- Paperback: 204 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Books; Vintage Contemporaries ed edition (1 Aug 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0679722394
- ISBN-13: 978-0679722397
- Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 1.1 x 20.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,165,881 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Product Description
"You should read Fires now. These stories and poems...show the enormous talent of Raymond Carver beginning to take hold."
-- San Francisco Chronicle
"Seminal in Carver studies...A disparate collection of work bound by a unity of vision and obsession."
-- Los Angeles Herald Examiner
"Carver's most revealing book...This collection confirms the worth of Raymond Carver's work...Like bright birds in distant trees, Carver's stories appear in flashes, glimpses; Fires reveals the arc of his purposeful flight."
-- Boston Globe
-- San Francisco Chronicle
"Seminal in Carver studies...A disparate collection of work bound by a unity of vision and obsession."
-- Los Angeles Herald Examiner
"Carver's most revealing book...This collection confirms the worth of Raymond Carver's work...Like bright birds in distant trees, Carver's stories appear in flashes, glimpses; Fires reveals the arc of his purposeful flight."
-- Boston Globe
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
This little book brings together articles, poetry and early short stories which encapsulate the life and influences of America's greatest 20th-century short story writer. No Carver fan can afford to miss it.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
The "fires" in his life! - Greatest influences
30 Dec 2002
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
When Raymond Carver died in 1988 at 50, the literary world lost a truly unique short story writer. Carver, a master at dialogue and often called a minimalist, created stories with substance where a mystery looms beyond the surface, stories so commonplace, with common people doing common things.
It's true, the stories are laced with people who endure alcoholic sadness, financial burdens, emotional immaturity and those just searching for the dream that doesn't quite happen.
We get a glimpse into their lives and these characters reflect everyday America whether it was the 60s or the 90s. Those characters are his life and they are us! Read any Raymond Carver story and you can identify with some element.
Referring to the title, "Fires", Carver is talking about two strong influences in his life, one being Gordon Lish, at that time, a literary editor and the other, John Gardner, who said to become a writer you need the necessary "fire". The profound essays are titled "John Gardner, The Writer as Teacher", and the other is "On Writing." He offers excellent advice.
Carver believes the strongest "fire" he had was his two children, a time he refers to as "ravenous and ferocious years of parenting." He writes of that epiphanous moment in a laundromat, laboring over washers and anxiously waiting with frustration over the next available dryer before picking up the kids. This parental chore was NOT what he envisioned great writers doing.
Sadly, what he means about the children being a great influence in his words: "And I would always have them, and always find myself in this position of unrelieved responsibility and permanent distraction."
The bulk of the book is poems that reflect his life, and the poem about Charles Bukowski is here. If you prefer his literary poems, a wonderful collection is here and just a few other short stories "Distance", "Harry's Death", "The Lie" and an amusing story, "Where is Everyone", the title later revised to "Mr. Fixit." If you know Carver's many stories were revised by Carver or possibly the editors, but this collection includes the longer version of "So Much Water So Close to Home"
And, like any other Carver collection, this is especially good because of his essays on the "fires" in his life. ...Rizzo.
It's true, the stories are laced with people who endure alcoholic sadness, financial burdens, emotional immaturity and those just searching for the dream that doesn't quite happen.
We get a glimpse into their lives and these characters reflect everyday America whether it was the 60s or the 90s. Those characters are his life and they are us! Read any Raymond Carver story and you can identify with some element.
Referring to the title, "Fires", Carver is talking about two strong influences in his life, one being Gordon Lish, at that time, a literary editor and the other, John Gardner, who said to become a writer you need the necessary "fire". The profound essays are titled "John Gardner, The Writer as Teacher", and the other is "On Writing." He offers excellent advice.
Carver believes the strongest "fire" he had was his two children, a time he refers to as "ravenous and ferocious years of parenting." He writes of that epiphanous moment in a laundromat, laboring over washers and anxiously waiting with frustration over the next available dryer before picking up the kids. This parental chore was NOT what he envisioned great writers doing.
Sadly, what he means about the children being a great influence in his words: "And I would always have them, and always find myself in this position of unrelieved responsibility and permanent distraction."
The bulk of the book is poems that reflect his life, and the poem about Charles Bukowski is here. If you prefer his literary poems, a wonderful collection is here and just a few other short stories "Distance", "Harry's Death", "The Lie" and an amusing story, "Where is Everyone", the title later revised to "Mr. Fixit." If you know Carver's many stories were revised by Carver or possibly the editors, but this collection includes the longer version of "So Much Water So Close to Home"
And, like any other Carver collection, this is especially good because of his essays on the "fires" in his life. ...Rizzo.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Raymond Carver's Minimalist Prose Provides Maximum Impact
7 Aug 1998
Format:Paperback
Raymond Carver's "Fires" is a quick introduction to the author who personifies literary minimalism. In this slim volume, the reader is treated to essays and poems, as well as Carver's trademark: taut short stories that, in remarkably few words, paint a vivid tableau of so much of American life. Carver's subjects are ones that other writers shy away from: working-class stiffs and the mundane lives they lead. But Carver's magic lies in his ability to fascinate the reader with seemingly unfascinating topics. The characters' souls are bared, the torment of their lives is revealed, the desperation of their economic situations is rendered so masterfully, and in so little space, that the reader marvels at how Carver manages to accomplish the feat. For students of the writer's trade, Carver offers a valuable lesson in how to use minimal syllables for maximum impact.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
The wonderful and aptly named Carver!
20 July 2007
Format:Paperback
Carver is a master of the short story but this collection is a good introduction to his poetry as well because it collects both poems and stories. It's a wonderful example of how he used themes from his stories manipulated into shorter poems. As always his exact use of language cuts straight to the heart. Reading Carver's work is like studying with a very great writing teacher.
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