This is my introduction to Carver.

As such, I don't wish to make oeuvristic generalisations, but I firmly believe it serves that purpose splendidly.

"Fires" encompasses essays, a modest collection of short stories, and fifty poems.

By a significant margin, I consider the essays to be the pièce de résistance of this book, especially Carver's profound reflections on writing.

The essay dedicated to his father is also well worth perusing.

The poems, on the other hand, are more inconsistent. Some are rather tedious, but I do take great pleasure in the more self-consciously literary endeavors, particularly those that make references to other authors.

With the notable exception of the Bukowski poem, which was truly a low point of this book.

Despite Carver's evasive remarks regarding literary influence, the short stories are strikingly Faulknerian, albeit set in a slightly later America.

They reminded me of the magnificent Wim Wenders film "Paris, Texas".

In this volume, Carver presents four short stories, along with some surprises and poems, and also provides an in-depth reflection on the profession of a short story writer.

At the age of 20, he is already married and has two children. He takes on various odd jobs such as moving. He simply doesn't have the luxury of time to fully dedicate himself to writing as he desires, nor does he have the time to expand his works. Therefore, the short story becomes the format that best suits him.

It is a profession he has chosen and firmly defends. The short story is a concise yet precise format, with carefully selected words that are rich in meaning. These are words that he constantly revises and refines to purify them.

There are words to convey love: love for his father and others, the meaning of life and its inherent emptiness, the taste and power of alcohol and cigarettes, the hardships of living for the little people, and their lack of hope.

His perception of the world, both his own and that of others, is filled with boundless sadness. However, don't misunderstand: his empathy for these characters is truly enormous and sincere. In the cracks of human existence, he plunges his pen to depict the magnificence of his writings. He is indeed the painter of the little people who are excluded from the American way of life.

Kind of a mixed bag.

The poems didn't really do it for me. They seemed rather lackluster and failed to capture my attention.

The stories, for the most part, felt like scraps. In fact, after I finished, I discovered that they basically are scraps, or at least old drafts of stories that are in other Carver collections.

However, the craft essays were cool. I really appreciated the modesty. Books or essays on "how to write" can sometimes be pretty ostentatious, but Carver's wasn't. It was refreshing to read something that wasn't overly pretentious.

Anyway, this was a hit-or-miss Frankenstein's monster of a book. It had its flaws, but it was definitely worth reading once. I'm sure I'll be back to visit a story or two.

Overall, it was an interesting collection that offered a unique perspective on Carver's work. While it may not be his best, it still has its merits and is worth checking out for fans of his writing.

The movie had its flaws, with a few parts that didn't age well. However, despite these shortcomings, it was truly remarkable.

The story was engaging and full of twists and turns that kept the audience on the edge of their seats. The characters were well-developed and the acting was superb.

Even though some of the special effects may seem outdated by today's standards, they still added to the overall atmosphere of the movie.

In conclusion, while it may not be a perfect film, it is definitely a must-see for any movie lover. Holy smokes, is it good!

A curious sampling of Carver's works that any fan will love.

I was particularly impressed with his poetry. It is pretty hit or miss, but the good is very good. It reminded me of Leonard Cohen or some such.

Here, we have a collection that doesn't necessarily include his absolute best work, but it is definitely worth the read.

The essays in "Fires" offer unique insights.

The poems such as "Drinking While Driving", "The Blue Stones", "You Don't Know What Love Is", and "Prosser"展示了他在诗歌创作上的多样性。

The stories "Distance" and "Where is Everyone?" add another dimension to this collection.

Overall, it's a great way to explore Carver's works and discover new favorites.

I hadn't even heard of Raymond Carver before, or at least couldn't remember if I did.

Then my friend Chris posted something about reading him. I was immediately intrigued.

I really enjoyed what I read. It is the kind of writing and stories that I truly love. Simple, straightforward, yet of excellent quality.

The way he crafts his sentences and weaves his tales is truly remarkable.

Apparently, he had a pretty tumultuous life, which adds an extra layer of depth and interest to his work.

I will definitely be reading more of his books in the future.

I can't wait to explore his other works and see what else he has to offer.

I'm sure there are many more wonderful stories and beautiful writings waiting for me to discover.

Raymond Carver has definitely become one of my new favorite authors.

There's no denying that Carver is a highly talented writer. It's easy to understand what Lish saw in him. He seems to have absorbed Lish's economy of expression right from the start, as if it were part of his very being. Every sentence he writes has a solidity and inevitability to it, as if those specific words were the only ones that could fit. It's a style that is truly admirable for its sense of control.

