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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
Technically good writing, but now I despise Raymond Carver. The misogynistic violence and booze soaking through every page made me physically sick. Carver's descriptions of women characters, the bizarre dialogue and behaviors he ascribes to them, the treatments of vengeful abuse and torture that he cuts them down with are more than just obscene or difficult to stomach -- they're pathetic. I wondered how much of this contempt for his characters was meant to expose or satirize male violence, substance abuse, or 20th Century American culture, but I came away with the unshakeable feeling that these stories are merely reflections of Carver's own perception of the world. They are as much the stories he told himself as he told others.
I’m probably too uncultured for this, some great quotes - stunning beautiful words then also sometimes I’m like what? What is that all about?
The stories I enjoyed were fantastic and haunting, whereas the ones I didn’t I was merely indifferent toward (especially the few that were only portraits of pathetic or repulsively cruel men), but the overall lingering effect of Carver’s characters and their peculiar plights is a disquieting loneliness. My favourites were “Why Don’t You Dance?”, “I Could See the Smallest Things,” “Sacks,” **”The Bath”**, “After the Denim,” and “The Third Thing That Killed My Father Off.”
Jesus, if I could write like this I’d never leave the house. He makes you realize things you already knew but you never thought of before. Then he hits you over the head with a liquor bottle while you’re staring at the wall, lost in thought.
having an "i can only finish books that are 150 pages long and it STILL takes me an excessive amount of time" kind of week.
or month.
or year.
or lifetime.
WHAT HAVE I BECOME.
or month.
or year.
or lifetime.
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
this is my second read of the book. the first read didn't give me much impression, but i started to get it on my second.
the book's talking about love in the nuance of everyday occurrences. that's why the stories & conversations feel so real, frank, and grounded, it could be happen to anyone in anytime or anywhere. reality of love that come in different shapes, terms, perceptions that might not meet the idea of love at all.
raymond carver left love as a concept and chose to walk through it at first hand. love that looks so ugly, drunk, careless, and unfaithful. love that's angry, nostalgic, passionate, and desperate. love as the experience of human beings.
the book's talking about love in the nuance of everyday occurrences. that's why the stories & conversations feel so real, frank, and grounded, it could be happen to anyone in anytime or anywhere. reality of love that come in different shapes, terms, perceptions that might not meet the idea of love at all.
raymond carver left love as a concept and chose to walk through it at first hand. love that looks so ugly, drunk, careless, and unfaithful. love that's angry, nostalgic, passionate, and desperate. love as the experience of human beings.
It took a little time for me to get into the short, direct style of these stories. But once I did, I really enjoyed them. And the stories leave an surprisingly large impact once you read them, considering their sparseness.
I just want to express how fucking inspirational and magnetic Raymond Carver's prose is. This compilation specifically got me through high school in a way that I've been impressed with how stoic, yet powerful this guy manages to make from certain mundane situations. Tonally concise, heavily suburban, it's so difficult to replicate his writing style without coming off as a knock-off or a discount. Just simply gorgeous to read and imagine.
I expected, like, love stories that give the fuzzies, that heady high you get from being drunk on love. Yknow, like what this particular cover onspires. As I went through the book, I got those sure, but I also got pain, melancholia, confusion, and some more. This collection certainly reminded me that love is capable of inciting the widest and wildest range of emotion in a person. Definitely brought my feet back to the ground with this.