'Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?' by Raymond Carver is a collection of short stories that delves deep into the pain and struggles of everyday life, portraying normal people facing issues such as infidelity, economic desperation, and loneliness. Carver's writing style is described as spare, punchy, and economical, getting right to the heart of the matter with human stories that are relatable and thought-provoking. The stories are said to be superbly constructed, expressing the power of narratives in shorter lengths and showcasing the author's expertise in playing with different forms and styles of the short story medium.
The book is praised for its ability to transport readers into the lives of its characters with simple yet powerful narratives. Carver's writing is likened to jazz music, conveying a depth of emotions and experiences with minimalistic yet impactful storytelling. Readers appreciate the book for its exploration of the human condition, its engaging storytelling, and its unique ability to capture the essence of ordinary people in extraordinary ways.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include themes of alcoholism, infidelity, emotional distress, and existential themes.
From The Publisher:
With this, his first collection, Carver breathed new life into the short story. In the pared-down style that has since become his hallmark, Carver showed how humour and tragedy dwell in the hearts of ordinary people, and won a readership that grew with every subsequent brilliant collection of stories, poems and essays that appeared in the last eleven years of his life.
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1 comment(s)
This is a Collection of 22 short stories. Really glad i dipped into Carver and wonder why i haven't before - Carver reveals the dark side of modern life and i especially like his visceral writing and detailed analysis of setting but his tone is so subdued and detached even depressing. The Stories (not all but most) seem to stay with you in a haunting way, i cant explain it :/ I want more!
What can you read after
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please??
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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