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Short Cuts: Selected Stories [Paperback]

Raymond Carver , Robert Altman
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

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Book Description

September 14, 1993
A movie tie-in edition to the brilliant new film by Robert Altman, based on these nine stories by Carver, "one of the great short story writers of our time--of any time" (Philadelphia Inquirer).

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Short Cuts: Selected Stories + Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?: Stories + What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: Stories
Price for all three: $31.48

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Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

A movie tie-in edition to the brilliant new film by Robert Altman, based on these nine stories by Carver, "one of the great short story writers of our time--of any time" (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Product Details

  • Paperback: 157 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; 1st edition (September 14, 1993)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0679748644
  • ISBN-13: 978-0679748649
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.4 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,143 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Raymond Carver was born in Clatskanie, Oregon, in 1938. His father was a saw-mill worker and his mother was a waitress and clerk. He married early and for years writing had to come second to earning a living for his young family. Despite, small-press publication, it was not until Will You Please Be Quiet Please? appeared in 1976 that his work began to reach a wider audience. This was the year in which he gave up alcohol, which had contributed to the collapse of his marriage. In 1977 he met the writer Tess Gallagher, with whom he shared the last eleven years of his life. During this prolific period he wrote three collections of stories, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Cathedral and Elephant. Fires, a collection of essays, poems and stories, appeared in 1985, followed by three further collections of poetry. In 1988 he completed the poetry collection A New Path to the Waterfall.

Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
(18)
4.6 out of 5 stars
The story beneath the undercurrents is what makes Carver so addictive. "mambodog"  |  4 reviewers made a similar statement
Conclusion: I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in reading short stories. Prakash V. kulkarni  |  3 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Urges, images and muted longings. February 23, 2000
Format:Paperback
Carver explores the neurotic undercurrents of urban dwellers. His characters are typically immersed in the Everyday where the repetitive force of the mundane has them mired in the mechanics of living: House-sitting, birthday parties, beer buddy fishing trips, boredom, initiation of an affair, two pals cruising, looking for a thrill. From these commonplace events, Carver produces stories that are pristine, using language scrubbed clean of verbal theatrics-no show off words, no eccentric constructions - just prose as clean and as spare as Hemingway's and honed dialogue that is simple, but in the way that we say Mozart is simple.

The story beneath the undercurrents is what makes Carver so addictive. He describes urges, images, and muted longings that you have always felt, but never could express in words-until now.

Take the story "So Much Water So Close To Home." A group of men go on a beer-bash fishing trip. Early into their trip, they discover the body of a nude woman floating face down in the river. The beer buddies figure to keep fishing! Why ruin a good fishing trip? She's dead already, what harm? After all, they're going to notify the authorities, only later, so as not to interrupt having a good time. The beer-induced logic is funny as hell, but the story's neurotic undercurrent explores sloth, inaction and soulless indifference, characters whose actions can only be sanctified after the factors of humanity and decency have been removed from the equation. The wife of one of the beer buddies serves as the story's conscious. When she discovers that her husband drank and fished while a dead body floated downstream, she is appalled, alarmed. To her every accusation of "What kind of man are you to have done this?" Her husband's consistent answer is "She was ALREADY dead." The marital rift over this issue reflects the story's title "So Much Water So Close To Home."

These are among the best short stories ever penned. If you enjoyed "The Killers," by Hemingway or any of John Cheever's short stories you will be rewarded by reading Carver.

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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Raymond Carver: One of the Greats June 8, 2002
Format:Paperback
If you love Raymond Carver, or have yet to read any of his stories, this is a great book for you. These are selected stories by Carver, which inspired the movie "Short Cuts." Though I did enjoy the movie, reading the actual stories is ten times more satisfying.

Carver is a genius when it comes to the crafting of a short story. He's showed me that you don't need to have the most complex plot or the happiest ending in short stories. You don't even need a solid resolution. Carver creates some of the most memorable characters and is a pro when it comes to dialogue.

I really enjoyed these stories. I liked the fact that some of these stories really caught me off guard. "Tell the Women We're Going," has to have one of the most horrifying and disturbing endings I have ever read in a story. I also liked the fact that these characters seem so real. It's like these are people you have known for all of your life. He writes the way people actually talk, and that is a great talent.

