So far, I have a deep affection for Raymond Carver.

If you have a penchant for stories that explore both dysfunctional and, at times, functional aspects of love and family, then Carver's works are definitely for you.

In a rather strange way, he reminds me of Ray Bradbury. However, it should be noted that Bradbury presents a much kinder and gentler version compared to Carver.

Carver's focus lies more on depicting what life is truly likely to dish out to you, as opposed to what is considered ideal.

His stories often展现 the harsh realities and the messiness of human relationships, making them a raw and honest reflection of life as it really is.

Through his简洁 yet powerful writing style, Carver manages to capture the essence of the human experience and draw readers into a world that is both familiar and yet, at times, quite unexpected.

Whether you are a fan of literary fiction or simply looking for a thought-provoking read, Raymond Carver's works are well worth exploring.

  He wondered drunkenly if there were other men who could look at one event in their lives and perceive within it the tiny makings of the catastrophe that would thereafter set their lives on a different course.

In most of the stories, we encounter the characters at moments when something has suddenly brought them major distress, and it appears that everything will change, for better or for worse, as a result. However, as the stories progress, it becomes evident that they shouldn't have been surprised to reach this turning point. All their troubles had been slowly simmering beneath the surface, held there by fear or inertia. Yet, the characters remain paralyzed in these moments. They don't see a way to fix the wrecks of the past, and the future holds no guarantees.




All stories are multi-layered. Things that seem insignificant carry meaning for the characters, and mundane dialogue can change the way we initially perceive them. A couple of the stories were hilarious, not in a way that made fun of the characters but because of the absurdity of the situations they were in, and I adored these. Others relied a bit too much on symbolism to convey the meaning, which didn't always work for me. Overall, though, it was an outstanding read.




BR with Sofia and Nick - Feb 6, 2016

This collection was my introduction to Raymond Carver, a writer I had been eager to read for a long time. I discovered that he was a writing buddy of one of my all-time favourites, John Cheever. The Stories of John Cheever is a prized possession in my bookcase. They are a revelation to me. Despite their brevity, the poetic force and lyricism are sometimes more than I can find in a single novel.

But enough about Cheever. Carver is quite a different proposition. To begin with, he mainly focuses on a different class of people. Cheever’s characters are the (seemingly) comfy have-it-all, suburban-residing, cocktail-drinking, upper-middle class set, while Carver deals with the struggling mid-to-lower class, weighed down not only by their own personal demons but by economic necessity. Further, Carver’s prose is straightforward, spare, free of fireworks but subtly explosive all the same. His stories are minimalist slow-burners, full of seemingly superfluous details that nevertheless reward the sensitive reader once they sink in.

Some of the standouts for me in this collection were:

Neighbours: A couple facing their own mediocrity try to live their lives vicariously through the more ‘glamorous’ couple across the hall.

The Student’s Wife: Despite leading a seemingly content life with her husband and children, insomnia and depression begin to dawn upon a woman.

Jerry and Molly and Sam: A man regrets abandoning his children’s dog but realizes that some things cannot be undone.

Why, Honey? A woman faces every mother’s nightmare: seeing the immaculate image of her son crumble in front of her eyes, until she even begins to fear for her safety.

What Is It? A gut-tightening, unnerving look at the strangulating effect that the death of the American Dream has on a couple.

And finally, the title story: A man discovers the liberation that comes from forgiving. The closing lines of this one are perhaps the finest I’ve read in a short story.

I will admit that it took me a while to get into this book, but the irony is that once I did, the pages were rapidly running out. When I reached the end, I was left wanting more, wanting to read everything that Carver has written and inhabit again the worlds that he creates. Although they are so raw, and at times so bleak, they are yet so uncompromisingly real and therefore make me feel alive, and give me refuge to the deep and obscure thoughts within me that I feared would never find validation, until now.

I’m sorry, but this just bored the living fucking shit out of me.

I respect the craft, but I kept wanting to bang my head against the wall. These discrete suburban madnesses! SOMEONE FUCKING SHOOT SOMEONE JESUS GODDAMN CHRIST.

