnson."

However, these are not just tales of a bygone era. They are stories of modern life, often with a raw and unvarnished edge. They touch on themes such as divorce, alcoholism, infidelity, and nasty neighbors.

All in all, these are truly great stories that offer a unique perspective on life, both past and present.

Välskrivna, realistiska, spännande noveller med fantastisk gestaltning. These are not just ordinary words to describe the works of Raymond Carver. His stories are like windows into the lives of America's less fortunate people,展现了他们的日常生活、人际关系和困境.

Carver's writing is a prime example of "show don't tell" in school textbooks. Instead of simply telling the reader what is happening, he shows it through vivid descriptions and dialogues. This makes his stories come alive and engage the reader on a deeper level.

Personally, I often find it a bit challenging to get into novellas as one has to start afresh and hyper-focus each time when introduced to new characters and situations. However, Carver's novellas are incredibly easy to enter, never being banal. They draw you in with their authenticity and simplicity.

Many of the novellas in this collection are also found in the collection "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love". This further attests to the quality and significance of Carver's work, which continues to resonate with readers around the world.

The Stories included here are:

Nobody Said Anything

Bicycles,Muscles,Cigarettes

The Student's Wife

They're not your Husband

What do you do in San Fransico?

Fat

What's in Alaska?

Neighbors

Put Yourself in My Shoes

Collectors

Why,Honey?

Are these actual Miles?

Gazebo

One More Thing

Little Things

Why Don't you Dance?

A Serious Talk

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

Distance

The Third Thing That Killed my Father Off

So Much water so close to Home

The Calm

Vitamins

Careful

Where I'm Calling From

Chef's House

Fever

Feathers

Cathedral

A Small,Good Thing

Boxes

Whoever was using this Bed

Intimacy

Menudo

Elephant

Blackbird Pie

Errand

Just the vastness of this collection makes me want to rate it highly. Add to that the fact that it has some excellent stories. These stories are like tablets, small doses of medicine called reality. Reality comes in all its bitterness, and we carry it on our backs like a burden that keeps on accumulating without us even being aware of it. Until one day, it shows up in the way we live our lives. The emptiness of growing older, the parting of children, and abandoned love all become evident.

Changing perspectives and changing people. And yet, you remain at the center of it all, all alone. This collection of stories seems to capture the essence of these complex emotions and experiences, making it a truly remarkable read.

3.5 stars.

I really enjoyed delving into a more extensive collection of Carver's work. It was like opening a treasure chest and uncovering various literary gems. However, it must be said that there were definitely some pieces that felt like dead weight. They didn't quite have the same impact or engage me as much as the others.

Despite this, reading this collection made me truly appreciate the stronger thematic cohesion of "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love." That particular work seems to have a more unified and powerful thread running through it, tying all the stories and ideas together in a more seamless way. It makes me look at Carver's body of work in a new light and realize the different strengths and weaknesses of each piece.

Overall, it was a worthwhile reading experience that has deepened my understanding and appreciation of Carver's writing.

In the words of just about every female character in every story: "I can't stand this anymore!"

I truly relished revisiting these stories after approximately 20-odd years. However, if I could offer a single word of counsel: DO NOT read them all at once. It is thoroughly depressing. No one within these stories experiences happiness. That being stated, he truly knows how to deliver a powerful impact and precisely how and when to conclude a story.

The tales seem to be a collection of melancholy and despair, yet there is a certain allure in the way they are crafted. Each narrative draws you in, making you empathize with the characters' hardships and disappointments.

Despite the overall somber tone, the author's skill in constructing the stories and bringing them to a close is remarkable. It leaves you with a sense of both satisfaction and a lingering feeling of sadness.

Reading these stories is like taking a journey through a world of heartbreak and loss, but it is a journey that is worth taking, if only to appreciate the author's talent for creating such poignant and memorable tales.

A straightforward story unfolds about an average married couple. They have a simple wish - to emulate their neighbors. Raymond Carver, the author, presents this narrative in a rather unadorned way. He refrains from adding excessive flourishes, fancy language, or much finesse to his writing. However, within this short story, he manages to delve into important themes such as idealism and materialism. It may not be the most thrilling or exciting material, but it is still an okay read. It offers a glimpse into the lives of ordinary people and their desires, as well as the deeper issues that lie beneath the surface. While it may not captivate the reader from start to finish, it does have its moments of quiet reflection and thought-provoking ideas.

Carver strikes gold again.

Some of these stories I had already come across in his other works, but it was still a wonderful chance to marvel at them once more. The beauty and depth of his writing never cease to amaze.

The ones I hadn't read before were equally impressive. They had the same unique charm and ability to draw the reader in and make them feel every emotion.

What a talented writer he is. In my opinion, short story writers don't come much better than Carver. His stories are like little gems, each one shining with its own special light.

He has a way of capturing the essence of human nature and the complexity of relationships in just a few pages. It's truly remarkable.

I can't wait to see what else he has in store for us in the future.