1. Raymond Carver

2. Life 1938: born Raymond Clevie Carver Jr. in logging town in Oregon
1956: Carvers move to Chester, CA
Carver moves around a lot in adult life
1957: Marries Maryann Burk; she is 16, he is 19
1977: Stops drinking. Meets Tess Gallagher while still married
1980: Moves to Syracuse, NY with Gallagher; both work at Syracuse University
1982: Divorces Maryann
1988: Marries Tess Gallagher; dies of lung cancer 6 weeks later

4. Writing Career 1967- Will You Please Be Quiet, Please
1970- loses job; begins writing full time
1976- Will You Please Be Quiet, Please
1983- Wins literary award with generous prize money
1981- What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
1984- Cathedral
1988- Where I’m Calling From
A New Path to the Waterfall
No Heroics, Please: Uncollected Writings
Short Cuts - 9 short stories, 1 poem

6. Literary Style & Characters
Sentences that are short and to-the-point; plain prose
Dialogue centers around the mundane, rather than larger issue at core of story
Lower-middle class characters
Time passes in linear fashion

7. Themes Loneliness & stoicism
Irving Howe: “[Carver’s] characters, like those of many earlier American writers, lack a vocabulary that can release their feelings, so they must express themselves mainly through obscure gesture and berserk display."
Alienation
Failed Relationships
Death
Identity
Repressed Violence

8. Influence of Gordon Lish
Dorothy Wickenden: "a touch of sentimentality, an element previously foreign to Carver's work, has crept into these stories. Perhaps because he doesn't quite trust the sense of hope with which he leaves his characters, the writing at the end becomes self-consciously simple and the scenes of resolution contrived."
Anatole Broyard: "compared with his previous two collections of stories, [ Cathedral] shows an increase in vitality. Like a missionary, Mr. Carver seems to be gradually reclaiming or redeeming his characters."

9. Raymond Carver: "Until I started reading these reviews of my work, praising me, I never felt the people I was writing about were so bad The waitress, the bus driver, the mechanic, the hotel keeper. God, the country is filled with these people. They're good people. People doing the best they could."

10. Works Cited http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/books/review/King-t.html
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