Little Things
Early that day the weather turned and the snow was melting into dirty water. Streaks of it ran down from the little shoulder-high window that faced the backyard. Cars slushed by on the street outside, where it was getting dark. But it was getting dark on the inside too.
He was in the bedroom pushing clothes into a suitcase when she came to the door.
I'm glad you're leaving! I'm glad you're leaving! she said. Do you hear?
He kept on putting his things into the suitcase.
Son of a bitch! I'm so glad you're leaving! She began to cry. You can't even look me in the face, can you?
Then she noticed the baby's picture on the bed and picked it up.
He looked at her and she wiped her eyes and stared at him before turning and going back to the living room.
Bring that back, he said.
Just get your things and get out, she said.
He did not answer. He fastened the suitcase, put on his coat, looked around the bedroom before turning off the light. Then he went out to the living room.
She stood in the doorway of the little kitchen, holding the baby.
I want the baby, he said.
Are you crazy?
No, but I want the baby. I'll get someone to come by for his things.
You're not touching this baby, she said.
The baby had begun to cry and she uncovered the blanket from around his head.
Oh, oh, she said, looking at the baby.
He moved toward her.
For God's sake! she said. She took a step back into the kitchen.
I want the baby.
Get out of here!
She turned and tried to hold the baby over in a corner behind the stove.
But he came up. He reached across the stove and tightened his hands on the baby.
Let go of him, he said.
Get away, get away! she cried.
The baby was red-faced and screaming. In the scuffle they knocked down a flowerpot that hung behind the stove.
He crowded her into the wall then, trying to break her grip. He held on to the baby and pushed with all his weight.
Let go of him, he said.
Don't, she said. You're hurting the baby, she said.
I'm not hurting the baby, he said.
The kitchen window gave no light. In the near-dark he worked on her fisted fingers with one hand and with the other hand he gripped the screaming baby up under an arm near the shoulder.
She felt her fingers being forced open. She felt the baby going from her.
No! she screamed just as her hands came loose.
She would have it, this baby. She grabbed for the baby's other arm. She caught the baby around the wrist and leaned back.
But he would not let go. He felt the baby slipping out of his hands and he pulled back very hard.
In this manner, the issue was decided.
"Little Things" from Where I'm Calling From: The Selected Stories Atlantic Monthly Press, 1988. Copyright © 1988 by Tess Gallagher.
The story appeared as "Mine" in Furious Seasons And Other Stories Capra Press, 1977 and as "Popular Mechanics" in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Knopf, 1981.
jueves, 28 de enero de 2010
CITAS
On reading, writing and rewriting
Raymond Carver
It's been a continual series of starting-overs for me.
...the best art has its reference points in real life.
I'm not a "born" poet. I don't know if I'm a "born" anything...
That's all we have, finally, the words, and they had better be the right ones, with the punctuation in the right places...
Anyone can express himself, or herself, but what writers and poets want to do in their work, more than simply express themselves, is communicate, yes?
The first and second quotations are from "Raymond Carver Speaking", by Robert Pope and Lisa McElhinny. Conducted spring 1982. The third is from "Raymond Carver", by Mona Simpson and Lewis Buzbee. Conducted winter 1983. Conversations With Raymond Carver, edited by Marshall Bruce Gentry and William L Stull, University Press Of Mississippi, 1990. Copyright © 1990 by the University Press Of Mississippi.
The fourth Raymond Carver quotation is from "On Writing". The fifth is from "On 'For Tess'". Call If You Need Me: The Uncollected Fiction And Prose, The Harvill Press, 2000. Copyright © 2000 by Tess Gallagher.
Raymond Carver
It's been a continual series of starting-overs for me.
...the best art has its reference points in real life.
I'm not a "born" poet. I don't know if I'm a "born" anything...
That's all we have, finally, the words, and they had better be the right ones, with the punctuation in the right places...
Anyone can express himself, or herself, but what writers and poets want to do in their work, more than simply express themselves, is communicate, yes?
