"Short Cuts: Selected Stories" by Raymond Carver is a collection of short stories that delve into the complexities of human relationships and everyday life. The stories explore themes of marriage, infidelity, grief, and alcoholism, portraying characters who are often troubled and difficult to like. Carver's writing style is noted for its realism and ability to capture the unease and struggles of his characters in minimalistic prose. The stories are known for their open-ended conclusions, leaving readers with a sense of uncertainty and contemplation.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include themes of alcoholism, domestic issues, grief, and existential despair.
Has Romance?
While the presence of romance is notable, it is often intertwined with themes of dysfunction and emotional turmoil.
From The Publisher:
'I look at all of Carver's work as just one story, for his stories are all occurences, all about things that just happen to people and cause their lives to take a turn... In formulating the mosaic of the film Short Cuts, which is based on these nine stories and a poem, 'Lemonade', I've tried to do the same thing- to give the audience one look... But it all began here. I was a reader turning these pages. Trying on these lives' - Robert Altman in his introduction.
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Short Cuts: Selected Stories?
About the Author:
Raymond Carver was born in Clatskanie, Oregon, in 1938. His first short stories appeared in Esquire during Gordon Lish's tenure as fiction editor in the 1970s. Carver's work began to reach a wider audience with the 1976 publication of Will You Please be Quiet, Please, but it was not until the 1981 publication of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love under Gordon Lish, then at Knopf, that he began to achieve real literary fame. This collection was edited by more than 40 per cent before publication, and Carver dedicated it to his fellow writer and future wife, Tess Gallagher, with the promise that he would one day republish his stories at full length. He went on to write two more collections of stories, Cathedral and Elephant, which moved away from the earlier minimalist style into a new expansiveness, as well as several collections of poetry. He died in 1988, aged fifty.
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