- Paperback: 227 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Books; Vintage Contemporaries ed edition (20 Oct 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0679723692
- ISBN-13: 978-0679723691
- Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 1.5 x 20.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 685,259 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
'All the stories in Cathedral are different; some funny, some hauntingly sad. Each has its own individual and curious power' Daily Telegraph
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Book Description
'All the stories in Cathedral are different; some funny, some hauntingly sad. Each has its own individual and curious power' Daily Telegraph
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Like his stories, this collection of Raymond Carver's work leaves us wanting more. It also provides a good overview of his regular themes and illustrates the breadth of his scope.
Before he died in 1988 at the age of 50, Carver had proved himself to be the greatest modern exponent of the short story in America. The stories in this collection include 'A Small, Good Thing', which was awarded the 1983 O. Henry Award. It also includes my favourite Carver story: the title story, 'Cathedral', which is so packed with emotion, clarity of thought, beauty and pain as to leave one breathless with admiration.
In my view, the short story is the pinnacle of prose writing and Carver is one of its few consistently successful exponents. This collection proves both points.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Although I rate this 5 stars, I thought this book was less acomplished than "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love". For example, this collection has a story called "A Small, Good Thing" about a baker nuisance-calling the parents of a boy who has been run over. (This story was part of the Carver-short-story-based film "Short Cuts".) In "What We Talk About ..." there's an earlier (I presume) version of this story, which I think's more subtle, without the rather sentimental ending of "A Small, Good Thing", and which doesn't strain credulity in the way this story does (it's never explained why the baker should want to do this, other than him saying he's lonely).
But sentimentality and false notes are pretty rare in Carver's stories, and this collection is still excellent: sparse prose and suburbanity, stories that explore tenderly human failures. Carver the short-story writer was a decendent of Hemminway without the exoticism and bravado, and a contemporary of Charles Bukowski without the desire to ridicule and aspire to bohemianism.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I've never really enjoyed short stories and find something unsatisfactory about them. Even when penned by my favourite authors, they seem to lack something, and I've usually finished such collections and thought: "well, so what?". So it was that I approached the much-praised work of Raymond Carver with some sense of trepidation and cynicsm - could his stories be that good? Would the reviewers have it right about the late writer's talents?
"Cathedral" - a collection of 12 stories by Carver, has made me re-think the merits of short stories. Several here are minature masterpieces, one or two don't work for me, and one or two absolutely had me rivetted and thinking about them long after I'd finished reading. It's a combination of ingredients that work here: Carver's pared-down-to-the bone style, the timeless quality of the stories, the dilemmas and sense of the moment being preserved. But overall, I think it's Carver's ability to tell a story that could be taking place at any point in time that gives them such power. They just don't seem to date, and he's cleverly avoided layering the stories with too much detail about time and place, so they don't age.
But they do make you think. At just over 200 pages, the stories don't take long to get through, but they say so much more than other, longer books I've read. If, like me, you aren't that convinced that short stories make good reading, I urge you to give this collection a try. A revelation, and a lesson too in how to write little, but say a lot.
"Cathedral" - a collection of 12 stories by Carver, has made me re-think the merits of short stories. Several here are minature masterpieces, one or two don't work for me, and one or two absolutely had me rivetted and thinking about them long after I'd finished reading. It's a combination of ingredients that work here: Carver's pared-down-to-the bone style, the timeless quality of the stories, the dilemmas and sense of the moment being preserved. But overall, I think it's Carver's ability to tell a story that could be taking place at any point in time that gives them such power. They just don't seem to date, and he's cleverly avoided layering the stories with too much detail about time and place, so they don't age.
But they do make you think. At just over 200 pages, the stories don't take long to get through, but they say so much more than other, longer books I've read. If, like me, you aren't that convinced that short stories make good reading, I urge you to give this collection a try. A revelation, and a lesson too in how to write little, but say a lot.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Dire....
One of the most poorly written and wittlessly concieved books I have had the misfotune to read.
Published 21 months ago by BivviBaz
Twelve stories, some good, some great
This collection of short stories ranges from the merely okay ('Preservation' is, in my opinion, the weakest) to the superb ('Cathedral' and 'Feathers' are my favourites). Read more
Published on 9 April 2010 by Phil O'Sofa
Stunning.
Picked up 'Elephant' too, another collection of short stories. Hard to say which i prefer.
Carver's style is simple, precise, captivating, but mostly - and it says this... Read more
Carver's style is simple, precise, captivating, but mostly - and it says this... Read more
Published on 18 Jun 2009 by Mr. H. C. Pritchard
cathedral a good read if you like short stories
this book contains some very interesting short stories (and i mean short) because the stories dont really have a beginning middle or end which is common of short stories. Read more
Published on 30 April 2009 by Mr. Ja Doherty
Short stories written with great skill.
This collection captures snippets of everyday lives of everyday people (America) through phases, turning-points or upheavals. Read more
Published on 24 April 2001
A masterpiece
Raymond Carver writes THE greatest short stories, and Cathedral ranks among his finest works, especially the story 'A Small, Good Thing'. Read more
Published on 3 Mar 2000
Simply Great
I first read Carver while I was an English major at UCLA (University California Los Angeles); it was a class on the short story in England and America. Read more
Published on 5 Feb 2000
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