The first and second quotations are from "Raymond Carver Speaking", by Robert Pope and Lisa McElhinny. Conducted spring 1982. The third is from "Raymond Carver", by Mona Simpson and Lewis Buzbee. Conducted winter 1983. Conversations With Raymond Carver, edited by Marshall Bruce Gentry and William L Stull, University Press Of Mississippi, 1990. Copyright © 1990 by the University Press Of Mississippi.
The fourth Raymond Carver quotation is from "On Writing". The fifth is from "On 'For Tess'". Call If You Need Me: The Uncollected Fiction And Prose, The Harvill Press, 2000. Copyright © 2000 by Tess Gallagher.
De CARVERSITE
carversite: raymond carver bibliography
Fiction
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? McGraw-Hill, 1976
Furious Seasons And Other Stories Capra Press, 1977
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Knopf, 1981
Cathedral Knopf, 1983
The Stories Of Raymond Carver Picador, 1985
Where I'm Calling From: The Selected Stories Atlantic Monthly Press, 1988
Elephant (1988) comprises the new stories from Where I'm Calling From: The Selected Stories.
Poetry
All Of Us: The Collected Poems The Harvill Press, 1996
Fires (1983)
Where Water Comes Together With Other Water (1985)
Ultramarine (1986)
A New Path To The Waterfall (1989)
Uncollected Poems: No Heroics, Please (1991)
Poems in All Of Us: The Collected Poems also appear in the following collections: Near Klamath (1968), Winter Insomnia (1970), At Night The Salmon Move (1976), This Water (1985), Early For The Dance (1986), Those Days: Early Writings By Raymond Carver: Eleven Poems And A Story (1987), In A Marine Light: Selected Poems (1987).
Other Collections
Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories Vintage Books, 1989
Call If You Need Me: The Uncollected Fiction and Prose The Harvill Press, 2000
No Heroics, Please (1991) comprises essays, poems and stories that can be found in Call If You Need Me: The Uncollected Fiction And Prose and All Of Us: The Collected Poems. Short Cuts (1993) comprises the nine stories—from Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Cathedral—and poem "Lemonade" that formed the basis of Robert Altman's film. Introduction by Altman.
Miscellaneous
Dostoevsky: A Screenplay, by Raymond Carver and Tess Gallagher
Capra Press, 1985
The Best American Short Stories 1986, edited by Raymond Carver with Shannon Ravenel
Houghton Mifflin, 1986
American Short Story Masterpieces, edited by Raymond Carver and Tom Jenks
Delacorte Press, 1987
Conversations With Raymond Carver, edited by Marshall Bruce Gentry and William L Stull
University Press Of Mississippi, 1990
Carver Country: The World Of Raymond Carver, texts by Raymond Carver, photographs by Bob Adelman, introduction by Tess Gallagher
Scribner's, 1990
Carnations: A Play In One Act, by Raymond Carver
Engdahl Typography, 1992
Remembering Ray: A Composite Biography Of Raymond Carver, edited by William L Stull and Maureen P Carroll
Capra Press, 1993
Raymond Carver: An Oral Biography, by Sam Halpert
University Of Iowa Press, 1995
Tell It All, edited by William L Stull and Maureen P Carroll
Leconte, 2005
What It Used To Be Like: A Portrait Of My Marriage To Raymond Carver, by Maryann Burk Carver
St. Martin's Press, 2006
Tell It All includes three previously unpublished poems by Raymond Carver—"Uncle Bob And The Art Of Fiction", "Instrument" and "Louis, Dying"—two previously unpublished one-act plays by Raymond Carver and Tess Gallagher—The Favor and Can I Get You Anything?—as well as writings by others.
