I’m ending my little Raymond Carver project with a note on the source for all the other books I’ve reviewed and some things I haven’t talked about. This is the volume of the Library of America dedicated to Raymond Carver and, as usual, the Library of America has absolutely knocked it out of the park. This single volume contains the entire texts of Will You Please Be Quiet Please, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Beginners & Cathedral. It also contains stories published in various anthologies or books that also contained essays; stories are here from Furious Seasons, Fires & Where I’m Calling From. The book ultimately contains ninety short stories and the volume purports to, and does near as I can tell, contain every short story Carver ever wrote. It also has a couple of essays and, a real rarity, a fragment from the only novel that Carver ever worked on. It has copious notes and a lengthy section dedicated to the What We Talk About When We Talk About Love/Beginners debacle that is fascinating reading. This is why the Library of America maybe stands as one of the greatest literary achievements of all time. You might think, “Hmm, Raymond Carver, always kind of meant to get into that guy. Wonder what I should read.” And then you might spend a lot of time scraping around for various editions and collections and such. Or you could just go grab this book and have everything you need to read by Carver in one handy, easily readable, sturdy volume. And, yes, by the way, I’m recommending that you do exactly that. 4 stars.
tl;dr – wonderful volume collects all of Carver’s brilliant stories with a lot of fascinating supplements; the Library of America does it again. 4 stars.