However, it may not necessarily be admired for its beauty. Of course, there are some beautiful lines in his work, but for the most part, we are meant to be in awe of the cold precision rather than celebrating unusual word pairings or poetic fire.

The essays in this collection are mostly about writing advice and reminiscences. It's interesting to get a glimpse of a younger Carver and his wonder at the improbability of his own success as a writer. His tribute to his teacher John Gardner is both affecting and appreciative, yet also quite cutting. The title piece is perhaps the best of the essays, as Carver frankly discusses the impact of parenthood on every aspect of one's life's work.

I particularly liked his acknowledgement that his children are the central focus around which all of his work revolves, far overshadowing lesser influences like the books he's read or the teachers he's had. I think every parent can relate to the complex, inevitable, and all-encompassing way that children change everything in your life.

Most of the poems in this collection are rather mediocre, although I did find myself howling with laughter at his takedown of Bukowski and his pompous, drunken hotel-room declamations. The most prominent themes in the poems are fishing, drinking, and poetry itself, which can get a bit tiresome after a while.

The stories in this collection feel more like drafts or lesser efforts. None of them have the same impact as the best of his other collections, but a few are still quite good. Most of the stories deal with similar scenes: working-class people struggling with alcohol, loneliness, and their relationships. The last story, about the effect on a marriage of the husband finding a dead body on a fishing trip, is probably the most effective exploration of this theme. I also liked "The Pheasant," which shows how a seemingly minor event like hitting a pheasant while driving can have a profound impact on a relationship.

Overall, this is a decent collection for those who are already familiar with Carver's work, but I would recommend starting with one of his other collections if you're new to his writing. "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" is a much more consistently rewarding read than this collection of odds and ends.

My friend Landa and I have a theory.

It was Landa's first. We think we like gentler, more thoughtful, more attentive men. But when the car breaks down or the hurricane is coming or the lawn needs to be mowed, we want burly competent men. These men are competent, strong, fixers, and workers.

In his essays, poems, and stories, Carver writes about how real living, breathing men are like, a combination of characteristics, something way beyond the stereotypes. I particularly enjoyed the essays. I kept finding life-experience truth and finding that Carver tells stories within the essays in a style I understand. The voice is much like the men I have known, all of them of adult years by the 1980s. I got caught up in the competence, articulation, awareness of body, mind, and spirit in these essays. A person who works with their body strength, muscle memory, and tools would have to be aware like a yogi/yogini. And like yogis and yoginis, they are strong and competent, yet different.

I could ponder on this for a long time. I find it fascinating how our preferences for men can change depending on the situation. And Carver's works offer a unique perspective on the complexity of human nature. It makes me wonder if there is a perfect balance between the gentle and the competent in a man. Maybe it's not about choosing one over the other, but rather finding someone who can embody both qualities in different ways.

In many ways, this compilation of Raymond Carver's essays, poems, and stories serves as the ideal introduction to this iconic literary figure.

Unlike other anthologies that solely present his exquisitely crafted fiction or poetry for readers to untangle, here we are initially treated to four essays. In these, Carver delves into his evolution as a writer and the elements that compelled him to create.

Subsequently, we are offered a sampling of Carver's poems. While not overly diverse in style or trope, they are nevertheless beautiful illustrations of a writer's capacity to take an ordinary moment and expand it to universal themes, much like we observe in the contemporary works of Kim Addonizio and Billy Collins.

Finally, in a most fitting conclusion, we are left with Carver's short stories, which are simply astonishing in their unadorned brilliance. Even though he credits his first teacher, John Gardner, with giving him the invaluable advice "to have the right words saying what [he wants] them to say. Nothing vague or blurred, no smoked-glass prose" (37), his stories are actually captivating examinations of how to meticulously provide readers with information by never overstating and leaving ample room for the reader's life to intersect with the text. For instance, in "The Lie" (141-143), he never reveals what the wife's deception truly is, although sexual infidelity is strongly insinuated. Instead, he focuses on flawlessly capturing the skewed power dynamics in a relationship being ripped apart by deception. As a result, he seizes the emotional truth of the moment, without diverting the reader with the lurid details of her lie, and also enables the story to be relevant to numerous different troubled points in a romantic relationship. The only misstep Carver makes is in the last story, "So Much Water So Close to Home," by narrating it from the wife's first-person perspective. Even though it is she who is telling the story, readers still gain far more insight into the husband than the wife, and she is depicted as a one-dimensional character driven by an inexplicable paranoia. The writing remains flawless and the story is as captivating as any mystery novel, but the point-of-view appears to fall short. Nonetheless, it is a minor flaw in this outstanding collection of work and, once again, just as the essays do, offers us a peek into Raymond Carver as a working writer, grappling like all of us to perfect that scene, that line, that character, in the brief time our lives afford us to create.

