Raymond Carver. - book reviews

Studies in Short Fiction, Wntr, 1997 by Arthur F. Bethea

RAYMOND CARVER by Adam Meyer. Twayne's United States Authors Series. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995. xv 195 pages. $22.95

Adam Meyer's Raymond Carver, the fifth book of criticism published on Carver, provides a chapter chronicling Carver's life; a chapter describing his major themes and contributions to the resurgence of both realism and the short story; several chapters offering readings of most of Carver's stories; and a brief introduction to Carver's poetry.

Meyer's approach can be described as thematic and evaluative. His readings contain a generous amount of plot summary, so one does not have to be acquainted with the actual stories to follow his arguments. His summary of story facts is solid, though not perfect, but his evaluations--e.g., "Carver would go on to write stories as good as ["A Small, Good Thing"], but none better"--may annoy some readers.

Meyer discusses more than 45 stories, though one can easily dispute his claim that these are "full analyses": one cannot fully analyze a Carver story in just a few pages. Generally, however, Meyer's critical observations are sound, and he makes a number of fine connections between particular stories. But some of his readings are unduly optimistic--e.g., his belief that Dwayne and Holly's marriage may survive in "Gazebo," when specific textual evidence contradicts this view--and too often Meyers exaggerates the extent to which characters learn about themselves and their worlds. For instance, he claims that the waitress in "Fat" "comes closer to understanding" her story by "the very act of telling" it. But actually she says, "I know now I was after something. But I don't know what": she never realizes what she was after.

As indicated by the heading "The Miasma of Minimalism," Meyer takes a decidedly negative view of minimalism. Meyer is at pains to remind the reader that What We Talk About Men We Talk About Love, Carver at his barest, is also Carver at his least representative. He seems to devalue minimalistic stories because they are less intelligible than fuller stories. For instance, "Sacks," a minimalist version of "The Fling," is said to be a lesser story than "The Fling" because the "reader of `Sacks' does not have nearly as complete an understanding of what is important in the story as does the reader of `The Fling."' At times Meyer seems to equate a less immediately understandable story with an inferior story, a critical premise that is surely disputable.

Meyer's use of many secondary sources strengthens the authority of his book. In a few instances, however, critical sources undermine his arguments. A notable example is his reference to David Kaufmann's examination ("Yuppie Postmodernism") of Carver's paratactic style. Meyer doesn't seem to know or cares not to, admit that Kaufmann's argument about paratactic style undermines Meyer's optimistic reading. As I've noted, Meyer believes that the waitress-narrator of "Fat" is about to change her life for the better when the story concludes. Kaufmann, however, argues just the opposite: that the waitress's linguistic limitations (reflected in the paratactic style) indicate a limited ability to perceive the world coherently. Consequently, although she seems to profess some hope for the future, we should not trust her judgment as Meyer apparently does.

A helpful chronology of Carver's life and literary achievements is included, as is a six-page annotated bibliography. Because the book does not contain a Works Cited section including all of Meyer's sources, readers who want to find bibliographical information on a secondary source not included in the annotated bibliography will have to hunt through the chapter endnotes to find the first reference to the source. After a full bibliographical entry is given the first time a source is used, the chapter endnotes identify the source only by the author's last name. While this method of documentation saves space, it inconveniences the reader.

If Meyer's literary judgments sometimes seem intrusive, his readings sometimes unduly optimistic, and his privileging of intelligibility questionable, his book definitely succeeds in the main. Both undergraduates and more advanced readers are likely to find it a useful contribution to Twayne's venerable United States Authors Series. Written in clear, jargon-free prose, Meyer's book offers the most comprehensive examination of Carver's work to date.