Raymond Carver: Three of His Most Famous Stories

"Why Don't You Dance"   (1988, 6 pages)
"Cathedral"   (1988, 5 pages)
"Errand" (1988, 5 pages)

Three of Raymond Carver's

Highest Regarded Stories

A few days ago a very kind reader of my blog from India (who does not wish their name mentioned) sent me four collections of short stories, among them Where I Am Calling From (1988) by Raymond Carver.    All of the stories I will post on today are from this collection.  (They were all published prior to this elsewhere.)   I did a bit of research  guided me toward reading the highest regarded stories in the collection.   I had prior to these stories read only one of Carver's works,  'Little Things".    (There is some background information on Carver (1938 to 1988-USA) in my post on that work.)   My first reaction to Carver was that I saw his talent but I did not find I could relate to the people in this story-a dysfunctional couple fighting over their baby.    Carver is on many lists of greatest short story writers and on nearly all lists of greatest American short story writers so I wanted to read more.   I am now fully convinced of the great talent of Carver,  in his ability to create full worlds in just a few lines.    He is commonly called a master of the minimalistic style.    I liked all of the stories I read today and was amazed by his story on the last day in the life of Anton Chekhov, "Errand".    I will just post briefly on each of the three stories.   (At the end of this post I will provide links where you can read two of the three stories.)

"Why Don't You Dance" is a brilliant story as much for what it leaves out as for what it includes.    It is basically about a man on hard times selling his possessions in a yard sale.   He has a very interesting encounter with a couple considering  buying his bed.  It is an alcohol fueled plot. This story also exemplifies the issues I had initially with Carver. I had read that Carver had a very bad drinking and possibly drug problem for many years of his life until he was able to quit drinking with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous.    I do not, of course, hold this against a writer, but it seems many of Carver's stories do center around people with serious drinking problems or those whose lives have been degraded by the use of alcohol or drugs.   I do not find this an interesting "slice of life" and it was that prejudice that kept me away from Carver.    I think now Carver's talent is so huge I can overlook this.   In a cynical moment I did think about calling him the Mansfield of the methamphetamine set or the Joyce of the Discount Liquor World parking lot but in truth he is a genius.

"Cathedral" also involved a lot of drinking.    So far it seems hard for people in the stories of Carver to relate to each other sober.    I liked this story a lot for its portrait of a marriage and the reaction of the husband to the blind friend of his wife from many years ago.    Carver is able to do in depth characterizations in just a few sentences.

"Errands" stunned me with its power and sheer audacity.    It is set in Moscow, March 22, 1897 and deals with the death of Anton Chekhov.    In addition to Chekhov, his wife, his good friend Alexi Suvorin (a publisher), Leo Tolstoy,  we meet a doctor,  and an hotel errand boy.   As the story opens Chekhov and his friend are (yes you guessed it) drinking Vodka.    Chekhov, who had tuberculosis, begins to cough up a massive amount of blood.   A doctor arrives and then Leo Tolstoy shows up also.   I will tell no more of this story other than to say Carver has the sheer talent to make things on this terrible day come vividly alive.   It does take great nerve to write a short story about two of the greatest writers who ever lived and Carver makes it work perfectly.      I was very moved by this story and I think anyone who loves the short story will really like "Errand".     It turned me into a Raymond Carver believer.   I will read all of the other stories in the collection, Where I Am Calling From. 


Do you have a favorite Carver short story?



Mel u

"Guy de Maupassant" by Issac Babel-Leading Post Czarist Russian Short Story Writer

"Guy de Maupassant" by Issac Babel (1932, 5 pages)


I first heard of Issac Babel (1894-1940-Odessa, Russia), perhaps the greatest post Czarist Russian short story writers, in a book by one of the great 20th century short story writers, Frank O/Connor in which he says one of Babel's best short stories is about the great French master of the short story, Guy de Maupassant.    Babel is best known for his collection of short stories Odessa Tales.    Babel had a very interesting life cut short in a purge of Stalin even though Babel was a loyal communist.    (There is a very informative article on Babel HERE).    I think part of O'Connor's view of the sort of "cosmic irony" of the life of de Maupassant is echoed in this story.


"Guy de Maupassant", told in the first person, is set in 1916 in Petersburg (St Petersburg) Russia.   A great deal is packed in this short work (no translator credit is given-it was written in Russian).    As it opens the destitute narrator moves into the house of a friend who loves Spanish literature and culture.    The narrator does not have a kopeck to his name but says he decided long ago that he would rather starve than work in an office as as clerk.   His landlord tells him that the wife of a friend of his is an extreme de Maupassant devotee and needs someone to help her translate his work into Russian.


