Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories

A must have for hardcore Carver fans -- older, un-refined stories, poems, and essays, reveals more about Carver's style and work.

Carver is a master of the short story but this collection is a good introduction to his poetry as well because it collects both poems and stories. It's a wonderful example of how he used themes from his stories manipulated into shorter poems. As always his exact use of language cuts straight to the heart. Reading Carver's work is like studying with a very great writing teacher.

When Raymond Carver died in 1988 at 50, the literary world lost a truly unique short story writer. Carver, a master at dialogue and often called a minimalist, created stories with substance where a mystery looms beyond the surface, stories so commonplace, with common people doing common things. It's true, the stories are laced with people who endure alcoholic sadness, financial burdens, emotional immaturity and those just searching for the dream that doesn't quite happen. We get a glimpse into their lives and these characters reflect everyday America whether it was the 60s or the 90s. Those characters are his life and they are us! Read any Raymond Carver story and you can identify with some element. Referring to the title, "Fires", Carver is talking about two strong influences in his life, one being Gordon Lish, at that time, a literary editor and the other, John Gardner, who said to become a writer you need the necessary "fire". The profound essays are titled "John Gardner, The Writer as Teacher", and the other is "On Writing." He offers excellent advice. Carver believes the strongest "fire" he had was his two children, a time he refers to as "ravenous and ferocious years of parenting." He writes of that epiphanous moment in a laundromat, laboring over washers and anxiously waiting with frustration over the next available dryer before picking up the kids. This parental chore was NOT what he envisioned great writers doing. Sadly, what he means about the children being a great influence in his words: "And I would always have them, and always find myself in this position of unrelieved responsibility and permanent distraction." The bulk of the book is poems that reflect his life, and the poem about Charles Bukowski is here. If you prefer his literary poems, a wonderful collection is here and just a few other short stories "Distance", "Harry's Death", "The Lie" and an amusing story, "Where is Everyone", the title later revised to "Mr. Fixit." If you know Carver's many stories were revised by Carver or possibly the editors, but this collection includes the longer version of "So Much Water So Close to Home" And, like any other Carver collection, this is especially good because of his essays on the "fires" in his life. ...MZRIZZ.

Raymond Carver's "Fires" is a quick introduction to the author who personifies literary minimalism. In this slim volume, the reader is treated to essays and poems, as well as Carver's trademark: taut short stories that, in remarkably few words, paint a vivid tableau of so much of American life. Carver's subjects are ones that other writers shy away from: working-class stiffs and the mundane lives they lead. But Carver's magic lies in his ability to fascinate the reader with seemingly unfascinating topics. The characters' souls are bared, the torment of their lives is revealed, the desperation of their economic situations is rendered so masterfully, and in so little space, that the reader marvels at how Carver manages to accomplish the feat. For students of the writer's trade, Carver offers a valuable lesson in how to use minimal syllables for maximum impact.