- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd; Airport / Ireland / Export ed edition (1 Oct 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0224089293
- ISBN-13: 978-0224089296
- Product Dimensions: 13.6 x 2.4 x 21.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,191,476 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As most readers who are interested in Raymond Carver will know, 'Beginners' is essentially the collection of short stories that were published under the title 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Love' - but published here in their 'original' versions, i.e before his editor, Gordon Liss, got to work on them. This is a fascinating companion piece to that better known collection. Carver is well known for his minimalist style - spare, elliptical and very finely wrought. For anyone interested in the processes of writing, rewriting and editing, looking at examples from the two collections alongside each other is very revealing; but 'Beginners' is far more than an academic exercise. In these more extended, 'original' versions, the stories are rich and insightful; well worth reading, even if you have never encountered Carver before. Very highly recommended.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I, like most people coming to Carver late, had heard about him before reading him, so that his reputation cast a big shadow over his work. I read "What we talk about...", "Will you please be quiet please", and "Short Cuts", and while some stories pleased me, I couldn't quite see what the fuss was about. The style was nice, the writing sharp and striking, but the plots were non-existent. The stories were little more than snapshots, and left you feeling they were nice as far as they went but didn't really go anywhere. There were occasional exceptions, but overall, I was left slightly disappointed. when i read that lish had cut so much out of his stories, and that originally they offered much more story, then i got interested. As I have said, i enjoyed the style, so I thought that maybe, this new collection might be more up my street.
Well it was. This is one of the finest collections of short stories I have ever read. I love punchy short stories, about people in the modern world, tales of urban fiction, if you will - stories I can identify with: people feeling a bit lost and insecure, who drink too much, who don't really know what they're meant to be doing, but kind of just muddle through and try and make sense of it all. I love stories by Bukowski, by Richard Yates, by Hemingway. These are at least on a par with those. If you like that sort of thing, you'll love this.
I'm fully aware of Carver's reputation that he carved (arf!) with Lish's help. Some people have even said this book shows how great Lish was, and how, left alone, Carver waffles on and loses his cutting edge. Well, I have read with and without, and I couldn't disagree more. This is short story writing at its finest, and I will be tracking down everything else of his that I can find. In particular, "Why Don't You Dance" is amazing (one of the ones I loved in the original actually, as it is one of the less heavily edited ones).
This comes as fully recommended as I can recommend anything.
Well it was. This is one of the finest collections of short stories I have ever read. I love punchy short stories, about people in the modern world, tales of urban fiction, if you will - stories I can identify with: people feeling a bit lost and insecure, who drink too much, who don't really know what they're meant to be doing, but kind of just muddle through and try and make sense of it all. I love stories by Bukowski, by Richard Yates, by Hemingway. These are at least on a par with those. If you like that sort of thing, you'll love this.
I'm fully aware of Carver's reputation that he carved (arf!) with Lish's help. Some people have even said this book shows how great Lish was, and how, left alone, Carver waffles on and loses his cutting edge. Well, I have read with and without, and I couldn't disagree more. This is short story writing at its finest, and I will be tracking down everything else of his that I can find. In particular, "Why Don't You Dance" is amazing (one of the ones I loved in the original actually, as it is one of the less heavily edited ones).
This comes as fully recommended as I can recommend anything.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Good book for studying short stories and general reading purposes - recommended to anyone - try it and see especially not dear.....
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