As we enter the home of the woman Babel creates a culture for us in the description of the home.    Just as you will find in many of the short stories of de Maupassant, there is a fetish like obsession with female breasts in this story.    The narrator says  "who can forget the story "The Idyll" where a woman breast feeds a hungry carpenter on a train".


A lot of the suppressed excitement of this story is in the contrast of the life styles of narrator and the woman he is working for (her husband is the owner of a big publishing company) and the bond they find in their love of  de Maupassant.    You can get a pretty good feel for the story from these lines.


"The Benderskys lived on the third floor. The door was opened by a maid in a white cap and pointed breasts. She led me into a living room, decorated in old Slavic style. Blue paintings by Roerich, prehistoric rocks and monsters, hung on the walls. Ancient icons stood on little stands in the corners. The maid with the pointed breasts moved ceremoniously about the room. She was well built, nearsighted, haughty. Debauchery had congealed in her gray, wide-open eyes. Her movements were indolent. I thought how she must thrash about with savage agility when she made love. The brocade curtain that hung over the door swayed. A black-haired, pink-eyed woman, bearing her large breasts before her, came into the living room. It took me no more than a moment to see that Benderskaya was one of those ravishing breed of Jewesses from Kiev or Poltava, from the sated towns of the steppes that abounded with acacias and chestnut trees. "


This description gains power, I think, now because we know what will happen to the world described in this story.   One also feels an ambivalence in the story between Babel's wish to see the culture depicted in this story preserved and his ideological devotion to communism.   


You can read the story online Here,


There is a lot more in this very compressed story than I have covered.   There is some fun scenes with the translator and the woman he works for. It is for sure worth the few minutes it will take you to read it.   
The final paragraph of the story is a description of how de Muapassant ended his life, driven mad by syphilis and locked in a mental hospital.   It is very powerful.


Mel u

R. K. Narayan-"The Axe" and "Attila" and two more stories from The Astrologer's Day and other Tales

"The Axe" (1947, 10 pages)
"Attila"  (1947, 8 pages)
"Out of Business" (1947, 6 pages)
"Old Bones"  (1947, 6 pages)

Four More Stories from

The Astrologer's Day and Other Stories by R. K. Narayan

age eight

The Reading Life R. K.  Narayan Project

Indian Literature on The Reading Life

I have now read and posted on 24 of the 30 stories in R. K. Narayan's  (1906 to 2001-India) collection of short stories,  The Astrologer's Day and Other Stories.    Almost all of the stories in this collection were first published in the newspaper The Hindu.    Most all of the first readers of the stories read English as a second (or 3rd or 4th) language.   (There is some background information on Narayan in my prior posts.)     Jhumpa Lahiri has said that Narayan is one of the 20th century geniuses of the short story.   I will just post briefly on two of his stories today

"The Axe" is very interesting captivating story.   It has exposition, drama, and development and a moving ending.   It is fully in accord with Frank O'Connor's thesis that the best short stories deal with people from "submarginal groups".    The central character worked all his life as a gardener for  a large mansion.   

"Attila" is a flat out fun shaggy dog story.    The plot is so much fun I will leave it unspoiled.

There are six more stories in this collection.   I will probably post on the best one or two of these stories.

I will also post fairly soon on two of  Narayan's novels.   

Mel u

"Dashi the Bride Groom" and Three Other Stories by R. K. Narayan

"Dashi the Bride Groom" (1947, 8 pages)
"Snake-Song" (1947, 6 pages)
"45 Rupees" (1947, 6 pages
"The Old Man of the Temple"  (1947, 5 pages)

Four More Stories From

The Astrologer's Day and Other Stories

by R. K. Narayan

The Reading Life R. K. Narayan Project

Indian Literature

I hope others will have the pleasure of reading for the first time the work of R. K. Narayan (1906 to 2001-India).   He is for sure among the great short story writers of the 20th century.   (There is background information on Narayan in my prior posts, for those interested.)

Today I will just post  briefly on two of the four stories I read since my last post on Narayan.

"45 Rupees", like some of Narayan's other stories, is about people trapped by their economic circumstances into doing what they know is not really right for them or their families.    The wrongness is not horrible or criminal but a question of lives made much less than they might have been by a bit of money.   In this story our lead character works in an office in the accounting department.    His boss works 15 hours a day seven days a week and he expects at least 12 hours a day from his employees.    The relationship between the man and his wife is really well done.   I  admit I cringed when his wife yelled at him and told him he was neglecting his daughter for his job.    All his little daughter wants is some tine with her father.   He is all set to quit his job when his boss refuses to let him leave early for a special occasion he promised to share with daughter.  The ending is totally perfect and a little heart breaking.   Anyone who has ever felt they were a slave to their job will relate to this story.