Audio-Visual
AUDIO CASSETTE
Ray Carver Reads: Nobody Said Anything/A Serious Talk/Fat
American Audio Prose Library, 1983
TELEVISION DOCUMENTARIES
Dreams Are What You Wake Up From
BBC, 1989
To Write And Keep Kind
PBS, 1992
Fiction
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? McGraw-Hill, 1976
Furious Seasons And Other Stories Capra Press, 1977
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Knopf, 1981
Cathedral Knopf, 1983
The Stories Of Raymond Carver Picador, 1985
Where I'm Calling From: The Selected Stories Atlantic Monthly Press, 1988
Elephant (1988) comprises the new stories from Where I'm Calling From: The Selected Stories.
Poetry
All Of Us: The Collected Poems The Harvill Press, 1996
Fires (1983)
Where Water Comes Together With Other Water (1985)
Ultramarine (1986)
A New Path To The Waterfall (1989)
Uncollected Poems: No Heroics, Please (1991)
Poems in All Of Us: The Collected Poems also appear in the following collections: Near Klamath (1968), Winter Insomnia (1970), At Night The Salmon Move (1976), This Water (1985), Early For The Dance (1986), Those Days: Early Writings By Raymond Carver: Eleven Poems And A Story (1987), In A Marine Light: Selected Poems (1987).
Other Collections
Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories Vintage Books, 1989
Call If You Need Me: The Uncollected Fiction and Prose The Harvill Press, 2000
No Heroics, Please (1991) comprises essays, poems and stories that can be found in Call If You Need Me: The Uncollected Fiction And Prose and All Of Us: The Collected Poems. Short Cuts (1993) comprises the nine stories—from Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Cathedral—and poem "Lemonade" that formed the basis of Robert Altman's film. Introduction by Altman.
Miscellaneous
Dostoevsky: A Screenplay, by Raymond Carver and Tess Gallagher
Capra Press, 1985
The Best American Short Stories 1986, edited by Raymond Carver with Shannon Ravenel
Houghton Mifflin, 1986
American Short Story Masterpieces, edited by Raymond Carver and Tom Jenks
Delacorte Press, 1987
Conversations With Raymond Carver, edited by Marshall Bruce Gentry and William L Stull
University Press Of Mississippi, 1990
Carver Country: The World Of Raymond Carver, texts by Raymond Carver, photographs by Bob Adelman, introduction by Tess Gallagher
Scribner's, 1990
Carnations: A Play In One Act, by Raymond Carver
Engdahl Typography, 1992
Remembering Ray: A Composite Biography Of Raymond Carver, edited by William L Stull and Maureen P Carroll
Capra Press, 1993
Raymond Carver: An Oral Biography, by Sam Halpert
University Of Iowa Press, 1995
Tell It All, edited by William L Stull and Maureen P Carroll
Leconte, 2005
What It Used To Be Like: A Portrait Of My Marriage To Raymond Carver, by Maryann Burk Carver
St. Martin's Press, 2006
Tell It All includes three previously unpublished poems by Raymond Carver—"Uncle Bob And The Art Of Fiction", "Instrument" and "Louis, Dying"—two previously unpublished one-act plays by Raymond Carver and Tess Gallagher—The Favor and Can I Get You Anything?—as well as writings by others.
Audio-Visual
AUDIO CASSETTE
Ray Carver Reads: Nobody Said Anything/A Serious Talk/Fat
American Audio Prose Library, 1983
TELEVISION DOCUMENTARIES
Dreams Are What You Wake Up From
BBC, 1989
To Write And Keep Kind
PBS, 1992
Let's Roar, Your Honor
To scream with pain, to cry, to summon help, to call
generally—all that is described here as "roaring."
In Siberia not only bears roar, but sparrows and mice as well.
"The cat got it, and it's roaring," they say of a mouse.
- from "Across Siberia,"
by Anton Chekhov.
"Let's Roar, Your Honor" from All Of Us: The Collected Poems The Harvill Press, 1996. Copyright © 1996 by Tess Gallagher.