It’s been like 6 weeks since I read this, but I can’t remember any specific story in it. However, the title was good.

Will I Keep It: No, it turns out I really just don’t like Raymond Carver. His writing style didn't engage me at all. The stories seemed to lack a certain spark or excitement that would have made them memorable. Maybe it's just not my cup of tea, but I found myself constantly struggling to get through each page. I tried to give it a fair chance, but in the end, I just couldn't connect with his work.

Perhaps others will find great value and enjoyment in Raymond Carver's writing, but for me, it was a disappointment. I'll be looking for something else to read that can capture my attention and imagination.

I buddy read this with Richard Reads based on his recommendation. I have to say, buddy reading short stories might be my new favorite. It was truly interesting to observe how differently (and yet, in some ways, similarly!) we interpreted the stories.

This was a great collection that effectively reflected the lives of lower class/working class families and the numerous struggles they encounter. There were stories that delved into the tension within relationships, which was often centered around work, money, and the monotony of life. Others explored how families interact and how neighborhoods function within the working classes.

I was able to identify with myself and some of my own experiences in these stories, especially those related to the challenges faced by people in my town. The stories had an air of authenticity and realism that made them engaging.

However, I did have a few critiques. At times, the stories were a little too detailed about insignificant things, which could be a bit overwhelming. Additionally, many of them took a confusing turn that didn't seem to fit the overall narrative. This might be something that could be better understood upon further analysis, but as it stands, it detracted from the enjoyable reading experience. Some of the stories also felt like they had little meaning and had repeating themes, which made them tiresome when read as a collection.

A recent discussion of “The Canon” on Goodreads has inspired me to pen this review of a writer who, whether Pynchon and McElroy fans like it or not, is likely to enter the literary canon. “Will you please be quiet, please?” This line, originally Hemingway’s and quoted by Carver in his text, was repurposed as the title-story by editor/mentor Gordon Lish, perhaps with a sly nod to all those “postmodernists” aiming to outdo Joyce or Melville.

Sure, there’s nothing wrong with that. But isn’t it reassuring, even inspiring – or perhaps even a little frightening – that a man like Carver, the son of a sawmill worker from Clatskanie, Oregon, who became a father at 18, was an alcoholic and a blue-collar worker for most of his twenties, could, in the brief intervals between drinks, changing nappies, and stand-up fights with his wife, produce a few 5-10 page lucid blasts that captured the imaginations of serious readers and writers worldwide? Despite the fact that “short stories don’t sell”, despite the cult of Barthelme, and despite a technical range that no one can deny is limited.

Maybe he was groomed for this role by Lish; maybe he wasn’t quite the working class hero he was supposed to be; maybe he was both more ordinary and more sophisticated than journalists and copywriters might have liked him to be. None of that matters to me, because in his writing, despite Lish and his red pen and his sly nod and his gameplan, the imagination speaks with such authenticity.

A book is great, according to Nathan “N.R.” Gaddis, if when we close the cover, we think, “I’m still learning to read.” Hard as it may be for the maximalists to believe, Carver achieves this with minimal surface flash, pyrotechnics, or lexical contortion. To the casual eye (as it was to my own on first reading), there may be little to take away as “proof” of authorial brilliance. (Book 2 of Carver’s story-cycle, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, being as much Lish’s book as Carver’s, is more “chi-chi” (Carver’s descriptor), though still – if you can see past the cuteness – it contains the magic.)

And maybe that’s why I love Carver, because he’s pure. He’s not trying to convince you of anything. He’s no verbal athlete. He’s good with words, but uses few of them, and though he’s a stylist with his own tricks and techniques, for the most part, it’s a different kind of machinery than linguistic that powers his aesthetic revelations.

It’s true that when I first came to love Carver, I was in far from the best state for reading. Distracted by day-jobs, rock music, and intoxicants, for a few years I read very little. But more than anyone, Carver brought me back around. Should I hate him for that, because he appealed to my “dumb” self? No, because he led me back! And I read with a new understanding of what lies beyond words, which helped me to appreciate Tabucchi, Pessoa, Soseki, Juan Rulfo, and to believe in my own writing again.