This should be a 5 star review as I firmly believe that every individual ought to possess a Carver book within their personal collection. However, it's important to note that he isn't for everyone. He occupies a distinct space, perhaps coming across as the Dr. Jekyll to Bukowski's Mr. Hyde. But I digress.

FIRES is not the most crucial collection of his work, yet it serves as an excellent "taste test." There are sections dedicated to essays, poetry, and stories. The essays were my favorite part of the book. Mainly because I had already read the stories and poems before, and also because the essays aren't published elsewhere (though I'm sure they are now in the large "Collected Stories" book that was released in 2009). I picked up FIRES during my college years, and its last edition was published in 1989, around the time of Carver's passing. This makes it his first posthumous publication, although a larger collection of poetry was also released around the same time.

This man is highly celebrated, and deservedly so. If you've never read a short story by him, you should do so today. "Cathedral" is a great one to choose, and of course, the towering "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love." "So Much Water, So Close to Home" is also among his best and one of the standout highlights of this book.

It's worth mentioning that Carver's stories often underwent an extraordinary editorial process by Gordon Lish, to the extent that Lish (still alive at 87) claims credit for Carver's success. Carver's feelings towards Lish are complex and not worth dissecting here. Suffice it to say, the "version" of the story being collected is significant. Notably, a book titled BEGINNERS was published, which contained the same material as the story collection WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT LOVE - just presented as Carver initially intended, before Lish made his edits.

Perhaps we romanticize Carver because he is the archetypal "true-blue" writer. We are all supposed to be poor and burdened, engaged in a thankless pursuit that ultimately "pays off." However, his version of "making it" may not be all that it's cracked up to be. Surely, many of us would welcome some of the honorary benefits that Carver experienced in the late 1980s, but most of us would not want to die from complications of alcoholism and lung disease. He had a troubled life, yet he produced work that has endured and should continue to withstand the test of time. He revolutionized the short story, or at least rejuvenated it. He was like the Velvet Underground, except if everyone listened to them and everyone wanted to start a band. I believe that if you read him, you'll want to write like him. This isn't his essential volume, but it's a decent starting point - there's some average work in here, but also some of his finest.

http://flyinghouses.blogspot.com/2017...

The Baker

Then Pancho Villa came to the town.

He hanged the mayor

and invited to dinner the old and weak

Count Vronsky.

Pancho introduced him to his new girl.

Together with her husband dressed in a white apron,

he showed the pistol to Vronsky,

then asked the count to tell him

about his unhappy exile in Mexico.

Later they talked about women and horses.

Both were experts in them.

The girl giggled and

played with the mother-of-pearl buttons

of Pancho's shirt until

at midnight, Pancho fell asleep

with his head on the table.

The husband made the sign of the cross

and left the house with his boots in hand

without even a hint

to his wife or to Vronsky.

That anonymous husband, barefoot,

humiliated, he, who tries to save his life,

is the hero of this poem.

Il panettiere is a rather mysterious and engaging piece. It presents a scene filled with strange interactions and unexpected events. Pancho Villa's actions of hanging the mayor and inviting the count to dinner set a tone of power and unpredictability. The introduction of the new girl and the subsequent conversation about women and horses add an element of casualness in the midst of the tense situation. The husband's silent departure, making the sign of the cross and leaving without a word, is perhaps the most poignant moment. He is the anonymous hero, facing a difficult situation with dignity and a determination to save his life. The poem leaves the reader with many questions and a sense of curiosity about the characters and their fates.

This is truly a remarkable collection that encompasses a wonderful array of essays, poems, and short stories. Each piece within it offers a unique perspective and a captivating exploration of various themes and emotions.

The diversity within this collection is truly its strength, as it allows readers to delve into different literary styles and experiences. It is a treasure trove that invites one to lose themselves in the pages and discover new literary gems.

After experiencing this collection, one can't help but feel an urge to checkout more of Carver's works. His talent and creativity are evident throughout, and it is clear that there is much more to explore and appreciate in his body of work. So, don't hesitate, take the plunge and explore the world of Carver's literature. You won't be disappointed.