Found poetry in "Across Siberia" by Anton Chekhov from The Unknown Chekhov, translated by Avrahm Yarmolinksy, Farrar, Straus And Giroux, 1954. Copyright © 1982 by Babette Devtsch Yarmolinsky.
Your Dog Dies
it gets run over by a van.
you find it at the side of the road
and bury it.
you feel bad about it.
you feel bad personally,
but you feel bad for your daughter
because it was her pet,
and she loved it so.
she used to croon to it
and let it sleep in her bed.
you write a poem about it.
you call it a poem for your daughter,
about the dog getting run over by a van
and how you looked after it,
took it out into the woods
and buried it deep, deep,
and that poem turns out so good
you're almost glad the little dog
was run over, or else you'd never
have written that good poem.
then you sit down to write
a poem about writing a poem
about the death of that dog,
but while you're writing you
hear a woman scream
your name, your first name,
both syllables,
and your heart stops.
after a minute, you continue writing.
she screams again.
you wonder how long this can go on.
"Your Dog Dies" from All Of Us: The Collected Poems The Harvill Press, 1996. Copyright © 1996 by Tess Gallagher.
To scream with pain, to cry, to summon help, to call
generally—all that is described here as "roaring."
In Siberia not only bears roar, but sparrows and mice as well.
"The cat got it, and it's roaring," they say of a mouse.
- from "Across Siberia,"
by Anton Chekhov.
"Let's Roar, Your Honor" from All Of Us: The Collected Poems The Harvill Press, 1996. Copyright © 1996 by Tess Gallagher.
Found poetry in "Across Siberia" by Anton Chekhov from The Unknown Chekhov, translated by Avrahm Yarmolinksy, Farrar, Straus And Giroux, 1954. Copyright © 1982 by Babette Devtsch Yarmolinsky.
Your Dog Dies
it gets run over by a van.
you find it at the side of the road
and bury it.
you feel bad about it.
you feel bad personally,
but you feel bad for your daughter
because it was her pet,
and she loved it so.
she used to croon to it
and let it sleep in her bed.
you write a poem about it.
you call it a poem for your daughter,
about the dog getting run over by a van
and how you looked after it,
took it out into the woods
and buried it deep, deep,
and that poem turns out so good
you're almost glad the little dog
was run over, or else you'd never
have written that good poem.
then you sit down to write
a poem about writing a poem
about the death of that dog,
but while you're writing you
hear a woman scream
your name, your first name,
both syllables,
and your heart stops.
after a minute, you continue writing.
she screams again.
you wonder how long this can go on.
"Your Dog Dies" from All Of Us: The Collected Poems The Harvill Press, 1996. Copyright © 1996 by Tess Gallagher.
Biografía de Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver was born in Oregon on 25 May 1938. He grew up in Washington State. His father was a sawmill worker and his mother a waitress.
Carver worked with his father in a sawmill in California and then as a deliveryman. He married his first wife—Maryann—and six months later a daughter was born. A son followed.
Carver enrolled at various colleges, where his studies concentrated on creative writing. Aged twenty-two, "The Furious Seasons"—his first published story—appeared in college magazine Selection. "The Brass Ring"—his first published poem—appeared in 1962, in the little magazine Targets.
In his late twenties, Carver filed for bankruptcy. His father died. He also got his first white collar job (textbook editor), his story "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?" appeared in The Best American Short Stories 1967, and a college press published the poems Near Klamath—his first book.
Carver continued to move around, move jobs, and get stories and poems published. He began to lecture. He went bankrupt again and was hospitalized with acute alcoholism. In his late thirties, the stories Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? appeared—his first major-press book. Carver stopped drinking. He met Tess Gallagher, and he and Maryann separated. The American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters awarded him a fellowship to write full-time. At forty-nine, doctors diagnosed cancer. They removed part of his left lung, but the cancer recurred. He had brain radiation treatment, but cancer reappeared.
Ray and Tess married in Reno, on Friday 17 June 1988. He died at home, in Washington State, on 2 August.
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