Here’s the thing: You can point to style, learning, and flash to justify your love for a writer. You can make literature a type of athletics. But sooner or later, some Carver on crutches will make a mockery of your track-meet. Boo him off the field if you want, but he knows: art isn’t about who gets from A to B quickest, or jumps over some pit or vaults over some bar. Art – often as not – is what happens between all that. It’s the limp, the hiccup, the wobble. It’s some woman with a wrong number late at night asking, “Are you a doctor?” Cut it down for what it’s not – it won’t lose its power. Limited in scope as a craftsman though he may be, Raymond Carver is a “great American writer”, and special into the bargain, because in the midst of all the grand gestures and histrionics, he had the courage/humility to make his quiet pleas.

Carver's 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Love' is, in my opinion, his most solid work.

Not a single story feels superfluous or repetitive, nor is there a significant dip in quality in any of them. Perhaps, along with 'Cathedral', this book is one of the best collections of short stories by the American writer.

As always, Carver doesn't offer anything new beyond what is already known about his work. Like in a Hopper painting, his characters wander alone in the midst of the crowd, behind the noise and hustle of the cities and the neon lights of the street. Each story is the point leading up to the moment of rupture, that instant when life ceases to be the same and requires an action, conscious or unconscious, that pronounces on what is happening.

Without excessive flourishes and with the forcefulness of a good narrator, Carver knows that his stories oscillate between powerful images that emerge from desperate actions. Reading it is like feeling the multiple emotions that a great poem can evoke, but starting from the precise, surgical narration. That's why his tales have that icy gesture, that lack of warmth that emerges from the most necessary and decisive actions of a life.

Again, it recalls any good Hopper painting: sometimes the most human is hidden behind the most impersonal, least thought-out, most challenging gesture.

It's incredible that this is his first short story collection. In fact, it seems like one of the last: refined, precise, and straight to the jugular, here we see the best of Carver (I'm referring to the collection as a whole).

That said, there are no stories of excessive narrative violence (like the stories in 'Cathedral', 'It's Called a Fallacy', 'Pretty', 'The Elephant', etc.). Perhaps the only two that have that characteristic, in my opinion, are 'Why, Honey?' and 'What Do You Think?'. Another one that comes just behind the previous ones (but could perfectly have the same rating) is 'Collectors', a story that I probably already knew from 'Shortcuts'.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get to know Raymond Carver. Like any good introduction, the book presents the power of the writer without monopolizing the best of his output, which I believe is found in 'Cathedral'.

Twenty years ago, when I was engaged in creative writing at university, the name Raymond Carver was tossed around almost as if it were a decree. The message was clear: to truly understand the potential of great short stories, one MUST read him.

I am rather embarrassed to admit that it has taken me this long to follow that advice. However, having finally read "Will You Be Quiet, Please?", I can attest to its extraordinariness. Despite its pared-down emotion, it is deeply human, filled with keen perception. It delves into the ordinary aspects of life, exploring the fragility of human connection, the pervasiveness of loneliness, the presence of deceit, and the surreal nature of life on the periphery.

Superficially, the stories read like outsider fiction, and they have affected me in a manner similar to Breece D'J Pancake's work, as seen in his collection Trilobites (see my review here). They are, in essence, human horror stories, so constrictive in nature that reaching the conclusion of a story provides a moment of release, much like emerging for air after being submerged underwater for an extended period.

In conclusion, "Will You Be Quiet, Please?" is truly essential reading. It offers a profound exploration of the human condition and serves as a testament to the power of Carver's storytelling.

3.5 stars.

This is a collection of great stories with superb characterisation. The characters are brought to life in a vivid and engaging way, making it easy for the reader to become invested in their lives and emotions.

I especially loved the dialogues. They were utterly brilliant, full of wit, charm, and authenticity. The way the characters interacted with each other through their conversations added depth and nuance to the stories.