"Dashi the Bride Groom"  is a really great story.   It has great opening exposition, there is a very interesting development and some powerful drama and a lesson can be learned from the story.   Dashi is a big bull of a man, strong and powerfully built.   He has the mind of a child .    No one is real sure of his age, maybe 30.   He stays in the house of a man that maybe is his older brother or might just be someone who took him in off the streets many years ago.   He sleeps on the kitchen floor and does things like bringing in water and wood.   As he makes his way around Malgudi (the imaginary town where this and the other stories of Narayan take place) the village boys and retired lay abouts taunt him asking him when his bride will come.    Dashi very much wishes he could have a bride and his own family.   The boys tease him with descriptions of  the great beauty of his imaginary wife.  One day a famous actress comes to stay in town for a while as she has relatives there.    The boys tell Dashi about her and tell him she has come to town to marry him.    He believes them.     Things get very exciting now and I will not spoil the terrific ending.

All of the stories in The Astrologer's Day and Other Stories can  be read HERE
Mel u

"Sansho the Steward" by Mori Ogai- My Plans for The Japanese Literature 5 Reading Challenge

"Sansho the Steward" by Mori Ogai (1915, 28 pages, trans. by J. Thomas Rimer)

An Interesting Story about Slavery in Japan

My Plans for The JL5 Reading Challenge

The Reading Life Japanese Literature Project

Japanese  Literature 5 Reading Challenge

This is my 3rd year in the Japanese Literature 5 challenge.    To participate you only have to read one book.    The challenge host, Dolce Bellezza, always does a great job supporting the challenge and provides us with lots of reading suggestions. Last year I participated in 50 reading challenges.   There are a lot of great challenge hosts but none better than Dolce.    

This year I hope to read The Lake and Asleep by Banana Yoshimto, two early novels by Kenzaburo Oe,  and the IQ84 by Hurakami Murakami when it is published in English in late October.   I think there is a good chance Dolce and I will be co-hosting a read along of IQ84 (it will be close to 1000 pages) and will announce details on this as we develop our plans.

This challenge year I will be focusing on Japanese short stories.    In a forthcoming soon post I will provide some links where you can read Japanese short stories online for free by classical as well as 21th century writers.   There are not a lot of  Japanese Short Stories online because most of the translations are fairly recent.    (All of the links I will provide are to legally online works.)

"Sansho the Steward" by Mori Ogai-1862 to 1922- (sometimes he is called "Ogai Mori") gives us a startling look at the 19th century practice of slaving in Japan.    Slavers operated in rural Japan, capturing who they could, mainly travelers, and selling them into slavery.   (I have provided some background information on the author in my post on his 1909 novel,  Vita Sexualis which is a shocking near autobiographical look at his sexual history which was got him censored by his superiors in the Japanese Army Medical Corps-he was a doctor.)

As the story open a mother,30,  her son  12 or so and daughter 14 along with a long time family helper, 40, are embarking on a trip to see the husband.   He left their area some two years ago to seek employment.   They know where he said he was going.   This is what would be called the opening exposition of the story.   This is followed by some drama when a seemingly ever so kind and helpful stranger warns them to be aware of slavers operating in the area and offers to shelter them for the night and help them on their way for the next day.   This is all done very well.   I was very much in sympathy with the small family and worried about them and I was wondering about the kind stranger.    Then there is a big development, the kind stranger turns out to be a part of the slaving operation and the two children are sent to be sold as slaves and we do not at this point know what has happened to the mother.    Ogai does a great job of building up suspense and made me feel just what a lawless place Japan once was.    I was horrified when I thought the two children were going to be branded on their foreheads as runaways.   Ogai really bring everyone to life and makes us see how slave labor was part of the economy.

Up until this point this is just a perfect wonderfully done story.   Then the author kind of gives in to the need to have it end happy in a sort of predictable not really exciting way.   It is not easy to bring a short story to a strong conclusion.   R. K. Narayan is a master of this.

"Sansho the Steward" is very much worth reading.   It is an excellent short story that brings an alien world to life for us.   It falls short of greatest because of the week ending.  

This work is the lead story in The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories, edited and introduced by Theodore W. Goossen. I will talk more about this wonderful anthology in future posts.


