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Elephant And Other Stories by Raymond Carver
The Blurb On The Back:
These seven stories were the last that Carver wrote. Among them is one of his longest, 'Errand', in which he imagines the death of Chekhov, a writer Carver hugely admired and to whose work his own was often compared. This fine story suggests that the greatest of modern short-story writers may, in the year before his untimely death, have been flexing his muscles for a longer work.
I read this collection as part of my homework for a writing class that I'm taking. I'm pleased that it was set because it's not the sort of thing I'd normally pick up (I generally prefer plot-based fiction rather than character-based).
These stories are all about characters facing a fact and making a change because of that fact - either their own mortality (Whoever Was Using This Bed), their failures as a husband and partner (Menudo) and their relationship with their mother (Boxes). They're all low-key and demand a second reading immediately as you finish them because there are so many nuances to Carver's characters and what they face that you find yourself picking up new layers on each subsequent reading.
My favourite story in the collection was Boxes - a story about a man dealing with is infuriating mother who has packed up to move to the other side of the country but still hasn't quite gotten around to doing it yet. It's a very sad story, in that you can feel the narrator's frustration at dealing with a mother who never listens to what he says but who he loves and feels obliged to nevertheless and the ending where she does leave and he realises that this is the last time that he will see her is particularly bittersweet.
The Verdict:
Absorbing and thought provoking, this is definitely a must-read for anyone who reads or writes short stories as none of them leave you feeling robbed or incomplete.
These seven stories were the last that Carver wrote. Among them is one of his longest, 'Errand', in which he imagines the death of Chekhov, a writer Carver hugely admired and to whose work his own was often compared. This fine story suggests that the greatest of modern short-story writers may, in the year before his untimely death, have been flexing his muscles for a longer work.
I read this collection as part of my homework for a writing class that I'm taking. I'm pleased that it was set because it's not the sort of thing I'd normally pick up (I generally prefer plot-based fiction rather than character-based).
These stories are all about characters facing a fact and making a change because of that fact - either their own mortality (Whoever Was Using This Bed), their failures as a husband and partner (Menudo) and their relationship with their mother (Boxes). They're all low-key and demand a second reading immediately as you finish them because there are so many nuances to Carver's characters and what they face that you find yourself picking up new layers on each subsequent reading.
My favourite story in the collection was Boxes - a story about a man dealing with is infuriating mother who has packed up to move to the other side of the country but still hasn't quite gotten around to doing it yet. It's a very sad story, in that you can feel the narrator's frustration at dealing with a mother who never listens to what he says but who he loves and feels obliged to nevertheless and the ending where she does leave and he realises that this is the last time that he will see her is particularly bittersweet.
The Verdict:
Absorbing and thought provoking, this is definitely a must-read for anyone who reads or writes short stories as none of them leave you feeling robbed or incomplete.