However, the reason why I could not give this wonderful collection a higher rating was because there were too many cliffhangers. Open-ended stories can be lovely, as they leave room for the reader's imagination to run wild. But when there are too many of them, it can make the reader feel impatient and frustrated.

Overall, this is a great collection of stories that I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys well-written fiction with strong characterisation and engaging dialogues. Just be prepared for a few cliffhangers along the way!

**Original Article**: This is a short article. It needs to be expanded and rewritten in English.

**Expanded Article**:

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This article was read by Masoud Tahzadeh in Kurdish time. Before, I had no knowledge about this writer and had never heard of him! But I am happy with the hearing and reading. The stories were interesting, nice and enjoyable for me and all the audience was also very quiet, attentive and respectful.

The article is about 22 Kurdish stories. If you read it carefully and with interest, you will see the beautiful color in the reading of this article.

I think that Kurdish literature has a rich and diverse heritage, and there are many talented writers and works waiting to be discovered and appreciated. We should pay more attention to Kurdish literature and support the development of Kurdish culture.

By reading Kurdish literature, we can better understand the Kurdish people's history, culture, values and way of life. It can also help us to promote cultural exchanges and mutual understanding between different ethnic groups.

In short, Kurdish literature is an important part of world literature, and we should respect and cherish it.

Raymond Carver is said to have had a significant influence on Nobel laureate Haruki Murakami, and it turns out to be true as Haruki has praised Carver's short story "So much water, so close to home" as "goes beyond simple realism." Personally, I like Haruki and most of his works, but I don't like the part where he is similar to Raymond Carver. The short stories in "Please Quiet, OK?" have a certain realism, perhaps too much realism, and they are simple, extremely simple, but the "beyond" aspect, I'm not so sure! I feel it's like a collection of "trivial stories."

These are mostly convoluted and rather mundane stories told in two situations: one is when people are out having fun and chatting with strangers, and the other is like the conversations among housewives in Vietnam, such as: my dog is noisy, dirty, so I had to throw it away... I suspect my wife is having an affair, my son has been skipping school to play lately, my neighbor's son broke my son's bike, tonight when I went out to eat, I met a fat old man... told in a way that overly emphasizes the details. I remember when I first read Haruki, I also felt very annoyed by this long-winded style. However, I tolerated Haruki (just as I later tolerated William Faulkner in a worthy way) because I saw his works as small pieces in a huge jigsaw puzzle. Eventually, after understanding the meaning of the entire puzzle and the significance of each detail to the whole, to be honest, by then I had happily forgotten those annoying details! Here, with Raymond Carver, I am bombarded with some rough and awkward sketches with an unresolvable ending, and then... that's it!? Oh, is it over, is it done, oh, is this the end of the story, oh, it's so disappointing, oh, maybe this is a multi-chapter novel instead of a short story, and no one has died, everyone is still in the same place, so what's the ending!? In short, every time I finish reading a story, I just think it's trivial, extremely trivial :))) However, the可恶 thing about Raymond Carver is that he puts the reader in a position where they don't dare to despise those trivial details, nor can they just skip over them, because you have a hunch that those random words,模糊 memories, or small actions are powerful enough to change the lives of many people forever. You don't know what that change is, but it could happen, it has happened!

What I mean here is that being trivial doesn't necessarily mean bad. If it's like the "trivial stories" of Quentin Tarantino, it's not bad at all, but it's just tiring. And in the style of Raymond Carver, it's even more可怕. I like my life to be exciting because of winning the lottery, getting married for the third time, dying during childbirth... that is, all big and exciting things, not because of the sound of a long sigh before dawn.

I divide this collection of short stories into two parts: one part is extremely good (reading it is as enjoyable as reading Nabokov's short stories - although these two have nothing in common), and the other part is "terribly bad." In total, it can be divided into two parts, 3* :">

Ps: I just realized that my idol Bruce Willis from Die Hard also appears in Pulp Fiction =))))) I think if all of Raymond Carver's stories are mixed together and put on the big screen, it might be very good and the actors can act freely. It's just a pity for the director in the scene-cutting stage.