Mel u

"Sakurajima" by Haruo Umezaki-A Look at Life on a Japanese Navy Suicide Base

"Sakurajima" by Haruo Umezaki (1946, 57 pages, translated by D. E. Mills)


The Reading Life Japanese Literature Project

Japanese Literature Five Challenge

"Sakurajima" by Haruo Umezaki is a very interesting short story set on a Japanese Naval Base that was the launching base for naval suicide attacks by boat, mini -submarine and even human torpedoes.   The story begins around June 1945 and ends shortly after Japan surrenders.

Umezaiki (1915 to 1965-Fukuoka,Japan) served in the Japanese Navy during WWII as a signal man and as a code breaker.    He was drafted into the Navy.    After the war his life was entirely devoted to his writing.    As far as I can tell, this story is the only one of his works currently available in translation.

"Sakurajima"  is a very interesting look into the mind set of a Japanese Navy man, drafted into a war he did not want and does not quite understand the point off assigned to a suicide base.    The base was a launching place for attacks on US Navy vessels by suicide attacks.   It was very interesting to see the tension between the men who were being trained for naval kamikaze attacks and the men on the base whose goal was to survive to the end of the war not to die in the service of their Emperor.     The central character in the story and others on the base see that the kamikaze trainees as basically very young fools, in many cases they are very "country".    When ever a "normal" navy man walks past the kamikaze sailors they are given a hateful look.

We can see the growing doubts in the mind of the lead character.   The petty officers who directly control the men do the best they can to enforce the ideals of the war.   When the lead character asks what they will do when the Americans invade, he is told they will all launch suicide attacks on them.   He is no longer able to see the point of this in a war in which it looks like they will lose.   I felt his shock when for the first time he hears an officer say not "when we win this war" but "if we win".   Umezaki does a great job of showing us the extreme state of bewilderment on the base when they get word of the Atom bombs and the surrender of the Japanese.

"Sakurajima" is included in an anthology of Japanese war stories, The Catch and Other War Stories edited and introduced by Shoichi Sacki.   It is out of print but can be bought on Amazon.   I previously posted on a story from the collection, "Bones" by Fumiko Hayashi.


I enjoyed this story and I think anyone with a special interest in Japanese  literature about WWII in the Pacific would appreciate it.

Mel u

R. K. Narayan-Four Stories from a Master of the Short Story

"A Snake in the Grass"  (1947, 5 pages)
"Accident" (1947, 6 pages)
"Such Perfection" (1947, 6 pages)
"A Career"  (1947, 7 pages)

Four More Great Short Stories by

R. K. Narayan

The Reading Life R. K. Narayan Project

South Asian Literature

I am more and more convinced Narayan (1906 to 2001-India)  belongs among the great 20th century short story writers,  certainly in the top twenty, maybe top ten.    I have never seen him on any of the many such lists I have looked at in the last year and I think this is a  reflection of the very Euro-centric education almost all of those in the reading life have had.   This for sure extends to those raised in Asia as well.    When I first began to read his stories set in the imaginary town of Malgudi, India I thought to myself, OK,  he is kind of the Sherwood Anderson of  India.   I still think this is a potentially illuminating comparison but now I think Narayan is more than that.   

Anyway I am reading though his 1947 collection of short stories (most of the stories were first published in The Hindu and have length requirements because of that)  The Astrologer's Day and other Tales.   There are 30 stories in the collection.   I have 14 to go.   He has other collections of short stories but it is mostly these that can be read online.   As I have already posted a lot on him I will keep the rest of my posts on the stories brief.

"A Snake in the Grass" made me feel the very strong fear a king cobra loose in the neighborhood would produce.   Everything more or less has to stop until the snake can be captured.   In the story see what happens at a house where the snake is seen going into the yard.   At first the houseman is blamed for not taking care of the yard and letting it get over grown with bushes.   The the college student chimes in telling everyone exactly how many people are killed in India every year by cobras.   Narayan shows his very deft touch when he describes the family as a mother, 3 daughter and a son with no mention at all of the father.   At once we begin to wonder what happened to him and it brings the family to life for us.  

"Accident" is a really fun ghost story that reminded me of part of the plot of a the plot of a Jerry Seinfeld show.   (The episode where Kramer goes to California and is picked up by a truck driver that was killed in an accident years ago but still rides the road.)

"Such Perfection" is about an artist who carves such a beautiful image of a God that  the statue is considered almost demonic as it will itself be worshipped.    This sort of reminded me of a Hawthorne short story.

"A Career" is simply a great very wise short story that puts a huge amount of life in a few pages.   It has a great ending.   As I said before, Narayan really knows how to end a story

All of these stories can be read HERE.

As these stories were all published before the 1947 Partition of India they are very relevant to the Passage to the Raj Project.   

Mel u