My favorite stories are, "They're Not Your Husband" "Neighbors," "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?" "A Small, Good Thing," "Tell the Women We're Going," and "So Much Water so Close to Home." These are very realistic stories that paint a picture of everyday life.

Raymond Carver was a brilliant writer. We need more like him. If you like Carver, or you have yet to read any of his work, check out this book and read some of the stories. It doesn't have a lot, but the ones that are in here are very well done. A book I will read over and over again. We miss you Carver!

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Raymond Carver is an exceptional short story writer July 22, 2002
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Robert Altman made a wonderful film in the 90s based on 9 short stories published by famous American short story writer Raymond Carver. The film was entitled "Short Cuts" and this publication brings together these 9 stories (including a poem) which were culled from several original Carver publications. The book opens with an introduction by Altman who confesses to taking small liberties with Carver's stories and its characters but without compromising their integrity. Those who have seen the movie will concede that the changes in fact give the entity a coherence that would otherwise be missing. But as a collection of short stories. they can and should be read as standalones. Carver is a master of social commentary, using anecdotes of casual human behaviour to capture the absurdity of modern American life. These candid snapshots may not conform with the dictates of conventional fictional writing in that they may lack a beginning, distinct plot development and a neat ending. Often it isn't even the events that trigger off the response of the characters that are significant but the fact that they respond in a certain way that is interesting from the view point of understanding human behaviour. Carver seems to be saying that sometimes the strange things that happen to us are all due to chance and that like it or not, we need to factor chance into the equation of living. As a short story writer, Carver is exceptional. He has that rare ability to communicate some essential truth about the human condition without using melodrama or any of the other techniques frequently used by lesser writers to captivate and sustain our interest. The 9 stories in this collection are individually separate entities which exist in their own right. No character appears anywhere but in the story he originates from. The situations they capture are also pretty diverse. Yet, they don't seem disjointed when you read them in sequence. They are thematically bound together by Carver's magic which may be hard to define but there all the same. I found every one of them absorbing and captivating. Read this first before you watch the movie. You'll enjoy both better.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Some of the best writing in the English language
What can you say... This is Raymond Carver. He is not for everyone but most people who have read Raymond Carver either list him among the best writers of the language or dismiss... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Millard F. Johnson
4.0 out of 5 stars Still Carver, but not the best selection
Raymond Carver's stories are far from universally appealing - my wife hates his style - yet I find many of his stories to be extremely poignant and affecting. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Bryan Byrd
4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyed every page
This small book (157 pages) is a collection of Raymond Carver's short stories. The book has been made into a movie of the same title. There are in all nine stories. Read more
Published on June 15, 2010 by Prakash V. kulkarni
4.0 out of 5 stars Carver re-visited
Raymond Carver was unequivocally one of the top five non-fiction writers of the c.20th. Add to this honour, that he was also the undisputed world heavyweight champion of the short... Read more
Published on July 11, 2009 by Andrew W
5.0 out of 5 stars good textbook
I bought this for textbook requirement at community college. I got a good pricing than school bookstore. The price really helped decide to buy this book on amazon.com. Read more
Published on June 28, 2009 by Parker M. Knight
3.0 out of 5 stars Hit and miss
Raymond Carver is a very frustrating writer because he is capable of brilliance, and also capable of really bad writing. Worse, he can accomplish all in between. Read more
Published on October 16, 2008 by Cosmoetica
5.0 out of 5 stars A world of his own
Robert Altman in his introduction to this volume speaks about the element of chance in Carver's work, and how lives are drastically changed in the Carver world by some small... Read more
Published on December 15, 2007 by Shalom Freedman
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most exquisite collections of short stories you'll find
Carver portrays the banal, mundane, and unknown of life in his exquisite collection of short stories. Read more
Published on September 23, 2006 by Monique Parker
5.0 out of 5 stars Great introduction to a great writer...
In my opinion, Raymond Carver is among the top five short story writers of the twentieth century. His stories are bold, contemporary, and never boring. Read more
Published on October 6, 2004 by JR Pinto
5.0 out of 5 stars Edge of my seat
I was truly on the edge of my seat during these stories. They are beautifully written. I plan on re-reading these stories for years to come.
Published on January 12, 2004 by Bethanie Frank
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