Ultramarine [Paperback]

Raymond CARVER (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Random House; First Edition edition (1986)
• ASIN: B000VAPU4A
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book of poetry, September 6, 2000

By 

Michael Park "MonkeyBonkey" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ultramarine: Poems (Paperback)

Ultramarine by Raymond Carver, a collection of his poetry, is a gem. With each of my moves I find myself discarding all of my books except for this one. This is the one I hold and keep returning to.

While Carver is better known for his short stories, I think it's his poems that communicates his silent emotions. The sparse language of Raymond Carver that is so effective in his short stories is even more powerful in his poetry.

If there is anything I would ever recommend, this is it.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars He tells what he sees, April 5, 2005

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Ultramarine: Poems (Paperback)

He tells what he sees
and what he experiences
it can be Bonnard's life story
in paintings of his wife
it can be his own effort to see the sea and the sky
and not let his mind intervene
he tells and usually what he tells
is a story
and the stories are interesting stories ironic stories
of his own life
and his need to change it
to plunge into clear water
as his father did
or to write with a sharp clear pen
like Kafka
after eight hours too many looking at his watch in the office
he writes these poems and tells these stories
and we reading them become more alive to the life in us
how strange and more real.

5.0 out of 5 stars crystal, common, intense, and familiar, February 20, 2011

By 

Raymond L. Heinrich (TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ultramarine: Poems (Paperback)

A wonderful book. Carver's poems (not just this book) are crystal, common, intense, and familiar. They possess all the clear reality of his short stories. The problem with his poems isn't his poems; it's the people who come to them by way of his short stories and, as scandalous as this may seem, do not like poetry. But if you do: oh my!